From the Locker Room

Here is some postgame sound from a somber Galaxy locker room last night...

Bruce Arena Press Conference



Chris Klein, Alan Gordon, Omar González and Landon Donovan

Conor Casey Hat Trick Sinks the Galaxy to 3-2 Defeat

LA Galaxy 2, Colorado Rapids 3
April 4, 2009
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
COL – Conor Casey 1 (Omar Cummings 1, Ugo Ihemelu 1) 1’
LA – Omar Gonzalez 1 (Landon Donovan 1) 37’
LA – Alan Gordon 1 (Landon Donovan 2, Sean Franklin 1) 48’
COL – Conor Casey 2 (Omar Cummings 2) 49’
COL – Conor Casey 3 (Colin Clark 2) 84’

Misconduct Summary:
COL – Cory Gibbs (Yellow Card) 46+
LA – Dema Kovalenko (Red Card) 59’
COL – Conor Casey (Yellow Card) 63’
COL – Mehdi Ballouchy (Yellow Card) 66’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders, Eddie Lewis (A.J. DeLaGarza 77’), Tony Sanneh, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, Josh Tudela, Dema Kovalenko (Sent Off 59’), Kyle Patterson (Stefani Miglioranzi 62’), Chris Klein, Alan Gordon (Bryan Jordan 82’), Landon Donovan©.

Subs Not Used: Miguel Benetiz, Yohance Marshall, Gregg Berhalter, Jovan Kirovski.

Colorado Rapids: Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura, Cory Gibbs (Ty Harden 88’), Ugo Ihemelu, Jordan Harvey, Pablo Mastroeni© (Terry Cooke 68’), Nick LaBrocca, Mehdi Ballouchy (Jacob Peterson 80’), Colin Clark, Conor Casey, Omar Cummings.

Subs Not Used: Steward Ceus, Greg Dalby, Ivan Guerrero, Ross Schunk.

Notes:
· With the loss, the Galaxy are now 0-1-1 on the season, leaving them with one point. They are remain tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with Houston, eight points behind the leaders Seattle, who have nine points from three games this year.
· Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made three changes to his lineup from the season opener on March 22. Eddie Lewis returned from injury to play left back in place of A.J. DeLaGarza, Kyle Patterson started on the left side of midfield, replacing Mike Magee and Alan Gordon started up front in place of Jovan Kirovski. Both DeLaGarza and Kirovski were on the bench, while Magee missed the game through injury.
· Joining Magee in missing the game through injury were Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant and Donovan Ricketts.
· Conor Casey’s goal came after just 16 seconds, making it the fastest goal ever allowed by the Galaxy. Prior to tonight, the fastest goal allowed by LA came on June 7, 1998 when New England’s Johnny Torres scored just 32 seconds into a 5-1 Galaxy win at the Rose Bowl.
· Omar Gonzalez’s goal in the 37th minute was the first of his MLS career.
· Gonzlaez is the third different Galaxy rookie to score his first career goal against the Rapids in the last three games between the two clubs. Ely Allen scored his first goal as a pro in a 3-2 win over Colorado on June 7, 2008 and Brandon McDonald scored his first goal as a pro for the Galaxy against Colorado on October 12, 2008.
· Alan Gordon scored his first goal of the season in the 48th minute.
· Sean Franklin assisted on Gordon’s goal for his first assist of the season and the second of his MLS career. Both assists have come at home against the Rapids.
· Landon Donovan assisted on both Galaxy goals for his first multi-assist game since May 18, 2008 in a 5-1 win over FC Dallas.
· The Galaxy now have four goals on the season, with Donovan involved in all four. He scored both goals in the season opener against D.C. United and assisted on both goals today.
· Conor Casey’s hat trick was the first allowed by the Galaxy since September 4, 2004 when Ross Paule scored three times in a 3-1 Columbus win over LA. Casey, Paul and Mamadou Diallo are the only three players in MLS history to have registered a hat trick against the Galaxy, with Diallo twice scoring four goals in a game against LA.
· Dema Kovalenko became the first Galaxy player to be sent off this season when he was shown a red card in the 59th minute. The red card, the sixth of his MLS career, forced LA to play with 10 men for the final 31 minutes of the game and means Kovalenko is suspended for the Galaxy’s game against Chivas USA on April 11. Kovalenko is also suspended for Tuesday’s Open Cup Play-In Game against Colorado after being shown a red card in his last Open Cup game, a loss to Columbus last year when he played for Real Salt Lake.
· Kyle Patterson made the first start of his MLS career, playing on the left side of midfield.
· Stefani Miglioranzi made his 2009 debut, coming on in the 62nd minute for Patterson.
· Neither goalkeeper made a save in the match, making this just the second time in MLS history that neither team recorded a save. The only other time it happened was on May 18, 2005 when Real Salt Lake beat Chivas USA 2-0.
· The attendance for today’s game was 16,709.
· The Galaxy are back in action on Tuesday night in a U.S. Open Cup Play-In Game against the Rapids. They then return to MLS action on Saturday night in the first Honda SuperClasico of the year against Chivas USA in a game that will be shown live on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m.
· For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

On the Field and Ready for Colorado

The lineups are in, and the Galaxy's starting XI is set. Bruce and Co. will look to earn the first three points of the 2009 season tonight against the Colorado Rapids.

Here's are tonight's lineups.

LA
--------Donovan------Gordon-----------
Patterson---Tudela---Kovalenko---Klein
Lewis----Sanneh---Gonzalez---Franklin
--------------Saunders------------------

Subs: Benitez, Berhalter, Marshall, DeLaGarza, Miglioranzi, Kirovski and Jordan.

