BY ADAM SERRANO
A Landon Donovan goal in stoppage time was decisive as the Los Angeles Galaxy were able to salvage a 2-2 draw against their California rivals, the San Jose Earthquakes at the Home Depot Center.
The Earthquakes were unable to hold a pair of leads in the first and second halves as the Galaxy battled back twice to get the draw, thanks to goals by Edson Buddle and Donovan. Los Angeles was the aggressor throughout the night and with more late heroics from Donovan, the Galaxy were able to maintain their undefeated record at home.
"For whatever reason, we came out and were sloppy for the first couple of minutes. We positioned ourselves to chase the game," said Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena. "I don’t like coming away with just a point at home, but given the circumstances and how we had to scrap to get that point at home, I can’t complain."
The Galaxy made a number of key changes to their starting line up with Dema Kovalenko and Leonardo replacing veterans Chris Birchall and Gregg Berhalter. Initially, it appeared that the Galaxy were missing their veterans as the Earthquakes early when Bobby Convey scored n the second minute off a poor clearance by Galaxy defender Leonardo.
As the match wore on the Galaxy looked the dominant side, even after Edson Buddle equalized in the 52nd, only for Earthquakes midfielder Brandon McDonald to pull the Quakes ahead again. Los Angeles pressured the visitors all night, peppering San Jose's net with 22 shots on goal compared to seven and earning ten corners to San Jose's one.
"We were the better team and we created a lot more chances. Getting scored on early was difficult to come back from, but we did a good job and you had to think if anyone was going to win it had to be us," said Donovan. "Our resiliency was good, it was a good test for us, something we haven't dealt with all season and we can’t really be mad because we played well and just had a few mistakes.”
For the Earthquakes, the club put in what may have been their best performance on the road against Los Angeles since their victory in 2001. After getting the early goal from Convey in the second minute of the match, the Earthquakes allowed Los Angeles to control the run of play, but were able to pressure the Galaxy into making several turnovers. With a stingy defense and a dangerous counter attack, Head Coach Frank Yallop was optimistic about the maturation of his club.
“I have loosened my reigns a little bit on the team and let them express themselves a little more and I think it has worked," said Yallop. "I wanted to make sure this season that we are difficult to beat and we have proved that and I think now we have only lost four games out of fifteen."
The Quakes best asset on the night was the play of the mercurial Convey who terrorized the Galaxy all night down the wings. The winger who has impressed recently — even earning an All-Star nomination– played with a great deal of confidence against the formidable Galaxy defense.
"Getting an early goal helped us and gave us a positive outlook especially seeing that it came on the road," said Convey. "We've been played very well on the road this year and have pressured a lot of teams, I feel that we showed today that we can play with any team in MLS."
San Jose is now 6-4-5 with 25 points on the season which places them in 5th place in the Western Conference. The record is nine points better than the club was at this point last season.
The Galaxy (12-2-4, 40pts) will now look ahead to their CONCACAF Champions League Play-In match against the Puerto Rico Islanders on Tuesday as the club prepares for a stretch of five games in 17 days. After the match basking in the glow of yet another late match goal. Donovan was candid about what memories that the goal stirred in him.
"Twenty minutes after I scored the goal, I thought Algeria."
PC: “Intentional” IS the rule when it comes to hand balls. Read the Laws of the Game.
Nice =]
He wasn’t stretched out wide. His arm was by his side and the ball hit the underside of the crossbar and came down and hit his hand.
I did, I don’t think 10x better.
On know your memory is on point
My 4’4′ make sure all y’all kids don’t grow!
Try coming in from Banning… But, alas, I’ll be there Tuesday night too! Go Galaxy
aaaa, ummmm, that would be LOUD… not LOUT…
San Jose is overated. Their just a bunch of cocky bastards.
due, i,ve been a sth since 2001 so i didn’t just show up. if you’re a happy camper w/ what has been put up as a “team” then you really have LOW expectations! i’m aware that we’re not going to compete w/ la, ny, chi, seattle(as far as money). it’s cool w/ me. just don’t feed us S*** and tell us it’s caviar. call bs when it is, that’s all. you’re probably still happy just having the team back. 3 yrs. of mediocre players is enough. i think we must be the only team in the league that has nothing but def. midfielders ONLY in the center of the field, no attacking power from anywhere but our wings. whatever, i could go on & on all day.
I wonder how many of you all understand that Convey suffered a “close to career ending” knee injury at Reading two years ago. I also wonder how many of you have ever suffered a knee injury of that proportion? It takes months to heal the injury but MANY months afterwards to get past the mental side of the recovery. Convey did not suffer a loss of form, he was recovering from the kind of injury that lessor men never recover from.
That being said, and as a Galaxy HONK, I can tell you that the goal in the 2nd minute was garbage but that’s the way the game goes. The manner in which my boys recovered and played from behind, twice, further testifies to the quality of the LAG team…
Finally, Fakerquakerland, you can blame the Donovan goal on fate and the idiot FAKERQUAKER woman fan sitting just over my right shoulder in section 136 for verbalizing her stupidity about the game by saying, OUT LOUT, at 89:15 “blow the whistle”… Are you kidding me? The game had not even reached 90 minutes and she was asking for the whistle?
