While the first team is off this Easter weekend, the Galaxy's Youth Academy teams are taking part in a once in a lifetime experience. The Academy teams arrived in England today, beginning a 10-day training stay for the club, during which the academy teams will playing four games and attend two others. Needless to say, they will get a complete taste of footballing culture in this nation.
The boys, as well as the coaches and staff (including yours truly), flew from LAX to London Heathrow over night on Friday, landing in the capital city around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. But London was not calling quite yet as we jumped straight onto the team bus for the multi-hour drive north to Manchester, a journey that was made nearly an hour longer when maintenance was required on one of the side view mirrors.
On the bus, the entire traveling party got a small taste of just how soccer-crazy this country is as we were able to listen to the live radio broadcast (and nearly hour-long pregame show) of the all-important Chelsea-Manchester United battle at Old Trafford.
The real work kicks off on Sunday morning when the teams make their way to Everton's training ground at Finch Farm for a training session that will be run by some of the Everton academy coaches. After training, lunch and a tour of the complex, the teams will jump back onto the bus and head over to Goodison Park for Everton's Premier League encounter with West Ham United.
Games against the Academy teams from Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Ipswich Town and West Ham will follow over the coming days, as will a trip to Wembley for the FA Cup semifinal between Chelsea and Aston Villa.
It will be a trip that the kids, and those of us who are lucky enough to tag along will never forget. And we will bring you all of the inside stories throughout the trip.
We'll have video and audio interviews, photos of everywhere we go and of course a series of written articles, all of which will be found here and on the all new lagalaxy.com.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Greetings from Manchester
This Week Inside the Galaxy: 2010-Episode 2
In this week's edition of This Week Inside the Galaxy, we bring you a special Honda SuperClasico recap with all of the highlights and postgame interviews featuring Edson Buddle, Landon Donovan, Chris Birchall and Todd Dunivant. Enjoy!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Postgame Interview with Sean Franklin
Following our interview with Sean Franklin on the field, we headed into the locker room to find out what the rest of the guys had to say about tonight's win.
Enjoy...
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the overall game:
“It was a hard game. I thought we looked a little tired. I think this time of year it’s really difficult for a team to play two games in a short period of time, like we had to do. We aren’t fit enough, and our recovery is not what it needs to be. We had a light week to try and recover and get our legs back to play this game tonight so we could play this game tonight, but we were still pretty fatigued. Maybe later in the year it’s a little easier for a team to recover. I think that they looked like the sharper team physically tonight, perhaps the extra day’s rest was a fact in the game. Given the fact I thought our opponent played hard tonight, I think that we were opportunistic. The early goal was important goal in the game. They had no chances really in the entire game, until [Jesus] Padilla had that outstanding opportunity and [Maicon] Santos at the end of the game. For the game, we played well defensively. I don’t think we were sharp on the ball. I think our opponent played well and played real hard. It was a challenging game for us. We had a lot of young players on the field, and it’s another good experience for them. We are looking forward to getting some of our players back over the next couple of weeks and add a little bit more experience into the line up. Obviously, to start off the season with two wins—we’re pleased with that. It’s a good start but we certainly realized that we have to get better in all areas.”
On the Galaxy’s defense:
“I think Omar Gonzalez is doing well and I think that Leonardo has been excellent. Our two center backs have been outstanding. They are good players. I think Omar has more confidence. I think he can grow more as a player, and will. I think defensively our center backs—they’ve been real good in these first two games.”
On Edson Buddle’s performance:
“Edson’s been great. He’s ability to hold a ball under pressure is outstanding. I think at times tonight during the first half he was caught up on his own a little bit and he did an outstanding job of getting a hold of the ball and being dangerous individually or bringing his teammates into the game. He’s had a remarkable start to the season.”
On Landon Donovan’s role with the Galaxy:
“We are asking Landon to do a lot of things. He’s asked to play make, he’s asked to defend, he’s asked to get out on the break, and at times, he’ll certainly be asked to be a forward and a goal scorer. We just have a very versatile player—an outstanding player. And again, at this point of the season, when we have to patch up a few holes, he’s patching up the holes. I think tonight his performance was better than any other opening game. He was involved from the opening kickoff to the end.”
LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan
On beating Chivas USA (Translated from Spanish to English)…
“It was an important win. It’s early in the season, but right now there are six points between them and us and we are in first place of the league, so it was very important.”
