SEATTLE — Forget the power outage. The LA Galaxy brought all the electricity needed at CenturyLink Field.
Gyasi Zardes, Landon Donovan and Stefan Ishizaki all scored goals in the first half for the visiting Galaxy, who vaulted into third place in the Western Conference with a 3-0 romp over the Seattle Sounders in a rare Monday night MLS matchup.
The win was the fourth in the past six MLS games for the Galaxy (8-4-6), now undefeated against the Sounders in their past four matchups (2-0-2).
All-Star center back Chad Marshall was a late and costly scratch for the Sounders (12-5-2), who suffered their worst home loss of the season after falling behind less than 10 minutes into the match.
LA got on the scoreboard in the eighth minute after Donovan and Zardes managed to free themselves behind the Seattle defense. Zardes was able to boot Donovan’s cross past Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei to put the Sounders in the early hole.
The Galaxy managed to extend the lead in the 18th minute after midfielder Marcelo Sarvas blasted a shot that defected off Frei and landed directly in front of a wide-open Donovan, who cashed the rebound into the net, stunning the normally raucous CenturyLink Field crowd.
Ishizaki added the exclamation point, slamming home a feed from Sarvas after finding himself isolated on the right side of the Seattle defense, pushing the margin to a 3-0 halftime lead that would ultimately hold up as the final score.
LA created 11 chances on goal in the first half to Seattle’s three, and eventually forced Frei into seven saves before the game was over to keep the scoreline from ballooning even more.
Seattle showed slightly more life offensive in the second half, managing to generate a few looks on LA goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, but none that led to a momentum-shifting goal. Forward Obafemi Martins was held without a shot on goal in the match, and Clint Dempsey managed just two shots on goal and never seriously threatened to crack an LA defense that featured center back Omar Gonzalez for the first time since the World Cup.
Gonzalez was issued a yellow card in the third minute of first-half stoppage time for an altercation with fellow US national team defender and Sounders youngster DeAndre Yedlin, which also led to a shoving match between Gonzalez and USMNT captain Dempsey before the situation cooled.
Marshall, meanwhile, was held out of the match due to back spasms after he was involved in a car accident on Saturday.
The contest also featured a bizarre beginning after a power outage caused the stadium lights at CenturyLink Field to go out. The teams played a good portion of the first half in dark conditions before the lights gradually came back on for the duration of the game.
MLSsoccer.com Men of the Match
Rank |
Player |
What We Saw |
1 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/marcelo-sarvas" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12px;">Marcelo Sarvas</span></a> |
<p>Bossed the midfield all night for LA, who controlled the game for much of the first 60-70 minutes. And he made it look easy.</p> |
2 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/landon-donovan" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Landon Donovan</span></a> |
One goal, two assists and a pesky yellow card. LD had some fun tonight, and it showed. |
3 |
<a href="//www.mlssoccer.com/players/dan-gargan" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:12px;">Dan Gargan</span></a> |
Could have gone to to <span class="nodelay pi-target" data-reactid=".hj9pg584xs.9.1.0.3.$timeline.1.3.0.0.1:$bx-goals.1.0.$goal-153560072.2.0">Stefan Ishizaki too, but give </span>it up for the working man. Solid all night. |
