LOS ANGELES (Sunday, May 14, 2023) – Playing their 11th match of the 2023 MLS Regular Season, the LA Galaxy earned their second consecutive win across all competitions with a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday night. Martín Cáceres recorded his first career goal for the Galaxy, while Dejan Joveljić scored the game-winning goal in the win over San Jose.
LA Galaxy Against San Jose Earthquakes
Sunday’s match marked the 96th edition across all competitions of the Cali Clásico between the Galaxy and the Earthquakes, with LA leading the series 45-33-18. Against San Jose, the Galaxy hold a 36-28-16 record in league play, a 4-1-1 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 5-4-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 39 all-time regular-season matches played at home against the Earthquakes, LA holds a 23-10-6 record.
Clinical Joveljić
Joveljić recorded his team-leading second goal of the 2023 MLS Regular Season with his game-winning goal against San Jose. Notably, Joveljić has recorded 10 career regular-season goals scored as a substitute, and 12 goals scored across all competitions for the Galaxy as a substitute. Dating back to the beginning of the 2022 MLS Regular Season, Joveljić leads the league with 10 substitute goals scored.
Packed Schedule
Sunday’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes marked the third game in the span of nine days for the LA Galaxy. During the month of May, the Galaxy will have played eight games across all competitions in the span of 26 days, an average of a game played every 3.3 days.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Martín Cáceres (Memo Rodríguez), 60th minute – Memo Rodríguez’s in-swinging corner-kick service found the head of Martín Cáceres, who powered the ball the ball just inside the far post.
LA – Dejan Joveljić, 90+1st minute – Dejan Joveljić dispossessed the ball from a San Jose defender outside the 18-yard box. Joveljić drove towards goal and drilled his low shot into the lower left corner of the goal.
SJ – Ousseni Bouda, 90+4th minute – A rebound inside the penalty area fell to Ousseni Bouda, whose shot from just outside the six-yard box was fired into the back of the net.
Postgame Notes
- Sunday’s match marked the 96th edition across all competitions of the Cali Clásico between the Galaxy and the Earthquakes, with LA leading the series 45-33-18.
- Against San Jose, the Galaxy hold a 36-28-16 record in league play, a 4-1-1 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 5-4-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
- In 39 all-time regular-season matches played at home against the Earthquakes, LA holds a 23-10-6 record.
- In the Galaxy’s last five matches played across all competitions dating back to April 22, the Galaxy hold a 3-2-0 record (8 GF, 7 GA).
- Sunday’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes marked the third game in the span of nine days for the LA Galaxy.
- During the month of May, the Galaxy will have played eight games across all competitions in the span of 26 days, an average of a game played every 3.3 days.
- Joveljić recorded his team-leading second goal of the 2023 MLS Regular Season with his game-winning goal against San Jose.
- Notably, Joveljić has recorded 10 career regular-season goals scored as a substitute, and 12 goals scored across all competitions for the Galaxy as a substitute.
- In 28 regular-season games played at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Serbian international forward has recorded 11 goals and five assists.
- Dating back to the beginning of the 2022 MLS Regular Season, Joveljić leads the league with 10 substitute goals scored.
- Martín Cáceres’ goal was the first headed goal by an LA Galaxy player during the 2023 MLS Regular Season.
- Cáceres scored his first career LA Galaxy goal in the win over San Jose.
- Memo Rodríguez recorded his first assist of the 2023 campaign.
- In nine games played (6 starts) across all competitions this season, Rodríguez has tallied two goals and one assist.
- In seven matches played at home across all competitions during the 2023 campaign, the Galaxy hold a record of 3-3-1 (12 GF, 11 GA).
- In 12 career regular-season matches managed against San Jose as head coach of the LA Galaxy and Toronto FC dating back to 2015, LA Galaxy Head Coach and Sporting Director Greg Vanney holds a record of 6-4-2.
- As LA Galaxy head coach, Vanney holds a 4-2-0 record in league play against the Earthquakes.