On the play of Edson Buddle:
“Edson was fantastic. He’s being rewarded for a lot of hard work. You guys don’t know this, but he was in here the whole offseason working hard to get himself ready for the season. The goals are what get him the headlines, but he’s doing a lot of things for our team right to help us win. When he’s healthy he’s as good as any forward in this league and we expect him to keep going. Another tough matchup next week, on the road [at Houston], and the way he’s confidence is we want to keep feeding him the ball.”
On the physical play of the game:
“Our competitiveness was very good and in this game that has to be the starting point. Whether you play on the night as a team doesn’t really matter, you have to be able to compete and I think we outcompeted them, we outworked them and we outran them and I think that’s why we won.”
On difference from last year to this year:
“We’re happy with the victory, but we know we can be a lot better. However, last year, we knew we could be a lot better and we had one point at this point in the season. So, we’ve learned how to win, which is very important, you can’t underestimate that, but we can get a lot better. We will continue to improve, but the basis of understanding how to win games is very important.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts
On his shutout:
“I’m always happy with a clean sheet but it was more important that we won. We’ve been doing well defensively all year. In the preseason we were keeping clean sheets so it’s no surprise that we haven’t given up a goal yet. We just hope to be able to carry that all the way through the season.”
On his save on Jesus Padilla in the second half:
“He found me, I didn’t save it. He hit it right at me.”
On the team’s current mindset:
“It’s always good coming off two clean sheets, your confidence is high so hopefully we can continue and get another result and a clean sheet in Houston.”
LA Galaxy midfielder Chris Birchall
On the game’s key moment:
“I think it was getting the second goal. I think that killed the contest off. Chivas were winning the game and they had chances in the last 10 minutes but we were resilient, and defended well as a team. We were a bit sloppy at times but at the end of the day we won 2-0 and got our second win of the season.”
On the play of the midfield:
“It’s hard when you play against Chivas because they have four or five players that can interchange in the midfield and it’s hard to keep track of the runners. We had a job to do, to kill the passing lanes, trying to not let them play from back to front and we did that well at times. We still need to improve, but we’re getting there and the midfield did well.”
On getting the second win of the year:
“It’s great. We still haven’t played that well. We’ve done what we had to do, we haven’t conceded a goal, which is a credit to the whole team, but the defense and Donovan especially. Six points from two games – you can’t argue with that.”
LA Galaxy Forward Edson Buddle
On his first goal:
“(In training) we do a lot of crossing and finishing. Sean [Franklin] was able to put in a good ball. For a split second, I didn’t think I was going to get to it but I just decided to run hard, and when I realized I could get to it I got a good head on it. I was able to keep it down and get it in the back of the net.”
On his form:
“I feel good, to tell you the truth. Tonight my legs felt very well. I was able to run in the first half on to a lot of balls and get behind the defense. And I was able to hold the ball up and find players running through. I’m feeling better good right now.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Dema Kovalenko
On the Galaxy’s defense:
“That’s what the coaches always say, defenses win championships. We are good offensively—we have good enough players. Landon, Edson, [Alan] Gordon, when he gets healthy, Juninho and Mike [Magee], we’ll always have a chance to score. But if we keep the other team at zero, you are always going to have a chance. That’s what we have to concentrate on. We still have to work, and we have to get better. It’s important.”
On beating Chivas USA:
“They are a good team. You can see today they kept the ball moving. Today was just our day. We have a lot of respect for them, and I’m sure they have a lot of respect for us. It doesn’t matter when you look at the stats who won the last three games or four games in doesn’t matter—you’re as good as your place game. Today was our day, and tomorrow is a new day.”
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Galaxy Post Second Straight Win with 2-0 Victory Over Chivas USA
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The Home Depot Center — Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 2 (Sean Franklin 1, Landon Donovan 2) 7’
LA – Edson Buddle 3 (Landon Donovan 3, Mike Magee 1) 87’
Misconduct Summary:
CHV – Michael Umana (Yellow Card) 19’
LA – Chris Birchall (Yellow Card) 25’
LA – Edson Buddle (Yellow Card) 27’
LA – A. J. DeLaGarza (Yellow Card) 88’
LA – Michael Stephens (Yellow Card) 92+
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Todd Dunivant, Leonardo, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin; Dema Kovalenko, Alex Cazumba (A.J. DeLaGarza 78’), Juninho (Mike Magee 63’), Chris Birchall (Michael Stephens 88’); Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle.
Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Chris Klein, Bryan Jordan, Tristan Bowen.
Chivas USA: Dan Kennedy; Ante Jazic, Jonathan Bornstein, Michael Umana, Mariano Trujillo; Marcelo Saragosa, Blair Gavin, Sacha Kljestan©, Osael Romero (Jesus Padilla 58’), Justin Braun (Chukwudi Chijindu 81’), Maykel Galindo (Maicon Santos 68’).
