Galaxy wastes no time in win
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Less than a minute before the start of Saturday night’s Galaxy game, Cobi Jones wandered over to the Philadelphia bench and exchanged hugs and pleasantries with Union Coach Peter Nowak.
Less than a minute into the game, which Los Angeles won, 3-1, the Galaxy’s assistant coach was smiling even wider and Nowak wasn’t smiling at all.
It was easy to see why.
A pass from Los Angeles rookie Michael Stephens sprang Edson Buddle free down the left. Buddle sent a perfect cross to the far post, where overlapping fullback A.J. DeLaGarza sprinted in and hammered the ball into the roof of the net.
The goal took all of 53 seconds — hardly enough time for Jones and Nowak to have retaken their seats.
DeLaGarza had promised on Friday that he would score against Philadelphia goalkeeper Chris Seitz, his former teammate at the University of Maryland.
“I already told Seitz I’m saving my first goal of the year for him,” DeLaGarza said.
It was the second-fastest goal in the Galaxy’s 15-year history and the fastest ever given up in expansion Philadelphia’s five-game history.
The only player to score a quicker goal for Los Angeles was Clint Mathis, who banged one in against the Kansas City Wizards 33 seconds into a 2-1 Galaxy home win on July 25, 1999.
Mathis, incidentally, was on the Galaxy bench Saturday night as an available substitute after recovering from surgery on his left knee.
The first-minute strike was also the Galaxy’s eighth goal of the season and the first that was not scored by Buddle. The high-flying forward, who leads all Major League Soccer goal scorers, was not long in making up for that, however.
In the 27th minute, Landon Donovan swung a corner kick across from the right and Alan Gordon threw himself full-length at the ball. His diving header was blocked on the line by Seitz, but the ball rolled free and while the Union defenders scrambled to clear it, Buddle first tried a back-heel that was blocked and then fired the rebound into the net.
It was Buddle’s eighth goal in six games, and he continues to make a case for himself being called into the U.S. national team’s pre-World Cup camp this month.
That case was strengthened in the final minute of the half when Donovan and Buddle set off on a fast break, with Donovan passing to Buddle and Buddle sticking the ball past Seitz to make it 3-0.
Philadelphia’s woes increased just before the halftime whistle when Stefanie Miglioranzi was ejected by referee Yader Reyes for a studs-up, two-footed tackle.
Playing against 10 men, the Galaxy took it easy in the second 45 minutes, more or less content to sit on its lead.
The only worthwhile note came in the 70th minute when Mathis was sent into the match. It was his 250th MLS regular-season game and his first for the Galaxy since May 6, 2000. He won an MLS title with Real Salt Lake last season and before that had also played in Greece and with New York.
The Galaxy lost the shutout in the 84th minute when Omar Gonzalez lost possession while trying to dribble past a Union player. The ball ended up with Jack McInerney, whose shot from close range beat goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.
The victory lifted the Galaxy’s record 5-0-1, best in MLS. Philadelphia is 1-4-0.
