The Los Angeles Galaxy earned their first reserve division victory of the season Sunday with a convincing 3-0 win over the Columbus Crew.
Joseph Ngwenya recorded a goal and an assist in the first half for L.A., and Josh Gardner put the finishing touches on the victory with a brilliant strike in the second half to give the Galaxy the 3-0 win.
The Galaxy got on the board first in the 33rd minute when Ngwenya ran onto a through pass on the right side. Ngwenya dribbled toward the middle of the field and once in the Crew penalty area dished off to a wide-open Memo Gonzalez, who easily slipped the ball past the Crew goalkeeper and into the net for a 1-0 lead.
Just a minute later, Ngwenya scored off a fine build-up started by Herculez Gomez, who passed the ball up to Michael Enfield. Enfield sent the ball through to an on-rushing Ngwenya. With just the goalkeeper to beat, Ngwenya easily powered the ball into the net for a 2-0 advantage.
The Galaxy added to its lead in the second half in the 65th minute, as guest player Ahmed Kahalil settled a long-ball on the left side and then dished off to an overlapping Gardner. A hard charging Gardner moved with the ball into the box and unleashed a wicked blast that soared over the goalkeeper and into the upper part of the goal to give Los Angeles an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
Los Angeles - GK Steve Cronin, D Kyle Veris, D Nathan Sturgis, D Brian Dunseth, D Marc Burch, M Marcelo Saragosa, M Memo Gonzalez, M Mike Enfield, M Herculez Gomez, F Josh Gardner, F Joe Ngwenya (Ahmed Khalil 46)
Columbus - GK Andy Gruenebaum, D Tim Ward (Seung Meang 76), D Ritchie Kotschau (Jake Traeger 52), Ivan Becerra, M Chris Leitch (Kevin Nugent 66), M Duke Hashimoto, M Milton Blanco (Eric Vasquez 46), M Dayton O'Brien, F Knox Cameron, F John Wolyniec, F Jason Gary
Cautions - CLB: Kotschau 28; LA: Veris 15, Burch 49
Goals
LA: Gonzalez (Ngwenya) 33
Ngwenya (Enfield, Gomez) 34
Gardner (Khalil) 65