Not only did you NOT deserve that win, San Jose, but be sure to NOT send your morons to HDC in the future…
what are you talking about, did you watch the game? the galaxy were in control the entire time except the beginning of the 1st half. we should have won by 2 or 3 goals. SJ will not even make the playoffs more than likely!
You think that this team is good enough to make it to the playoffs my friend you are in for a serious let down. That is talentless team and until they get some quality they aren’t going to win anything and they will not draw the crowds that they are capable of. The Bay Area is one of the largest “soocer hot beds” in our country. If there was a quality product, San Jose would draw as much as Seattle does. Face it, it’s a Shite product with third rate players. Bobby Convey is our best player and on any decent team he would be an average player at best. I for one am not going to spend my money on it. Put a quality product on the field and they will sell out games every time they step on the pitch. I for one am done with them until I deem them worhty of my dime. They SUCKED last night and I can’t see it getting any better. I am amazed they are mid-table….goes to show how good the league is top to bottom.
Donovan and Buddle play so well together! It is such a shame that Bradley chose to go with Altidore instead of Buddle at the world cup. Those two could have had some real success in South Africa.
Jon Busch SUCKS!!!! BRING BACK JOE CANNON !!!!!!!!
Who was Donovan (“el colibrito”) pointing at after he scored his goal? Taunting the ref, Marrufo?
We go from last place to mid table in one season and you are threatening to boycott the team? Some supporter you are! What a joke. Goodbye and good riddance we don’t need you or want you.
If by “defensive error” you mean “hero” Landon Donovan leaving Bobby Convey wide open in the box in the 2nd minute. LOL!
Intentional isn’t the rule. He was in a non-soccer position “stretched out wide” and it prevented the ball from crossing the line.
It looked like he swung at the ball to me.
I don’t think you can call Convey for handball in that situation. It was not intentional — he never saw it.
I thought Convey did well — he looked like the old Convey. Plenty of pace, good passing, direct running.
My biggest takeaway was not Convey’s play but LA’s. I was surprised at how much better LA was. They were dominating. They have a great GK, solid defense, and an impressive attack. They will be hard to beat all year.
yes 10X’s better… whatch the last 40min of last night’s match
Bobby Convey was INSIDE the goal line when he headed the ball upward onto the crossbar and then down OFF his hand and out. WOW, what a save. Maybe the MLS will adopt the trial of UEFA of officials behind the net next year, or better yet allow camera technology. Soccer is getting a bad name for the obvious, bad, and missed calls.
As a former longtime resident of LA, the Southbay, (Torrance,Carson,Long Beach) and Orange Co.,I can see why it is difficult to even get to a game starting at 7:30pm. At rush hour it pretty much takes you an hour to get from LAX to 605/5 interchange a total of 13 miles. If you are coming from the Valley or S. Orange Co. make it two hours.
If the East Coast wants to see the west coast teams, they pretty much have to wait for 10pm. But at least they wont have to sit in traffic for two hours!!
10x better than Altidore’s?
Edit: On the first goal, I believe it was a clearance by Franklin that Convey scored from. It was hardly a bad clearance though, Franklin did a great job to prevent Wondolowski from tapping in a rebound off of Glen’s shot.
I agree with this one excep I wasn’t laughing i was crying. Arty has some great skills, pace and a really good shot. But no idea whatsover that this is a team game. He could be so much more effective if he got others involved. Everyone knows he is going to try and dribble everyone and set himself up for a shot. He was directly responsible for one of the goals. DUH let’s hit a onetimer with the outside of the left across the field in our own third. Really thought that one out.
Dude…does your Shite stink? Maybe you should be the next U.S. gaffer!
*not responding to aiden*
Did anyone else think it was funny how Alvarez thought because he wears the #10 on his back all of a sudden he can play like Messi??? I was laughing everytime he had the ball. I guess when you are the star of El Salvador you have to show off that flair.
Ok, every post so far has proven to me that you guys just don’t know soccer.. Bowen is nasty. I watched very closely from the time he came on: His first touch is 10 times better than Altidore’s, he’s fast and strong, and he has some swagger and skill and was always hustling to get to the through ball on the right side. If Arene grooms this guy, he will be a force… I’d love to see him in Europe where his skill will actually be appreciated.
Traffic in LA is awful on a weekday. If the game wasn’t at 7:30 PST I would not have made it to the match, many more would be in the same boat.
You must be on crack. You really believe that the Galaxy would lose to the Earthquakes in a playoff scenario. Good luck with that champ. It is funny how they get a tie and all of a sudden Quake fans think they are the Western Conference Champions. Don’t forget this stat 22 shots compared to 7, the Quakes won’t be so lucky next time that the Galaxy couldn’t finish thier chances.
someone get juninho a us passport!
Yeah, goals are crap. When you don’t hit the ball into the net off of some golazo it shouldn’t count. Only idiots would think this was a good game/goal. Donovan sucks. Blah, blah, blah blah.
