Thursday, October 7, 2010

Galaxy Extend Lead in the Race for Supporters Shield with 1-0 Win at PPL Park

LA Galaxy 1, Philadelphia Union 0
Thursday, October 7, 2010
PPL Park – Chester, Pa.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 16 (David Beckham 1) 27’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Michael Stephens (Yellow Card) 78’
LA – Jovan Kirovski (Yellow Card) 89’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Sean Franklin, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant; Juninho (Bryan Jordan 86’), Chris Birchall, David Beckham (Jovan Kirovski 76’), Michael Stephens (Mike Magee 92+); Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle.

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Leonardo, Alex Cazumba, Chris Klein.

Philadelphia Union: Brad Knighton; Sheanon Williams, Michael Orozco Fiscal, Danny Califf©, Jordan Harvey; Andrew Jacobson (Shea Salinas 73’), Stefani Miglioranzi, Justin Mapp (Roger Torres 82’), Fred (Kyle Nakazawa 14’); Danny Mwanga, Sebastien Le Toux.

Subs Not Used: Chris Seitz, Amobi Okugo, Nick Zimmerman, Jack McInerney.
Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy remain in first place in the Western Conference and all of MLS with a 17-6-5 record for 56 points. They are now five points ahead of Real Salt Lake, who play their 28th game of the season on Saturday at New York.
• Given tonight’s result, the only teams that can still catch the Galaxy in the race for the Supporters Shield are Real Salt Lake (51 points with three games left), FC Dallas (49 points with three games left) and New York (47 points with three games left).
• The 17 wins for the Galaxy set a new club record for most wins in a season since the end of the shootout following the 1999 season.
• The Galaxy remain on pace to become the third team in MLS history to record 60 points in a season. With 56 points through 28 games, the Galaxy need either two wins or a win and a draw over their final two games of the year to reach that mark. Only the 1998 Galaxy and 2005 San Jose Earthquakes recorded 60 points in a season in the history of MLS.
• Bruce Arena used the same starting XI as he had used in the 2-1 win over Chivas USA on Sunday.
• The only changes for the Galaxy came on the bench, where Leonardo returned from a quad injury while Bryan Jordan and Chris Klein returned to the 18-man squad. They replaced Yohance Marshall, who is on international duty with Trinidad & Tobago, Eddie Lewis, who is suspended after being sent off against Chivas USA and Tristan Bowen, who made the trip to Philadelphia, but did not dress.
• The Galaxy were once again without Gregg Berhalter (neck strain) and Dema Kovalenko (right adductor strain) who missed their eighth and second straight game respectively.
• Edson Buddle gave the Galaxy the lead in the 27th minute with his MLS-best 16th goal of the season. That goal sets a new career-high for Buddle, who had never scored more than 15 goals in a season before this year.
• Buddle now has three goals and an assist in two games against the Union this season after scoring two and setting up one in LA’s 3-1 win over the Union at The Home Depot Center on May 1.
• The goal also put Buddle alone in seventh place in MLS history with 89 career goals, including 41 in a Galaxy uniform, good for the fourth most in club history.
• Buddle is now three goals ahead of Juan Pablo Angel, Dwayne DeRosario and Sebastien Le Toux in the race for the MLS Budweiser Golden Boot. All three of those players have 13 goals this season.
• David Beckham assisted on the goal, sending a corner kick into the box for Buddle to head home. The assist was Beckham’s first of the season and first in a Galaxy regular season game since a 2-0 win vs. Toronto FC on September 19, 2009.
• LA now have five goals direct from a corner kick this season, with Buddle scoring three of those. The Galaxy last scored directly from a corner kick on September 4 at Chicago, with Omar Gonzalez heading home a Landon Donovan corner in the first minute of second half stoppage time.
• The Galaxy are now a perfect 16-0-0 when scoring first, making them the only team in MLS not to drop a point when scoring the game’s opening goal.
• Donovan Ricketts made three saves for the win. This was his first clean sheet since a 1-0 win at New York on August 14. Ricketts remains on pace to record the lowest single season goals against average in club history.
• With the clean sheet, Ricketts tied Kevin Hartman’s club record for shutouts in a season with 11.
• This was the Galaxy’s 12th shutout in MLS play this season, tying the club record for most shutouts by the team in a single season, a record that they set in 2009.
• Philadelphia were the 11th different team to be shutout by the Galaxy this season.
• Landon Donovan played the 230th game of his MLS career, with 141 of those coming in a Galaxy uniform.
• Jovan Kirovski entered the game in the 76th minute, replacing David Beckham. This was his 20th appearance of the season and the 160th of his MLS career.
• Juninho was not booked in the game, meaning that he is eligible to play in the Galaxy’s next game at home against Colorado on October 16. He remains one caution away from a mandatory one game suspension for yellow card accumulation.
• Bryan Jordan replaced Juninho in the 86th minute of the game, making his first appearance since the 1-1 draw at Chicago on September 4.
• This was the Galaxy’s final road game of the season. They finish the year with an MLS-best 9-3-3 record on the road for 30 of their 56 points.
• This was also the Galaxy’s final game against an Eastern Conference opposition this season. They finish the year with an 8-4-4 record against the East.
• The attendance for today’s game was a sellout crowd of 18,779 at PPL Park, setting a new stadium record.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Saturday, October 16 when they host the Colorado Rapids in the penultimate game of the 2010 regular season That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen on tape delay on PrimeTicket starting with Galaxy Live at 8 p.m.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

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