LA Galaxy 0, Puerto Rico Islanders 0
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Juan Ramon Loubriel – Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Scoring Summary:
None
Misconduct Summary:
None
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Brian Perk; Hector Jimenez, Andrew Boyens, Tommy Meyer, Bryan Gaul; Pat Noonan (Landon Donovan 60’), Kenney Walker (Juninho 80’), Rafael Garcia, Michael Stephens; Jose Villarreal (Marcelo Sarvas 66’), Edson Buddle.
Subs Not Used: Brian Rowe, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant, Jack McBean.
Puerto Rico Islanders: Richard Martin; Edson Edward, Anthony Vasquez, Richard Martinez, Jay Needham; Jared van Schaik (Josh Hansen 70’), Noah Delgado© (Hector Ramos 77’), Alexis Rivera (Joseph Marrero 66’), Christopher Nurse; David Foley, Nicolas Addlery.
Subs Not Used: Cody Laurendi, Christian Ibeagha, Osei Telesford, Stephen de Roux.
Referee: Raymond Bogle (JAM)
Referee’s Assistants: Ricardo Morgan (JAM) and Garnet Page (JAM)
4th Official: Kevin Thomas (JAM)
NOTES:
- With the draw, the Galaxy remain alone in first place in Group 5 with seven points from a 2-0-1 record. LA have a +7 goal differential from those two wins.
- The Galaxy are four points ahead of Metapan, who are 1-1-0 (-1 goal difference) with two games left to play, and six points ahead of Puerto Rico, who are 0-2-1 (-6 goal differential) with one game left.
- The Islanders were mathematically eliminated from the Champions League with the draw. They can finish no better than second in Group 5.
- This was LA’s first away game in the Group Stage of the 2012/13 CONCACAF Champions League. LA are now 1-2-1 all-time when playing away from The Home Depot Center in the Champions League Group Stage.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made 11 changes to the team that beat the Colorado Rapids 2-0 last Friday at The Home Depot Center.
- Only Edson Buddle, Hector Jimenez and Michael Stephens started tonight’s game after coming on as second half substitutes against Colorado.
- Buddle, who wore the captain’s armband for the first time in his Galaxy career, played the full 90 minutes in his first start since undergoing right knee surgery on June 4. His previous start came on a 2-1 loss to Houston on May 26.
- Five starters from Friday’s game against Colorado did not travel to Puerto Rico with the team in order to be rested ahead of Saturday’s game against Toronto FC. Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, Robbie Keane, Mike Magee and Josh Saunders all remained in Southern California, as did the injured quartet of David Beckham, Leonardo, David Junior Lopes and Kyle Nakazawa.
- Of the players that traveled to Puerto Rico, midfielder Christian Wilhelmsson was the only player that was not included in the 18-man game day squad.
- Landon Donovan entered the game in the 60th minute, replacing Pat Noonan, to make his first appearance in the 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League.
- Marcelo Sarvas made his third appearance in this year’s competition when he came on for Jose Villarreal in the 66th minute. He joins Bryan Gaul, Hector Jimenez, Michael Stephens and Villarreal as the only players on the roster to have appeared in all three of LA’s games so far in the tournament.
- Juninho was the Galaxy’s third and final substitution in the 80th minute, coming on in place of Kenney Walker.
- Brian Perk, who was making his second-career start in Champions League, is now 1-0-1 in the competition with two shutouts. He finished the game with seven saves.
- With the shutout, LA now have five shutouts all-time in the Champions League, including two in the current competition.
- LA now have five consecutive shutouts in all competitions and have not conceded a goal since the 87th minute of the 5-2 win over Metapan on August 23. Since that goal, the Galaxy have played 453 minutes without allowing a goal while scoring 11 times.
- In addition to no one from either side scoring a goal, no players from either side were booked in the game.