Next Game
Next up, the LA Galaxy travel to face Columbus Crew SC at Lower.com Field on Wednesday, May 17. The match on May 17 kicks off at 4:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcasted live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
2023 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (2-6-3, 9pts) vs. San Jose Earthquakes (5-4-3, 18pts)
May 14, 2023 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 0 2 2
San Jose Earthquakes 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
LA: Cáceres (Rodríguez), 60
LA: Joveljić, 90+1
SJ: Bouda, 90+4
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Chicharito (caution), 27
LA: Delgado (caution), 35
SJ: Rodrigues (caution), 45+1
SJ: Mensah (caution), 73
SJ: Judson (caution), 82
SJ: Bouda (caution), 89
LA: Joveljić (caution), 90+1
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Calegari, D Martín Cáceres, D Jalen Neal, D Julián Aude; M Mark Delgado, M Gastón Brugman, M Riqui Puig, M Tyler Boyd (Daniel Aguirre, 74), M Memo Rodríguez (Raheem Edwards, 64); F Javier “Chicharito” Hernández © (Dejan Joveljić, 90)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; Eriq Zavaleta; M Efraín Álvarez, M Uri Rosell, M Gino Vivi; F Preston Judd
TOTAL SHOTS: 17 (Chicharito, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Riqui Puig, 2); FOULS: 11 (Calegari, Brugman, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 2
SJ: GK JT Marcinkowski; D Paul Marie (Tommy Thompson, 82), D Jonathan Mensah, D Miguel Trauco, D Rodrigues; M Carlos Gruezo (Judson, 74), M Jackson Yueill © (Michael Baldisimo, 82), M Jamiro Monteiro (Niko Tsakiris, 72), F Cristian Espinoza, F Jeremy Ebobisse, F Benji Kikanovic (Ousseni Bouda, 72)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Emmanuel Ochoa, D Tanner Beason, D Daniel Munie; M Jack Skahan
TOTAL SHOTS: 8 (Jonathan Mensah, 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Three players tied, 1); FOULS: 15 (Four players tied, 2); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Logan Brown, Corey Rockwell
Fourth Official: Chris Wattam
VAR: Edvin Jurisevic
Weather: Clear, 66 degrees
Attendance: 16,035
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
Watch media availability on Youtube
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND SPORTING DIRECTOR GREG VANNEY
On his thoughts on the win on the night:
“I’m really proud of our guys. I thought for 90 minutes, it was a very professional performance. I thought it was our best, by far, best defending game of the season. Just, the collective work. Reactions. The way we dealt with situations. I thought was very, very good. We created a lot of chances. There were more goals in that game than we took at the end. But, yeah, I thought it was a great performance. So, I feel like we’re starting to find some rhythm and we’ll continue to try to build off of it. But there was a lot of good things to take away from this game, and some guys had some exceptional games as well.”
On how badly his side wanted the clean sheet:
“Oh, yeah! I mean… the guys wanted it. It was unfortunate, because… I think it was Julián [Aude], who was injured and he was off the field. And I think the guy’s assumption was that if they held their line, then he would be offside. The rule is that if you’re off the field, then you’re considered on the goal line, so you’re pretty much keeping everybody onside. So, it was a little bit unfortunate, because I could tell that everybody was working hard for it. It’s been something that we’ve been talking a lot about. I thought we deserved it in the end. It was a little unfortunate we didn’t close it out with one.”
