2010 May 8

League leading Galaxy give Sounders FC their worst home loss

Seattle Sounders FC  0 - 4  Los Angeles Galaxy

Qwest Field, Seattle, WA

Goals:
22' LA: Jovan Kirovski (Landon Donovan)
52' LA: Omar Gonzalez (Landon Donovan)
57' LA: Todd Dunivant (Landon Donovan)
67' LA: Landon Donovan (Edson Buddle)

Seattle: Kasey Keller; James Riley, Tyrone Marshall, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez; Osvaldo Alonso (Nathan Sturgis 37), Peter Vagenas, Freddie Ljungberg; Steve Zakuani, Fredy Montero (Miguel Montaņo 57), Brad Evans (Sanna Nyassi 70). Substitutes not used: Terry Boss, Patrick Ianni, Tyson Wahl, Roger Levesque.

Los Angeles: Donovan Ricketts; Bryan Jordan, Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant; Michael Stephens, Christopher Birchall, Landon Donovan (Clint Mathis 71'), Jovan Kirovski, Chris Klein (Tristan Bowen 63'); Edson Buddle (Alex Cazumba 75'). Substitutes not used: Josh Saunders, Alan Gordon, Mike Magee, Juninho.


Match report from Ron Stickney:

The Seattle Sounders FC turned in their worst loss ever at Qwest Field, losing 0-4 to the league-leading Los Angeles Galaxy. Landon Donovan assisted on goals to Jovan Kirovski, Omar Gonzalez, and Todd Dunivant before finishing the final goal himself. Second-year center back Omar Gonzalez had an excellent match, helping Donovan Ricketts to his fifth shutout in eight matches.

Seattle had a good first half, but were caught offside eight times. Then it all went wrong in the second half, when the only bright spot was the first appearance of 18-year-old Miguel Montaņo.

First Half

The match started with Los Angeles in a defensive posture and Seattle trying to break them down. The first chance came at 8' when a Galaxy giveaway led to a shot for Fredy Montero from the right, but Ricketts had the angle covered. Los Angeles' first shot was a long try from Edson Buddle, an easy roller to Kasey Keller.

At 19' Seattle had what would prove to be their best scoring chance. A broken free kick play saw the ball chipped back in over the defense for Montero to run onto, and from 15 yards his open shot was a hard left footer that was well saved by Ricketts.

22' LA: Kirovski (Donovan). The first goal came from out of nowhere. A quick, routine pass by Donovan found deep midfielder Kirovski on a diagonal run in the middle. Running at speed, Kirovski found just enough of a look from 20 yards to power a twisting shot at Keller. The twist fooled Keller and the ball deflected off his hands into the far corner of the net. 1-0 LA.

A few minutes later Osvaldo Alonso tried to match Kirovski's feat with two shots from 25 yards. The first was a quick try that wasn't close, but the second was a rocket that went just inches over the bar. Then at 35' Alonso went down with a strained quadriceps and had to be replaced by Nathan Sturgis.

LA had the only chances the rest of the half, with Kirovski firing a good shot up the middle that Keller saved and Donovan missing by a lot from 25 yards.

Second Half

Seattle had the first good chance of the second half when Tyrone Marshall bounced a header to Ricketts from Freddie Ljungberg's corner kick in the 51st minute.

52' LA: Gonzalez (Donovan). A minute after Marshall's missed header, Omar Gonzalez showed how to do it, beating the crowd in the air at the near post to head in Donovan's corner kick off the underside of the bar at the near corner, the ball coming down just over the line. 2-0 LA.

57' LA: Dunivant (Donovan). The third goal came from a long free kick from the left by Donovan. Two Sounders defenders let it bend over their heads and then nobody was near the post as Dunivant was wide open to finish with a diving header from 5 yards. 3-0 LA.

67' LA: Donovan (Buddle). Los Angeles made it three goals in 15 minutes. Buddle saved a ball at the touch line and beat Marshall with a square cross into the goal area. Donovan ran past Jhon Kennedy Hurtado to finish with ease. 4-0 LA.

The chances kept coming for the visitors. A long, bending pass from Donovan gave Buddle a good chance, and his chip missed the top far corner. Michael Stephens got open for a 20-yard shot and missed the lower near corner. Buddle had another chance from the 18 and Keller saved well.

Seattle finally created second-half chances in the final ten minutes. Montaņo earned a free kick 25 yards from goal, but Ljungberg's shot was uninspired and easily saved by Ricketts. The final chance came at 84' when Ljungberg had open territory to receive a pass into the penalty area and cross to the far post for a run by Montaņo, but a defender got there to poke in a foot and break up Montaņo's shot.


Statistics:
          SEA   LA
Shots:      9   14
Saves:      4    5
Corners:    6    2
Fouls:      9   15
Offsides:  10    2

Misconduct:
38' SEA: Hurtado cautioned for charging into Donovan's back
45' SEA: L Gonzalez cautioned for a late slide under Birchall
63' SEA: Marshall cautioned a minor altercation after the ball went over the bye line
64' LA: Bowen cautioned for tripping Montaņo

Referees: Kevin Stott; Nate Clement, Frank Anderson; Edvin Jurisevic

Attendance: 36,273


Postmatch Quotes

Seattle Sounders FC

Sigi Schmid - Head Coach

General Comments: "Got beat and got beat solidly. Not the kind of game you want to ever repeat again."

