The LA Galaxy secured a key win over Toronto FC on Saturday night on its home fields at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. The Galaxy notched its first victory over the Canadian team since 2009 to claim its spot in the MLS Cup playoffs, climb to second place in the Western Conference, and bring its winning streak to 4 straight league victories.
The Southern California team took the field without star player, David Beckham, who has been out with an ankle injury for the past three weeks, while the Canadian team was missing three of their headline players — Danny Koevermans, Torsten Frings, and Eric Hassli – also out for injury.
The LA Galaxy dominated from minute one. Juninho continued his spectacular play, catapulting the team to a 2-0 lead, first with a freekick at 11 minutes and later with a 32-yard shot that found the net via the upper left hand corner of the box. Robbie Keane added to the lead off assists from Landon Donovan and Mike Magee. Toronto did get on the board, though, when Terry Dunfield’s header sailed past Galaxy goalkeeper, Josh Saunders, ending his 491-minute shutout streak.
After an on-field collision, center back Richard Eckersley had to leave the field for Toronto, who went into the half trailing 1-3.
Toronto rallied in the second half, when Luis Silva scored in the 86th minute, but a second goal from Keane gave the Galaxy the decisive 4-2 win.
“I lose one of my best players at halftime, and you’ve got to regroup and put young players in positions they’re not particularly familiar with,” said TFC coach, Paul Mariner, “My hats off to the lads, coming back 3-2 to the Galaxy is good, but at the end of the day we’ve lost.”
Galaxy coach, Bruce Arena also commended the Toronto FC. “Tonight in my view was not a complete performance . . . we were a little bit sloppy, but Toronto played real hard, came after us for 90 minutes. … I think we’re a little sharper today, it’s a game we win going away, but we weren’t. I think you have to attribute a lot of that to Toronto. Their effort on the night was fabulous.”
Galaxy faces the Colorado Rapids next Sunday in Colorado, while Toronto FC travels to El Salvador to play in the CONCACAF Champions League against CD Aguila.
Photo Gallery by Jakob Colombo
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