On the defensive effort, and what the biggest details were that was going their way:
“I think a couple things. The last couple days, we walked through, talked through, videoed through… everything, just getting more clarity in terms of our defensive side. And I thought we kept things really clear. Everyone was engaged. We never really gave up spaces in between us. I thought we were, our spacing was good, everybody was moving at the right speeds, generally speaking. And, when everybody is working together, and like I said, it was clear, we didn’t get mixed up. Even when they made rotations, by and large, we managed those rotations pretty well. So, I felt like, we’re not the most communicative team. But, I felt like tonight, we were talking more, but we certainly dealt with situations better. And I think each guy individually in their 1–on–1 duals was better tonight as well. J [Jalen Neal] stepped in a few times and took some fouls around midfield, and, you know, that’s something… we want him just to be a little more physical in terms of presence. I thought he was there. I thought Martín [Cáceres] looked very, very sound and experienced. I think Lucas [Calegari] and Julián [Aude] continue to grow inside of the team. I thought Lucas was exceptional. I think everybody, starting from Javi [Javier Hernández] and Riqui [Puig] were super engaged on the defensive side of things tonight. That really helped us out. We were more efficient dimensionally, which really gave us more coordinated, clearer possessions that we could use throughout the course of the game.”
On subbing Dejan Joveljić onto the field at the end of the game, the strategy of bringing on an offensive player versus a defender, and what his goal means for his confidence:
“He’s a hungry kid who scores goals. When you put him on the field, especially as a substitute role, he knows he only has a finite of time. And, today, it took one minute. And, he knows he has a finite amount of time to just put everything out there to try to just get his chances and to score a goal. I think that’s a little bit of that moment. He’s also a competitor in the way that he knew at 1-0, part of his job was to defend, and to help us to get pressure to the ball and, you know, he lost the ball that was played into him with his back, and it was kind of tight, and he lost it, but he stayed with it and he just kept relentlessly going after it, and dug it out. And then took the finish with style. Like I said, it starts really from he’s a competitor, he’s a winner. And when he stepped on that field, he knew his job was to help us defend that thing out, and he turned that into a goal. So, expectational. But, again, he showed last year and this year his capacity to come on the field as a sub and impact the game is probably second to none. I know he doesn’t want to be that guy always and forever, but he has certainly carved out a niche for himself that is pretty special. When you have a bullet in your holster like that that can come and get you a goal in… well, tonight was really fast, but he comes on and he gets you something. It was great. It was great. I’m really happy for him. Because we play on Wednesday, so part of it was as long as we stayed in control of this game, I wasn’t going to use as many guys, because, you know, I don’t know how many guys are going to be able to play the three games as quickly as we’re going to turn. And I wanted to be able to save some guys to use on Wednesday that I know I’m going to use. As long as we stayed comfortable in the match, I was going to keep the guys out there. So, that’s why that was a late sub, and he did everything he could with his minutes.”
On the strategy of bringing on an offensive player versus a defender that late in the game:
“Because part of it is, at that point in the game, getting pressure on the ball away from your goal. And, you know, Javi [Javier Hernández] played a heck of a shift. I thought he was working until the end. But, just getting some fresh legs out there with Riqui [Puig], just again, to track things, chase things, try to get pressure at the point of the service. It means you don’t necessarily have to defend so deep, so that helped us out.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD DEJAN JOVELJIĆ
On his celebration after scoring the game-winning goal:
"I blacked out. I'm very happy because I scored, I pressed the guy very good and obviously I scored quite a nice goal. I am very happy because we won the game, finally two games in a row, three points. For us it is very important to reach the playoffs, that's our goal for this season and after that everything is possible. Hopefully one step more than last year, even better two steps more."
On his ability to score goals coming off the bench:
"Last season I said the same thing of course I want to play more but sometimes I need few minutes or seconds to score, which is good. If I have to, I'm going to sacrifice myself for the team and if I have to I'll start every game from the bench."
On if getting two wins in a row will be a confidence booster for the team:
"After each win you are more happy, more ready. I think that we played good, not that good but we played decent games in the first 10 games of the season but we couldn't score. When we scored the first goal it looks like we are going to win every game so we didn't use our chances but we didn't have very good chances so it will be better I hope so."
On celebrating with his teammates:
“Everyone needs the support like I had. If every player has the support like I had, I think the sky is the limit.”
On what he was thinking on his goal celebration:
"I don't know what I did there. I totally blacked out completely, but what can I say? I do have to say Martín [Cáceres] congrats for the first goal but his celebration was so bad, so he needs to practice a little bit. We are going to show him many times hopefully this season."
