LA Galaxy outclass Sounders FC 3:1 on Donovan's return

Steve Zakuani celebrates his goal that brought Seattle back to within 2:1. Fredy Montero joins in. (Chris Coulter)

Landon Donovan is back in MLS, as if the white-hot LA Galaxy needed the boost. LA continued one of the best-ever first halves to a season on Sunday night in Carson by strolling past Seattle Sounders FC 3:1. The Galaxy have eleven wins, three draws and only one loss after fifteen matches of their 30-match 2010 MLS campaign.

AP has a scoring recap here.

The Sounders are now four wins, three draws and eight losses on the season. They remain in 7th place in the eight-team Western Conference.

It could have easily been over before the break, such was the domination by the Galaxy. In the second half Seattle brought in Nate Jaqua and Mike Seamon and the Sounders responded. It was 2:1 in the 66th when the otherwise inaffective Steve Zakuani made a nifty leftside run into the LA penalty area and beat Donovan Ricketts for Seattle's only marker. The match was later put out of reach when James Riley deflected a turf-hugging cross backwards past Kasey Keller for an own goal and a 3:1 Galaxy final.

“We got beat by a better team, simple as that, nothing more," said Kasey Keller after the loss. "That is what we need to strive to do, bring that energy, bring that ability. The only positive thing that we can take out of this game is that somehow we weren’t down five-nil and that we didn’t lose this game five-nil and that is what I am taking out of it. We found a way to keep the score respectable and now we need to figure out the rest. We are not at the level we need to be at and obviously we need to improve drastically.”

The two sides will meet again on Wednesday at Starfire in the US Open Cup.

More post-match quotes

Sigi Schmid – Sounders FC Head Coach
(On the match . . .) “LA was better than us. We were lucky to be able to go in halftime down only one nothing. I thought they outplayed us in the first half really well. Our second half was better. We played with more energy. Obviously they started off the second half with a great goal. There were a couple of instances before the goal where we could have pressured the ball and didn’t. I think that was the story of the night for us. We didn’t get enough pressure on to them, defensively, early enough.”

(On the result . . .) “It’s obviously disappointing. We have to play with energy and I think we got over run. They were active with moving around in midfield and we never got tight enough to anybody. If you give a player enough time and space he will show you how good a player he is. We didn’t even give them anything to deal with at times. There were times guys had ten yards of space when they received the ball. And if you got that much space as a professional, you should be able to connect passes. It was really our defending that set it up. Then offensively, on the occasion we could run the ball we were so tired from chasing and defending we didn’t keep it. Then we had to chase and defend more. In the second half, we got tighter and we created some turnovers and when we got the ball where we were able to hold on to it. We weren’t spending as much time chasing it. And you know, we had a couple of chances and then we got the goal. [Mike] Seamon was in with a good chance. [Freddie] Ljungberg was in with a good chance. By that time, it was a too little too late.”

(On Steve Zakuani’s goal . . .) “It was good. Obviously we got into the game at 2-1 at that point. They made a mistake in the back and we gave a third one up. It was a good goal. It was a good ball by [Fredy] Montero through to him. And Steve finished it well.”

Mike Seamon gave Seattle some punch in midfield inthe second half. (Chris Coulter)

Steve Zakuani – Sounders FC Midfielder
(On his goal . . .) “When you score with fifty minutes to go and your one down it gives the team belief and I think we got depth. We got a good chance and [Donovan] Ricketts makes the save and unfortunately we weren’t able to capitalize and they came out and got a third goal and that was the game for us. It definitely came at a good time and I felt like we could have pushed on it and maybe get the equalizer and it wasn’t to be tonight.”

(On the Galaxy’s performance . . .)“I think when you’re playing against the team who is leading the league away from home, they are at home, and they got two guys who are coming from the World Cup who are key players they are going to be pumped up. You can see even the fans were screaming and yelling every time they touched the ball. They came out with energy, credit to them. They came out the first forty-five minutes they were playing some great stuff and made some great movements. For us at halftime we were one-nil down and we actually had some good chances in the first half. It could have been one to one. As well as they played they scored one. We came out in the second half to stay in the game. I think the second half was more even both teams attacked a bit more but the only thing that is important is that we made more mistakes than them. They took their chances and did make as many mistakes and that was the difference.”