- The Galaxy return to MLS action this Saturday when they host Toronto FC at The Home Depot Center. That game, which is presented by Time Warner Cable SportsNet and Time Warner Cable Deportes, kicks off at 7:30 p.m.
- Prior to the match, Galaxy alumni will play in a friendly match against the Galaxy Academy U-18 squad as part of Alumni Night festivities. Additional information on Alumni Night can be found at www.lagalaxy.com/alumninight.
- The club will return to CONCACAF Champions League play on Thursday, October 25 against Isidro Metapan. LA’s final game of the Group Stage, that game will be played in El Salvador with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. (PT) and will be shown live on FOX Soccer and Univision Deportes.
QUOTES
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
Overall impression of the game:
“A game that I thought we did well to be in position to try to get a goal and get three points at the end and didn’t do well with the chances we created. Still at the end of the day, a point on the road in this competition is still good and puts pressure on the team that is second in the group to get points now.”
On Brian Perk’s performance:
“I think he did very well. He had to make a couple of saves that looked comfortable. His distribution was very good. His kicking was good. His organization of the backline was very good. I’ve been very impressed with him over the last couple of months. He’s looked a lot more experienced as a goalkeeper. I think he was quite good tonight.”
On the play of Edson Buddle:
“Edson worked really hard. Obviously, we got a full game out of him, got some chances, could have finished off maybe one of them. I was pleased with the way Edson played in the last 10 or 15 minutes when we tried to get a goal. He did well to set up Mikey Stephens right there at the end, too. Edson hung in there. He was obviously fatigued. It’s been awhile since he’s played in a game at this level, a full game, so that’s a real plus. It’s going to be difficult to give him any minutes on Saturday, but he’s obviously moving forward in his recovery.”
On the Islanders:
“They’re out of the competition now. And it would have been highly unlikely anyway given that the most points they could have earned was six and the goal differential was so great. I’m not surprised by the way they played. On the counter attack they created some chances. They did a very good job defensively. We were not clinical by any means with our finishing. We were too sloppy in their penalty area. We created some very good chances, and we needed to get a goal out of one of those chances.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On the result:
“We wanted to win, but we knew this would be a different game from the one a few weeks ago. Give them a lot of credit, they played that game like it was a World Cup final. They did a good job defensively, they created a couple chances and I think in the end, we needed one good play, one special play to win the game and we couldn’t find it today.”
On if the weather played a factor:
“Yeah, I think that our guys wore out a little bit at the end. You can tell that they’re a lot more used to playing in this (humidity) then we are, they had some good energy still at the end. I think that Bruce did a good job of getting some of us fresh guys into the game to try and make a play, but on the night it just wasn’t going to be.
On Brian Perk’s shutout:
“Perk was great, he made one good save early and one good save late and was really solid in between. I thought our back four did a good job, Kenney and Rafa did a good job, it’s just a shame that we let that performance go without winning because they played well and Perk played well.”
On the remainder of the Group 5 schedule:
“Well, we’ll see if Puerto Rico beat Metapán here then it’s over and even if they tie, it’s going to make it really difficult. We’ll do a little scoreboard watching and hope that it is all wrapped up, but if not then we have to go in there (to El Salvador) and win, which we’re prepared to do.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Brian Perk
On the result:
“All in all, I think that we can be satisfied with the result. It’s always tough to play here and the guys gave a really good effort, but toward the end it was a dogfight. We were battling back and forth and bringing on fresh legs up top on both sides so credit to both back lines, they kept zeros and it was a pretty fair assessment of the game.”
On playing in humid conditions:
“Puerto Rico is a nice place to come to, but playing a game is maybe not so enjoyable. You really have to give credit to the guys who played 90 minutes on the field tonight. They battled and it’s impressive stuff.”
On if Puerto Rico played differently than in the first leg:
“They seemed more comfortable at home. It just seemed like from the first whistle they had a little more pep in their step. They came out and they took it to us at moments, we had our chances and they had their chances. So, 0-0 is a pretty fair result.”
