Galaxy’s two adds add up to a 3-2 win
It didn’t take long for Abel Xavier and Edson Buddle to make a difference for the Galaxy.
The Galaxy’s newest players combined for a go-ahead goal in the team’s 3-2 win over Real Salt Lake at the Home Depot Center. The win boosted the Galaxy (2-4-3) out of a tie with Salt Lake (0-5-6) at six points for last place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference.
The story of the night, however, was the newcomers.
Xavier sent a booming pass up field to Buddle, who ran past Salt Lake defender Ritchie Kotschau and beat goalkeeper Nick Rimando to give the Galaxy a 2-1 lead in the 25th minute.
Xavier, a veteran Portuguese defender, joined the club Wednesday on a free transfer from Middlesbrough in England. His arrival paved the way for the Galaxy to trade veteran defender Tyrone Marshall to Toronto FC for Buddle, a forward the squad hopes will help bring new life to an anemic attack.
For one match, at least, Buddle’s presence paid dividends. Along with the goal, he hit the crossbar early in the second half and had two other shots before leaving with cramps in the 62nd minute.
“I would never imagine I would get a ball from Xavier, but it feels good,” Buddle said. “Hopefully we can continue to do stuff like that, getting behind defenses and to compete for success.”
Xavier’s debut, however, was not without a hitch. The defender was out of position on several occasions and failed to stop Chris Brown as he scored Real Salt Lake’s first goal.
The Galaxy struck first when Nate Jaqua intercepted a back pass to Rimando. The Galaxy forward beat Rimando, but defender Daniel Torres booted the ball out of the mouth of the goal. Jaqua collected the rebound and scored his first goal of the season in the fourth minute.
Real Salt Lake responded moments later. Brown dribbled past Cobi Jones on the left side before splitting Xavier and Kyle Veris. Brown rifled a shot past Galaxy goalkeeper Joe Cannon to even the score at 1-1.
Later, the Galaxy’s Kyle Martino took a pass from Veris and his cross found Cobi Jones streaking up the right side in the 65th minute for what would be the winning goal.
Brown scored his second goal of the match on a header off Freddy Adu’s corner kick in the 73rd minute to narrow the lead, but the Galaxy held on,
“We didn’t give in, we kept going and in the end I think we should have scored more goals than we did, which is encouraging,” Galaxy Coach Frank Yallop said.
The Galaxy played without Landon Donovan, Ante Jazic and Kevin Harmse, who are playing in the Gold Cup, and the injured Chris Albright, Alan Gordon and Ian Russell.
