Galaxy Win Fourth Straight - Beat New York 3-1

LA Galaxy 3, New York Red Bulls 1
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Giants Stadium – East Rutherford, N.J.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Alecko Eskandarian 3 (Unassisted) 3’
LA – Landon Donovan 7 (Eddie Lewis 3) 31’
LA – Eddie Lewis 2 (Landon Donovan 5) 45’
NY – Juan Pablo Angel (Penalty Kick) 87’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Gregg Berhalter (Yellow Card) 10’
LA – Alecko Eskandarian (Yellow Card) 27’
NY – Jorge Rojas (Yellow Card) 92+

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts, A.J. DeLaGarza, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant, Stefani Miglioranzi, Eddie Lewis (Chris Klein 85’), Landon Donovan©, David Beckham (Chris Birchall 70’), Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian (Mike Magee 72’).

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Tony Sanneh, Jovan Kirovski, Alan Gordon.

New York Red Bulls: Danny Cepero, Jeremy Hall, Luke Sassano, Mike Petke, Jeremy Hall, Seth Stammler, Albert Celades (Dane Richards 62’), Nick Zimmerman (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 70’), Jorge Rojas, Macoumba Kandji (John Wolyniec 79’), Juan Pablo Angel©.

Subs Not Used: Bouna Coundoul, Leo Krupnick, Danleigh Borman, Khano Smith.

Notes:
• With the win the Galaxy are now 6-3-9 on the season, giving them 27 points. LA is now tied for third place in the Western Conference, even on points with Chivas USA, who play at New England on Sunday.
• Bruce Arena made three changes to the team that defeated Chivas USA 1-0 on Saturday. Donovan Ricketts returned in goal after missing the last two games whil on international duty, replacing Josh Saunders who had kept a clean sheet in each of the last two games. Additionally, Eddie Lewis returned on the left side of midfield and David Beckham started in central midfield. Beckham and Lewis replaced Jovan Kirovski and Mike Magee, each of who started the game on the bench.
• The Galaxy were without Sean Franklin, Dema Kovalenko and Julian Valentin who all missed the game through injury.
• David Beckham made his 2009 MLS debut, starting and playing 70 minutes in central midfield. He was replaced by Chris Birchall, who made his MLS debut in the game. Both players received their ITC’s on Wednesday, making them officially eligible to play.
• Alecko Eskandarian gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in just the 3rd minute of play. It was his second goal in three games with the Galaxy.
• Eskandarian’s goal tied Landon Donovan’s mark for the fastest goal of the season for LA. Donovan scored in the 3rd minute of the 1-1 draw at FC Dallas on May 23.
• The goal gave the Galaxy a 1-0 for the fourth straight game. The last time the Galaxy scored the first goal in four straight games was from April 30-May 21, 2005. That stretch actually dated back to April 9 of that year with the Galaxy scoring the first goal in six straight games.
• Landon Donovan scored his team leading seventh goal of the year in the 31st minute, hitting a right-footed volley past Danny Cepero from 25 yards out.
• The goal was Donovan’s first in MLS play since May 23 at FC Dallas, a span of seven games. Donovan missed five of those games while away on international duty with the U.S. National Team.
• Eddie Lewis assisted on that goal for his third assist of the season, two of which have come on goals scored by Donovan.
• Both Eskandarian and Donovan’s goals came from outside the box. Prior to today’s game, the Galaxy had scored from outside the box just once all season.
• Lewis then added his second goal of the season in the 45th minute to give LA a 3-0 halftime lead. The last time the Galaxy scored three goals in a half was on September 20, 2008 when they scored three times in the opening 45 minutes of a 5-2 win over D.C. United.
• This was the first time this season that the Galaxy had scored three or more goals in a game. They did so eight times last year.
• Donovan provided the cross for Lewis’ goal, giving him five assists on the season, tying him with Mike Magee for the team lead.
• The Galaxy have now scored a first half goal in each of the last four games. The last time they accomplished that was June 7-28 when they scored in the first half of four straight games, going 2-1-1 in those matches.
• This was the first time the Galaxy had won a game by anything other than a single goal.
• Juan Pablo Angel’s goal in the 87th minute was the first goal allowed by the Galaxy since the 54th minute of the 2-1 loss at San Jose on June 20.The goal snapped a string of 393 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal.
• Donovan Ricketts then saved an Angel penalty kick in the first minute of stoppage time. It was the first penalty kick save of the game since June 23, 2007 when Joe Cannon stopped a Ned Grabavoy penalty in a 3-2 home loss to Columbus.
• The Galaxy have now won four straight games for the first time since September 27-October 13, 2007. Those four wins were part of a five-game winning streak for LA.
• Chris Klein entered the game in the 85th minute, replacing Eddie Lewis and stretching his MLS record consecutive games played streak to 133.
• The attendance for today’s game was 23,238.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Sunday, July 19 when they host AC Milan in an international friendly at The Home Depot Center that can be seen live on FS West at 7 p.m.
• They return to action in MLS play on Saturday, July 25 against the Kansas City Wizards at Community America Ballpark at 5:30 p.m. in a game that can be seen live on ESPN2.
• For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.