Subs Not Used: Zach Thornton, Yamith Cuesta, Jorge Flores, Michael Lahoud.
Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy are now 2-0-0 on the season, giving them six points. They are now alone in first place in the Western Conference, two points ahead of the second place Houston Dynamo, who defeated Real Salt Lake 2-1 earlier in the day.
• Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that defeated New England on Saturday in the Galaxy’s season opener. Alex Cazumba started on the left side of midfield in place of the injured Eddie Lewis and Chris Birchall started on the right side of midfield in place of Mike Magee, who was on the bench.
• In addition to Lewis, the Galaxy were also without Gregg Berhalter, Alan Gordon, Jovan Kirovski and Clint Mathis because of injury.
• A.J. DeLaGarza made his 2010 debut for the Galaxy, replacing Alex Cazumba in the 78th minute. He was shown a yellow card 10 minutes after coming on.
• Bryan Jordan made his 2010 debut in the 18-man squad in place of Lewis. Jordan had missed the season opener with a left leg injury. However he did not play.
• With his goal in the seventh minute, Edson Buddle became the first Galaxy player to score in each of the first two games of the season since Carlos Ruiz did so in 2004. Ruiz scored in each of the first two games of all three of his seasons with the Galaxy and holds the Galaxy record for the most consecutive games with a goal to open a season with four. He scored in each of the first four games of 2002 and 2004.
• Buddle is now tied with Real Salt Lake’s Javier Morales for the MLS lead in goals this season with three.
• With his two goals today, Buddle has his first multi-goal game since June 14, 2008 when he scored all three goals in LA’s 3-0 win at San Jose.
• Prior to the first two games of this season, the last time the Galaxy scored in the opening 10 minutes of consecutive MLS regular season games was on June 14 and June 21 of 2008 when Edson Buddle scored in the 6th minute of a 3-0 win at San Jose and Landon Donovan scored in the 4th minute of a 3-3 home draw with Columbus.
• Landon Donovan has now assisted on all three of the Galaxy’s goals this season, making him the MLS leader in assists. In 2008 and 2009, Donovan scored or assisted on each of the Galaxy’s first eight goals of the season and in 2007 he scored or assisted on each of their first seven.
• Sean Franklin also assisted on Buddle’s first goal for his first assist of the season. He recorded one assist in each of his first two seasons in MLS, including one in the second game of the 2009 season.
• Mike Magee collected his first assist of the season on Buddle’s second half goal. Last year he finished tied with Landon Donovan for the Galaxy team lead in assists with six.
• Donovan Ricketts made two saves for his second clean sheet of the season.
• Ricketts now has 11 clean sheets in 28 career regular season games with the Galaxy.
• The Galaxy kept a clean sheet for the second consecutive game. This is the first time in club history that the Galaxy have opened the season with consecutive shutouts.
• LA have now shutout Chivas USA in each of their last four regular season meetings and in five of their last six meetings in all competitions.
• LA is now 2-0-0 for the first time since the 2002 season when they went on to win MLS Cup for the first time in club history.
• The attendance for today’s game was 19,805.
• The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday night when they travel to Houston for their first road game of the season against the Dynamo at Robertson Stadium. The game kicks off at 5:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen on tape delay beginning at 10 p.m. (PT) on FOX Sports West. KTLK 1150 AM and ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 AM will broadcast the game live on the radio in English and Spanish respectively.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.
Game Time
We're ready to go here on a brisk night at The Home Depot Center. The crowds are still filing in and kickoff is about 15 minutes away in the first Honda SuperClasico if 2010.
Bruce Arena makes two changes to the team that beat New England 1-0 on Saturday night, with Alex Cazumba and Chris Birchall each brought in, replacing Mike Magee and the injured Eddie Lewis.
Here is the full team...
---------------Donovan---------Buddle--------------
Alex Cazumba----------Juninho--------------Birchall
------------------------Kovalenko-------------------
Dunivant------Leonardo-------Gonzalez------Franklin
-------------------------Ricketts----------------------
Subs: Saunders, DeLaGarza, Klein, Stephens, Jordan, Magee, Bowen.
And for Chivas USA...
-------------------Galindo--------Galindo-------------
Saragosa------------------Romero-------------Kljestan
----------------------------Gavin----------------------
Jazic----------Bornstein----------Umana--------Trujillo
------------------------Kennedy-----------------------
Subs: Thornton, Cuesta, Flores, Lahoud, Padilla, Chijindu, Santos