Gotta love a hater. They’re so predictable.
MLS isn’t going to only give East Coast teams Thursday night games. And they aren’t gonna start games so early that local fans can’t get there in time (although I imagine this game would have been slightly earlier if not for the RBNY game). Every league in the US has this problem.
tivo? so he has to avoid reading the internet all day until he gets home from work? not really a viable solution.
Look, I’m not saying he was watertight and that he made passes that were outstanding, but I think he did a decent job. Is it his usual quality? No. I also don’t think he is the answer for the Nats on the back line immediately but I think by the next cycle he will have solidified a spot on the roster, and possibly on the pitch.
very well said. i am a sth but its getting very hard to keep supporting such a bland product put together after 3yrs. we’re an avg. team!!hurray!! almost all the mls teams are upgrading but we were told by doyle that we have a team good enough to win the cup this year! we(fans) must really be F***ing stupid to just believe that. we have an owner who gives 3 s*** and won’t spend for any reason, so we are left w/ a team of “hard” workers. little by little those days are ending in mls. we were owned last night, and only got lucky to come out w/ a point. lucky for us quakes fans yallop has loosened the reins…hahaha!
He did do that, but seriously, we’re going to judge him on passing the ball out of bounds? No other soccer player has ever done that.
TIVO!
I thought i remembered him passing the ball straight out of bounds in the back when he had plenty of time.
I did not think Gonzalez looked good at all. His distribution was terrible. As one example, shortly after the second San Jose goal, Gonzalez tried to switch the point of attack and completely missed his mark by 20 yard as the ball blistered past the touch line. Further, he looked a step slow all night. But, the important thing is that Gonzalez is usually solid and so when he’s not, it’s pretty glaring.
Glad I missed a great game. Keep scheduling nationally televised games at 10:30 pm on the east coast on a week night MLS. Great job.
Long time Quakes fan…back form the 70’s and this Quakes team may be one of the worst ever assembled (aside from the Kraft ownership days) I do not know how they are mid table. Yallop has loosened the reins? WTF? There is no cohesion on the field whatsoever. They have no “system” of play, it just seems like a bunch of individuals playing kickball. I do not get the Opara hype. Our forwards are a joke, Glen, Sealy are both useless. Alvarez thinks he is a one man show. The guy is talented but doesn’t grasp the team concept. Nice cross field pass in our third of the field with the outside of the left Arty! Goal Galaxy because of that one. I can’t remember them stringing more than 4 passes in a row at any time. They play slow when they should play fast and when they should slow it down and maintain possesion they hoof it aimlessly. They are lucky to have gotten a point out of that match. They should have been trounced. Galaxy had to have 80% of the possession. Convey an all star? That is charity. And this is why I do not spend my money to support this team. No quality at all.
Glen was behind him offside all night. From what I saw he had one glaring miscue and that was the missed clearance that led to the second goal. I thought he actually passed the ball pretty well. He and Leonardo seemed to settle down after that early goal.
“Gonzalez both looked solid.”
Errrrrrr….. by “solid”, I hope you mean “tall”, because that’s all he brought yesterday.
His passing was terrible, Glen was behind he and Leonardo ALL night, and he was non-existent on set pieces.
I’d hoped last night’s game would calm the “he needs to start for the national team nooooooooooow” geniuses, but I fear that isn’t so.
I think he’ll be a solid centerback in a few years, but if he’s on the field against Brazil, the US is going to get worked.
Opara and Gonzalez both looked solid. I was looking forward to this match to watch those two in action. Those two are the future. Brandon McDonald looked solid as well.
Hopefully Convey will keep up his form. He lost his form for a while but looks to be back at it with the Quakes. He most definitely deserved the All-Star callup and too bad it had to actually be a replacement callup as he more then earned a spot. If he keeps it up, maybe he can get that USMNT call-up again someday and at least be of help as he is one of very few natural left footed wingers.
Also, I was surprised at how much the Galaxy dominated and still came out with a draw. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an MLS team have such good possession. Usually, I see MLS teams just battling it out for jump balls and the ball not really be dominated by one team nor the other. This was a good clinic by the Galaxy. Too bad it still was only a draw they had to come back from.
No, what’s crap is Bobby Convey’s handball inside the goal not getting called. That’s what’s crap.
And Convey a terror the whole game? He was completely missing the entire second half.
The Galaxy completely dominated. The Quakes are the lucky ones. They get the ball inside the 18 twice the entire game and capitalize on 2 defensive errors by the Galaxy.
Donovan’s equalizer was crap. I dont know how Busch didn’t save the initial shot by Bowen. He had played so well and denied shots much harder to handle than the one he gave away in the 90th minute. If you’re an LA fan, you have to feel lucky that you stole that point, but it wont matter since you’ll lose to the earthquakes in the playoffs.
was a great game for sure. convey deserves to be an all star.
also, fourth paragraph: …their veterans as the Earthquakes struck in the second minute when Bobby Convey struck in the sixth minute off a poor clearance by Galaxy defender Leonardo.