Quest for the Supporters' Shield to go Down to the Final Day of the Season, Galaxy Lose 3-1 to Colorado

LA Galaxy 1, Colorado Rapids 3
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 17 (Chris Birchall 2, Landon Donovan 15) 9’
COL – Own Goal (Edson Buddle) 18’
COL – Conor Casey 12 (Omar Cummings 3, Pablo Mastroeni 3) 30’
COL – Omar Cummings 13 (Conor Casey 6) 67’

Misconduct Summary:
COL – Wells Thompson (Yellow Card) 24’
COL – Conor Casey (Yellow Card) 35’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Sean Franklin, Gregg Berhalter (Alex Cazumba 73’), Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza; Juninho, Chris Birchall (Eddie Lewis 42’), David Beckham, Michael Stephens (Mike Magee 76’); Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle.

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Leonardo, Jovan Kirovski, Bryan Jordan.

Colorado Rapids: Matt Pickens; Kosuke Kimura, Marvell Wynne, Drew Moor, Wells Thompson; Jeff Larentowicz, Pablo Mastroeni© (Scott Palguta 77’), Brian Mullan, Jamie Smith; Conor Casey, Omar Cummings (Macoumba Kandji 83’).

Subs Not Used: Ian Joyce, Danny Earls, Ross LaBauex, Andre Akpan, Claudio Lopez.

Notes:
• Despite the loss, the Galaxy remain in first place in the Western Conference and all of MLS with a 17-7-5 record for 56 points. They are now one point ahead of Real Salt Lake, who defeated FC Dallas 2-0 earlier in the day.
• With those results, the Galaxy now need either a win or a result equal to that of Real Salt Lake in their season finale to win the Supporters’ Shield. RSL play away to Colorado on Saturday, while the Galaxy host FC Dallas on Sunday.
• Even with the loss, the Galaxy are assured of a top two finish in the Western Conference, meaning that they will open the postseason on the road in the first leg of their Western Conference Semifinal Series. The date of that game and LA’s opponent in it have not been determined.
• With the loss, the Galaxy’s quest to become the third team in MLS history to reach 60 points is over. The best LA can now do is 59 points.
• Bruce Arena made one change to the team that beat Philadelphia 1-0 at PPL Park last Thursday. Gregg Berhalter returned to the starting lineup for the first time since August 14, replacing Todd Dunivant, who missed the game because of a right adductor strain. With Berhalter returning, A.J. DeLaGarza moved to left back, with Berhalter occupying a spot in central defense next to Omar Gonzalez.
• Berhalter had missed eight straight games with a virus and a neck strain. He played 76 minutes before being replaced by Alex Cazumba.
• In addition to Dunivant, Dema Kovalenko also missed the game through injury, with Kovalenko missing his third straight game as the result of a right adductor strain. Kovalenko returned to full training this week, was not in the 18-man squad.
• This was the first time this season that the Galaxy scored the game’s opening goal but trailed going into the half.
• This was the first time this season that the Galaxy did not take the full three points when scoring the game’s opening goal. They are now 16-1-0 when scoring first.
• Edson Buddle gave the Galaxy the lead in the 9th minute with his league-best 17h goal of the season.
• Buddle is now three goals ahead of San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski in the race for the 2010 MLS Golden Boot. Wondolowski has 14 goals with two games remaining this season.
• His 17 goals are 10 more than his closest competition on the Galaxy, Landon Donovan, who has seven goals this season. The biggest gap between the Galaxy’s two top goalscorers was in 2002, when Carlos Ruiz led the team with 24 goals and Alexi Lalas was second with four.
• Buddle has now scored the game’s opening goal in three straight Galaxy games, opening the scoring against Chivas USA on October 3 and Philadelphia on October 7 as well as tonight.
• The goal was the 90th of Buddle’s MLS career, making him the sixth player in league history to score 90 or more regular season goals. He joins Jeff Cunningham (132), Jaime Moreno (132), Ante Razov (114), Jason Kreis (108), Landon Donovan (103) and Taylor Twellman (101) as the seventh player to achieve the feat.
• Landon Donovan collected his 15th assist of the season on the goal, becoming the first Galaxy player since Mauricio Cienfuegos had a club record 17 assists in 1999 to record 15 or more assists in a season.
• Chris Birchall also assisted on the goal for his second assist of the season and his first since the 10th minute of a 2-0 win at Columbus on May 29.
• The Rapids tied the score on an Edson Buddle own goal in the 18th minute. Buddle joined Chris Albright as the only two players in Galaxy history to score a goal and an own goal in the same game. Albright did so in a 5-2 win at D.C. United on August 26, 2006, scoring a ninth minute own goal before giving LA a 2-1 lead in the 47th minute.
• The Galaxy have now allowed at least one goal in nine consecutive regular season home games, dating back to May 15 against Toronto FC. The Galaxy are 4-4-1 in those nine games and have allowed 17 goals, including two or more five times.
• The three goals allowed by LA tie a season high that was set on August 1 in a 3-2 loss to Chicago.
• This was just the fourth time this season that the Galaxy lost by more than one goal, with three of those coming at home.
• Chris Birchall left the game in the 42nd minute with a left calf contusion. He was replaced by Eddie Lewis.
• Juninho was not booked in the game, meaning that he is eligible to play in the Galaxy’s season finale at home against FC Dallas on October 24. He remains one caution away from a mandatory one game suspension for yellow card accumulation. If he is booked in the season finale, he would not miss LA’s first postseason game, but rather his next regular season game.
• Edson Buddle had two goals, one on either side of halftime, ruled out for being offside.
• The attendance for today’s game was a sellout crowd of 27,000. This was the Galaxy’s second consecutive home sellout.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Sunday, October 24 when they host FC Dallas in the regular season finale at The Home Depot Center. That game kicks off at 5 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on FS West starting with the Galaxy Live pregame show at 4:30 p.m.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.