Colorado
-----------Casey-------Cummings---------
LaBrocca---Mastroeni---Ballouchy---Clark
Harvey-----Gibbs------Ihemelu-----Kimura
------------------Burpo--------------------

Subs: Ceus, Cooke, Dalby, Guerrero, Harden, Peterson and Schunk.

Looking Ahead to Game Day

Head over to lagalaxy.com and be sure to read Larry Morgan's preview of Saturday's game against the Rapids, as well as the league preview, which does not mention that Colorado goalkeeper Matt Pickens is now listed as Out on their injury report as a result of back spasms, meaning that either Preston Burpo or rookie Steward Ceus will have to man the goal for the Rapids.

Additionally, Mark Rogondino check's in with his new column, View From the Booth, where he looks at tomorrow's matchup and a few of the key things that he'll be looking at from the broadcast booth.

Speaking of the broadcast, be sure to tune in at 9:30 for Galaxy Live on Prime Ticket as Jackie Pickering takes a look at the friendship of both A.J. and Omar. We took a trip to their new apartment to see what life is like for a pair of MLS rookies.

Lastly, the team held it's final training session of the week today, the first for Gregg Berhalter (pictured below) going through some final tactical preparations and working on set pieces.

It was one of the lighter sessions of the year, with the whole team in a jovial mood. All of the coaches even got involved, with Dave playing soccer tennis with Todd, Josh and Stefani,

Ian working on some final drills with the keepers, Cobi working out with a few of the wingers, Trevor officiating the shooting drill and Bruce hitting some passes for the finishing drills.

Dema, who is one of the most competitive people we've ever seen, won the shooting drill and was all smiles afterward, and made sure to let Tristan and Izzy know who the day's champion was.

All things, considered, the boys look to be in a good mood heading into tomorrow's game, and hopefully they'll be in an even better mood after taking their first three points of the season.

Ready for the Rapids [UPDATED]

Alan Gordon and Eddie Lewis talk about coming back after a week off and getting prepared for the Rapids.



The team just walked out onto the training field for the final training session of the week with a new face amongst them wearing the #16 shirt.

U.S. National Team veteran Gregg Berhalter, recently of 1860 TSV Munich, arrived in Los Angeles last night and will officially be added to the club's roster this afternoon.

Here is the full press release. In order to make space on the roster for Berhalter, the club has place defender Leonard Griffin on the Disabled List, meaning that he will be unavailable for selection for the at least the next six weeks. Griffin underwent sports hernia surgery in Germany last week.

Audio Training Session Notes

We gave you numbers and notes yesterday. Today, we have audio interviews.

We talked to Alan Gordon, Dema Kovalenko and Dave Sarachan after Thursday's training session about this Saturday's home game against Colorado. Here's what they had to say...

Alan, on winning at home, the bye week and the $1 beer and hot dog pre-game promotion...

Alan Gordon hopes to repeat this scene on Saturday (Robert Mora/LA Galaxy)

Dema, on starting the game strong and the increased competition at training ...

Dema Kovalenko wants to give the fans plenty to cheer about this weekend (Robert Mora/LA Galaxy)

Dave, on the timing of the bye week and how the team is coming along...

Dave Sarachan says the bye week came at a good time for the Galaxy (Robert Mora/LA Galaxy)

Three Days Til Game Day

On Wednesday, the Galaxy were back out on the training field continuing their preparations for this Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rapids. With a potential six point swing on the line in this Western Conference face off, the Galaxy are focused on Saturday night. It was more of the same today with the coaching staff focusing on a bit of everything during an intense and technical session that concluded with a team meeting.

News and Notes:

The United States men's National Team takes on Trinidad and Tobago this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. PT on ESPN2 and Galavision.

Beckham earned his 110th cap with England earlier today coming on for Aaron Lennon in the 57th minute in 2-1 win at home against Ukraine. He is the second player in England history to reach this mark, joining goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

A.J. and Omar will be hosting FS West at their place today for some interviews for this weekend’s Galaxy Live, which will airs tape delayed at 9:30pm with the game to follow. You'll also see more from this experience, including all the behind the scenes footage on a future episode of Rookie Life.

Speaking of Rookie Life, be sure to check out the latest episode here, learn a bit more about Josh Tudela in this piece from Larry Morgan and read some more about LA's four Sueno winners in this piece by Jesse Perl.

Eddie Lewis participated in training today and should be available for Saturday night. In a good sign of things to come, he spent time at the end of training working on his freekicks over the wall.

Donovan Ricketts continues to progress in his return participating fully in training today.

By the Numbers:
LA vs. Colorado

• Galaxy record vs. the Rapids: 26-19-5
• Home: 19-4-2 (53 GF, 23 GA)
• Road: 7-15-3 (26 GF, 35 GA)
• Three-Game Home Winning Streak in MLS play: (09/08/2007 LA 3 vs COL 1), (06/07/2008 LA 3 vs COL 2), (10/12/2008 LA 3 vs COL 2)
• Last Home Defeat vs. COL: (05/20/2006 LA 0 vs COL 1)
• Biggest Win: (08/05/1998 LA 6 at COL 1 at Mile High Stadium)
• All-Time Goals: LA 79 – COL 58
• Most Goals in a Single Game: (11 - 05/06/1998 LA 7 vs COL 4 Rose Bowl - This game set the MLS record for the most goals scored in a single game.)