On allowing four goals: "The first goal you don't expect a keeper like Keller to have that happen, but sometimes it does. The second goal was a good goal. Our marking could have been better but I thought we were tight and he put it in the corner. The third goal was inexcusable. It skipped past two guys. You have to not hope that someone else will do what you're supposed to. On the fourth goal we were ducks in a shooting gallery."

On moving forward from this loss: "It's not time to panic but it's time for some people to wake up and for character to step forward. When you're down two, three or four to nothing, you have to step up. Some guys we've asked to step up and it hasn't happened so changes are forthcoming. You have to play with energy. We let them control the game. We had to speed it up and no one on our side made that happen. We got hammered on the field and they should feel hammered in the locker room. They need to go inside and find their reaction and their inner core."

On offside calls: "A couple times we got called because guys were lazy coming back. A couple offsides weren't offsides - bad calls by the linesmen. A couple of them the ball was played too late. I thought we were inches off breaking them down in the first half. Then we came out and gave up the second goal seven minutes into the second half and a horrendous third goal. It's embarrassing."

On lack of offense: "Close to creating things but not creating things. We need guys that will give up their body in the box. We don't need six playmakers. We need guys who can score. We need more movement, harder running."

On loss of Osvaldo Alonso to injury: "I thought Sturgis did fine. I don't think that having Ozzy would have had an impact on the second or third goal."

On team's effort: "They have to believe in themselves and learn how to transfer that belief into effort. Not pleased with the effort when we were three goals down. Have to show character and say if we're going down, go down swinging and get a couple goals. Some had that attitude and some phoned it in."

On worst loss as Sounders FC head coach: "It is the toughest loss. Remind me to never wear a sport jacket again. It was the first time I've worn one and it will be the last time. When I was with the Galaxy, we took a few shellackings along the way. Sometimes something like this is good because when you get your rear end handed to you, people are a little more attentive to what you're telling them."

On competition for spots: "We compete for spots every week. I've given some guys a longer leash than others. That leash just tore today."

Kasey Keller

General comments: "I made a mistake and we went a goal down and we weren't able to recover from that. It's one of the tough things about goalkeeping. I thought we were doing OK. We had a goal that was called offside and it wasn't so that added to the frustration."

On team's effort in second half: "I didn't think that heads were down. Guys were disappointed, sure, but I didn't get the vibe that we were going to come out and perform the way we did."

On Galaxy's first goal: "It swirled on me, but the ball swirls every time it comes at you so there's no excuse. It moved and I didn't react in time."

On moving forward from this loss: "I hope we wake up and get better. There are some good characters on this team and I don't see any reason why we can't bounce back. I remember a year in the Premiere League when Man U lost 5-0 and came back and won the title. So it's not the end of the world."

Freddie Ljungberg

On mistakes: "We've made mistakes and we continue to make mistakes. They were constantly under attack and we made mistakes. That's something that we have to stop doing. In soccer, most goals are made on mistakes. So that's something we have to cut out to win games."

On team's effort: "In any team that will happen when the game gets that embarrassing. If it's within one point, people will still fight. But more than that, it's hard to stay engaged."

Miguel Montaņo

On how he played: "I feel really good. I went into the field with a lot of enthusiasm. I think it was noted. I feel really good. I try really hard. It was my first game in MLS and with the Sounders and I felt very good about it. I tried to do my best but of course the result didn't come with us so I hope that for next game we will do better. That was disappointing for me."

On entering game down three goals: "Yes, I knew that we were down but I still entered the field with a lot of enthusiasm and we needed a goal - attack, attack, attack. I was doing my best to do that. Now we know that we need to do it better. We need the wins and we are going to try for that."

On earning more playing time: "It's not just about the game that we had today. I know that I have to keep working day-by-day to keep earning my position and I'm going to keep working in that direction."

Los Angeles Galaxy

Bruce Arena - Galaxy Head Coach

On his team having a good game against Seattle: "The first half was pretty even. We got an important goal. The second half our team played really well."

On the Sounders plan to stop Edson Buddle: "Edson Buddle had a great game, I thought. He doesn't need to score goals all the time as a forward. He helps create goals and scoring opportunities. He held onto the ball well tonight. Landon and Edson played really well tonight by any way you evaluate performances."

On Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle playing together for the U.S. National Team: "That is not my choice. I have a different job than that."

On his team playing better than today: "This is one of those games where everything goes your way. Hopefully we are going to play better games and we will get better. We have to get better. We are only eight games and there is a lot of season left to play."

On his team's defense: "We played very well at that end of the field. Ricketts is outstanding."

Landon Donovan

On the team improving as the season progresses: "We can play better. If we were playing better later in the game we could have scored five or six goals. You never want to take your foot off the gas. If it's the other way, teams can make mistakes."

On when the team was able to take control of the match: "We know we were the better team and we wanted to be aggressive and not let them dictate the game. They had the ball in the first half and our back line did a great job. When we had chances to score, we were ruthless."

On teams focusing on stopping Edson Buddle: "Our team is really good. A lot of attention is being placed on him and everyone else is doing a lot of things right to put him in that position. Today, he did a lot of things to get other people in the right position."

On Edson Buddle proving himself to gain a spot on the U.S. National Team: "Yes, absolutely."

Edson Buddle

On creating opportunities for his teammates to score: "I knew it was going to be a physical match for myself and us. We were aware of the Sounders tendencies and it was up to me to find the runners coming through."

On having his teammates take the lead and score: "I never plan it that way. It just so happened this year I have been able to get on the score sheet early. It just so happened that guys were able to score and we had a good result here in Seattle."

On being nervous about possible call up to the National Team: "Not really. My focus is on playing here on Monday."