Saturday, September 11, 2010

Buddle, Koalenko and Kirovski Score to Give LA 3-1 Win Over Crew

LA Galaxy 3, Columbus Crew 1
Saturday, September 11, 2010
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 14 (Sean Franklin 5, Landon Donovan 13) 13’
LA – Dema Kovalenko 1 (Landon Donovan 14, Jovan Kirovski 2) 35’
LA – Jovan Kirovski 4 (Alex Cazumba 1) 55’
CLB – Andres Mendoza 1 (Andy Iro 1) 85’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Mike Magee (Yellow Card) 72’
LA – David Beckham (Yellow Card) 74’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, Leonardo, Todd Dunivant; Dema Kovalenko, Landon Donovan©, Juninho (David Beckham 70’), Alex Cazumba; Jovan Kirovski (Mike Magee 60’), Edson Buddle (Chris Birchall 46’).

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Eddie Lewis, Michael Stephens, Tristan Bowen.

Columbus Crew: William Hesmer; Frankie Hejduk©, Andy Iro, Chad Marshall, Shaun Francis; Brian Carroll, Adam Moffat, Dilly Duka (Emmanuel Ekpo 68’), Eddie Gaven; Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Emilio Renteria 63’), Steven Lenhart (Andres Mendoza 63’).

Subs Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Eric Brunner, Kevin Burns, Jason Garey.
Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy improve to 14-5-5 on the season and are now in sole possession on first place in the Western Conference with 47 points. They are now three points ahead of Real Salt Lake for first place in the Western Conference and three points ahead of Columbus for the best record in MLS, with six games left in the season.
• The win snapped the Galaxy’s two game home losing streak and was their first regular season win at The Home Depot Center since a 3-1 win over Seattle. That was also the last time the Galaxy scored more than two goals in a game before tonight.
• Bruce Arena made one change to the team that draw 1-1 at Chicago last weekend, bringing Juninho back into the team in place of Tristan Bowen, who returned to the bench.
• Joining Bowen on the bench was midfielder David Beckham, who was in the Galaxy’s 18-man squad for the first time this season after being removed from the Disabled List on Thursday. Beckham had been out the entire season after tearing his left Achilles tendon while on loan at AC Milan in March.
• Beckham entered the game in the 70th minute, replacing Juninho. He was booked just four minutes after entering for a foul on Emmanuel Ekpo.
• The Galaxy were once again without defender Gregg Berhalter, who missed his fourth straight game through injury.
• Edson Buddle scored his MLS-best 14th goal of the season in the 13th minute, giving LA a 1-0 lead. That goal was his first since August 14, and his first at home since July 22.
• Sean Franklin and Landon Donovan each assisted on the goal. For Franklin it was his career-best fifth assist, while Donovan tied a career-high with his 13th.
• Dema Kovalenko doubled the LA lead in the 35th minute, scoring the first goal of his Galaxy career, making the score 2-0. Prior to the goal, Kovalenko’s last regular season goal was on May 31, 2008 as a member of Real Salt Lake.
• Kovalenko is the 13th different player to score for the Galaxy in the regular season this year.
• Donovan set a new career-high by assisting on the goal, collecting his league-best 14th assist of the year.
• This is his third multi-assist game of the season, and his first since May 8 at Seattle.
• Jovan Kirovski also assisted on the goal, collecting his second of the season.
• Kirovski then scored LA’s third goal, heading home an Alex Cazumba freekick. The goal was Kirovski’s fourth of the season and first since June 5. The four goals for Kirovski are his most in a season since 2007, when he was a member of the Colorado Rapids.
• The assist was Cazumba’s first as a member of the Galaxy.
• Edson Buddle left the game at halftime as a precautionary measure because of cramping in his leg. He was replaced by Chris Birchall, who was back in the team after missing last week’s game in Chicago through suspension.
• LA is now a perfect 14-0-0 when scoring the game’s first goal, compared to 0-5-2 when allowing the game’s opening goal. LA is one of just two MLS teams to win every game in which they scored the game’s first goal this season.
• LA has now scored three or more goals five times this season, going 5-0-0 in those contests, with four of them coming at The Home Depot Center.
• This was the final game of the season between the Galaxy and Crew, with LA sweeping the season series.
• Neither Omar Gonzalez nor Juninho were booked in the game, meaning that each are eligible to play next weekend against D.C. United. Both players are one game away from a mandatory one game suspension for yellow card accumulation.
• The attendance for today’s game was 19,482.
• The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday, September 18 when they host the four-time MLS Cup champion D.C. United at The Home Depot Center. That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

4 comments:

Watch Live Soccer said...

this was a great win for galaxy and a nice intro for beckham from his absence...

charlesj27 said...

Excellent 1st half performance from our starters. Great work, guys!!! It's so nice to have Juninho & Dema back into playing form. Great effort from these players:
Juninho, Dema, Todd, Leonardo, Omar, Sean, Edson (of course!), Da Ricketts (You're the best!!!), and, our captain, Landon Donovan. Finally... Finally... a performance worthy of his skill level and talent. Finally, he took a personal stake and showed it throughout this game. Thanks, Landon - please continue to show us all that type of commitment, energy, craftiness, and vision. Thanks for playing more to your potential!
Please continue to give Alex, MikeM, Tristan, Michael, and Bryan more instruction (especially, finding openings, running onto challenges, holding/ shielding, and looking for the open player). This will only help when they're called up during game time. Remember, the worst thing for soccer players to just sit on the bench or stand and watch. They have to be involved a LOT - especially during practices. And, it will help to get them involved in intense, competitive scrimmages. I wish all of our guys plenty of needed rest and more intense training and practices to prep for next weekend's game and the ever important NYRB game!!!

charlesj27 said...

It was so nice to finally have DavidB join in on the 18-man squad and actaully get the opportunity to step onto pitch ot play. I know it has NOT been easy for David. It never is after such a serious, invasive injury. Please Bruce and Dave - be very proactive and smart with how much competition game time to give to David. David is the type of player that lives & loves to play this sport - so he will keep pushing past the point of limit of the body. He must not re-injure himself. I could tell David is still bothered and hurting. Yes, it is VERY IMPORTANT to involve him in all practices and scrimmages. No doubt there; but, the coaches have to decide when best to insert him into competition games; MLS is way too physical and too much of a contact style to really safely avoid minimal abuse. David needs to play in competition games - Sure! But, it's the amount of minutes given. A full-field, competition style MLS game is NOT easy - and, it will drain the energy level quick!
I appreciate that our team is trying to stick to and figure out positioning and on-the-floor passing. Remember, fast-passing while shifting positioning, with maximum of two touches. But, always moving the collective unit/bunch forward!

LA-Fire said...

It's good to back to winning ways