CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy's runaway triumph over the New York Red Bulls maybe doesn't happen if Jaime Penedo isn't quick off his line to deny Bradley Wright-Phillips in a pair of one-on-one situations before halftime.
The Panamanian goalkeeper made three huge saves Sunday – snuffing Wright-Phillips in the 15th and 31st minutes and on an acrobatic stop on Eric Alexander just before the break – to keep the Galaxy in charge before they pulled away to a 4-0 romp with three second-half goals.
It was testament to the work Penedo has done over the summer to climb among MLS's elite goalkeepers, and he and LA (16-5-9) have reaped the rewards in recent weeks with an nine-game unbeaten streak, leaving them even on points with Seattle atop the Western Conference and Supporters' Shield tables heading into Saturday's home game against Toronto FC (10:30 pm ET; MLS Live, TSN).
“Often there's a transition period for players,” said head coach Bruce Arena, who brought Penedo to the Galaxy nearly 16 months ago. “Some come sooner than others, and I think Jaime really needed a full year to get acclimated to this club, to this league, this environment, and he has. He understands the game and the league better now; he understands his responsibilities."
Arena credited the work goalkeeper coach Matt Reis put in with Penedo.
“There's some technical issues he needed resolved, some tactical issues, and they've worked real hard to get it better,” Arena said. “And he's improving. I think we've seen over the last couple of months that he's an improved goalkeeper.”
Penedo, 33, has been even better since returning from Panama's third-place finish at the Copa Centroamericana with a sparkling performance in LA's victory over FC Dallas a week before the win over the Red Bulls.
“It's always good to get away for awhile,” Reis said. “It gives you a little bit of perspective, [and] being around his countrymen, I think he got a little taste of home-cooking. So he came back refreshed and focused.”
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He was critical in Sunday's victory, preventing the Red Bulls from answering Robbie Keane's eighth-minute opener and then pulling ahead. And the most telling stops were the ones on Wright-Phillips, who leads MLS's Golden Boot race with 24 goals.
Penedo was on top of Wright-Phillips as soon as he collected through balls, first from Thierry Henry and then from Peguy Luyindula, making a body save in the 15th and swallowing up the ball in the 31st.
“It's always complicated on those plays. You have to be lucky when you're a 'keeper,” Penedo said through a translator. “I feel like on those on-on-ones, it's 50-50: 50 percent chance for the 'keeper, 50 percent chance for the forward. But sometimes the goalkeeper has the better opportunity to stop those plays.”
Penedo's efforts weren't lost on his teammates.
“Against all the other goalies, [Wright-Phillips] scored those goals,” Landon Donovan said. “Jaime did a great job; he came up big when we needed him. We don't often need him to make many saves because our defense does such a great job, but we needed him [against New York], and he was excellent.”
