Two More Buddle Goals Give LA 2-1 Win Over Real Salt Lake

LA Galaxy 2, Real Salt Lake 1
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Home Depot Center — Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 6 (Landon Donovan 4) 12’
RSL – Kyle Beckerman 1 (Unassisted) 41’
LA – Edson Buddle 7 (Juninho 1) 76’

Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Andy Williams (Yellow Card) 56’
LA – Bryan Jordan (Yellow Card) 64’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Todd Dunivant, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin (Bryan Jordan 43’); Chris Birchall, Mike Magee (Alex Cazumba 69’), Juninho (Alan Gordon 81’), Michael Stephens; Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle.

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Gregg Berhalter, Chris Klein, Jovan Kirovski.

Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Robbie Russell, Nat Borchers, Tony Beltran; Kyle Beckerman©, Nelson Gonzalez (Collen Warner 64’), Will Johnson, Andy Williams; Alvaro Saborio (Pablo Campos 81’), Fabian Espindola (Robbie Findley 59’).

Subs Not Used: Kyle Reynish, Rauwshan McKenzie, Jean Alexandre, Luis Gil.

Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy are now a perfect 4-0-0 on the season, giving them 12 points. They remain alone in first place in the Western Conference, five points ahead of the second place Houston Dynamo and Seattle Sounders FC, who each won earlier in the day.
• Bruce Arena made one change to the team that defeated Houston on Saturday at Robertson Stadium. Michael Stephens was brought into the starting lineup, replacing Leonardo, who missed the game with a right quad strain. Stephens started the game on the right side of midfield, while Sean Franklin moved to right back and A.J. DeLaGarza moved to central defense.
• In addition to Leonardo, the Galaxy were also without Dema Kovalenko, Eddie Lewis and Clint Mathis who all missed the game because of injury.
• Stephens was making the first start of his MLS career after playing each of the first three games of the season as a second half substitute.
• Gregg Berhalter made his season debut in the Galaxy’s 18-man squad after missing each of the first three games with a knee injury. He did not enter the game.
• Bryan Jordan made his 2010 debut in the game, coming on late in the first half in place of the injured Sean Franklin.
• Franklin, who had played the full 90 minutes in each of the Galaxy’s first three games of the season, was forced to leave the game in the 43rd minute with a left heel sprain.
• Edson Buddle gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute, heading home a Landon Donovan corner kick. Buddle’s goal was his league-leading sixth of the season while Donovan’s assist was his league-leading fourth of the season.
• With his first half goal tonight, Edson Buddle tied Carlos Ruiz’s MLS record for the most consecutive goals by one player to open a season. Ruiz scored the Galaxy’s first six goals of 2002 en route to a club record 24 goals on the season. Buddle then set a new MLS record with his game-winning goal in the second half, becoming the first player in MLS history to score each of his club’s first seven goals.
• Buddle has now scored in the first half of all four of the Galaxy’s games this season.
• Buddle has scored multiple goals in each of the Galaxy’s last three games. Prior to this, the last Galaxy player to score two or more goals in three straight games was Landon Donovan, who scored seven goals in three games from April 13-April 19 during the 2008 season, scoring twice in a 3-2 home loss to Toronto FC, twice more in a 2-2 home draw with Houston and finally three times in a 5-2 home win over Chivas USA.
• His seven goals on the season are two more than he scored in all of 2009.
• Juninho assisted on Buddle’s game-winning goal in the 76th minute for the first assist of his MLS career.
• For the first time this season, the Galaxy did not lead the game at halftime with the score tied 1-1.
• Kyle Beckerman tied the game at 1-1 in the 41st minute with his first goal of the season for Real Salt Lake. That was the first goal allowed by the Galaxy this season, snapping the club’s 311 minute streak without allowing a goal.
• Dating back to 2009, the Galaxy had not allowed a goal in 612 consecutive minutes of regulation, dating back to a 2-0 loss at Columbus on September 26. That was the Galaxy’s last regular season loss.
• A.J. DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez played the full 90 minutes together in central defense. This was the first time since the final game of their college careers at the University of Maryland that they had played alongside one another in central defense.
• The attendance for today’s game was 20,344.
• The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday night when they travel to Kansas City to face the Wizards at Community America Ballpark. The game kicks off at 5:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on FOX Sports West starting with the “Galaxy Live” pregame show at 5 p.m. AM 570 and ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 AM will broadcast the game live on the radio in English and Spanish respectively, starting with their pregame shows at 5 p.m.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.