The Official Site of Landon Donovan

Mon, May 4th 2009, 14:22

Landon's PK gives galaxy their first win

It took five games, with four of those ending in frustrating ties, before the Los Angeles Galaxy finally enjoyed the satisfaction of their first victory of the season.

They had come from behind in four of their previous games, but they didn’t need any of those heroics on Saturday at The Home Depot Center. Perhaps it took a lowly opponent like the New York Red Bulls, who came in with 1-4-2 record, but the Galaxy weren’t about to be choosy for someone to pick on. Landon Donovan scored on a penalty kick in the 39th minute and the defense made it stand up in a 1-0 victory.

Los Angeles (1-1-4), which hadn’t beaten the Red Bulls at home in almost three years but had a 7-4-3 record all-time against New York in southern California, came out the aggressors and clearly had the upper hand for most of the game.

It didn’t even take them a minute to get a good chance when veteran midfielder Chris Klein, honored before the match for playing in his 300th career MLS game — seventh all-time in the MLS career record books — sent in a cross to Donovan right in front of the net that just missed connecting.

Klein was at it again a minute later, this time on the receiving end of a long pass from defender Gregg Berhalter. Klein was in great position at the goal area, but Berhalter’s pass took a big bounce and went over Klein’s head over the end line and out of play.

The Red Bulls, winless on the road this season (0-4-1), didn’t even attempt their first shot until 14 minutes in by Alfredo Pacheco, whose 30-yard attempt easily was stopped by Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, and the Galaxy were at it again on the offensive end moments later.

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