With Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz called away to national team duty and Alan Gordon sitting out a red-card suspension, the Los Angeles Galaxy offense needed someone to step up and carry the load Saturday night against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Enter Edson Buddle, scoring his second hat trick of the season to lead LA to a 3-0 road win at McAfee Coliseum.
"We have a lot of quality players on this team and we are capable of playing like this every week. I got some great service tonight and I was able to finish," Buddle said after the game. "I have been working hard in training and just getting a lot of repetitions in. The balls that I get in training and in the game are on time and if I time my runs well I will have opportunities."
Saturday night, Buddle made the most of those opportunities. In the sixth minute, David Beckham served up a cross to Josh Tudela in front of the goal. Tudela headed the ball down to Buddle at the top of the box, and Buddle slammed a volley past a diving Joe Cannon for a 1-0 lead.
Buddle scored again in the 63rd minute. Ely Allen played the ball into the left-wing corner for Ante Jazic. He whipped in a cross to Buddle, who headed it home from 10 yards out.
In the 68th minute, it was an almost instant replay for LA. Jazic played the ball to an overlapping Mike Randolph down the wing. Randolph's cross found Buddle, again about 10 yards in front of goal. Buddle's leaping header finished his hat trick, and the game's scoring.
Buddle earlier had netted three goals in a game this season against Dallas in a 5-1 win on May 18. He nearly had a fourth goal in the 86th minute when he broke in a lone on the goalkeeper, but he fired just wide of the far post. Buddle is now the second leading scorer (after Landon Donovan) in MLS with eight goals.
"Of course I'm happy, but (the win) doesn't just come by itself," LA head coach Ruud Gullit said. "I think it was a team effort. We practiced all week on certain things, and of course I'm happy with the development of Edson Buddle.
"We worked very hard with certain individuals. I think the best example of improvement would be the third goal, how Mike Randolph crossed the ball. We practiced a lot on that," Gullit continued.
Said David Beckham: "Edson's finishing tonight showed what a quality player he is and what he can do. Edson is a player that is getting better all the time. He is a hard worker. He proved tonight how good he is and he proves it in training every day. He is scoring goals and creating opportunities. He is a handful to play against."
For the Galaxy, the win was their fourth in the last five games, and puts them atop the MLS Western Conference with 20 points. They return home to face the Columbus Crew next Saturday.
"We showed togetherness tonight. We were missing quite a few players due to national team duty, as well as suspension and injury, so we came together as a team," Beckham said.
Just ask San Jose.
Pete Ratajczak is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
