LA Galaxy Earn 3-2 Road Win Over San Jose Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium on Saturday Night
September 25, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – LA Galaxy News Release
STANFORD, Calif. – With two matches remaining in the 2022 MLS Regular Season, the LA Galaxy earned a 3-2 road win over the San Jose Earthquakes in front of 44,200 fans at Stanford Stadium on Saturday night. Javier “Chicharito” Hernández tallied a brace and Gastón Brugman scored for the second straight game as the Galaxy earned their first win over the Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium in over eight years.
LA Galaxy Run Of Form
In their last nine matches played dating back to Aug. 13, the Galaxy hold a record of 4-1-4, outscoring the opposition 22-17 during that span. LA holds a record of 2-1-2 in its last five road matches played dating back to Aug. 28. With the win over San Jose, the Galaxy (13-12-7, 46 points, +5 GD) moved up to fifth place in the Western Conference standings, one point behind fourth-place Nashville SC (12-9-11, 47 points, +11 GD).
Chicharito Movin’ On Up
With his two-goal performance against San Jose, Chicharito moved past Mauricio Cienfuegos into seventh place on the Galaxy’s all-time goal-scoring chart with 36 goals in 63 regular-season appearances. Notably, Chicharito has tallied 10 goals in his last 10 games played dating back to Aug. 6, ranking second in the league behind only Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar (11 goals) during that span. In 30 appearances (29 starts) in league play this season, Chicharito has tallied a team-leading 17 goals and two assists.
LA Galaxy Against San Jose Earthquakes
Saturday’s match marked the 112th edition across all competitions of the California Clásico between the Galaxy and the Earthquakes, with LA leading the all-time series 44-33-35. The victory marked LA’s first win over the Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium since a 1-0 win over San Jose on June 28, 2014. In eight all-time matches played against the Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium, the Galaxy hold a 2-5-1 record.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Chicharito (Julián Araujo, Mark Delgado), 12th minute: Attacking down the right flank, Julián Araujo delivered a low cross toward the center of the penalty area to Chicharito, who took a touch around his marker and fired his left-footed shot into the far corner of the goal.
LA – Gastón Brugman (Mark Delgado), 42nd minute: Mark Delgado fed the ball to Gastón Brugman, whose shot from outside the 18-yard box was rifled in off the underside of the crossbar.
LA – Chicharito (Efraín Álvarez), 69th minute: Working just outside the 18-yard box, Efraín Álvarez slipped a pass to Chicharito, whose shot from the right side of the penalty area was tucked away at the far corner of the goal.
SJ – Cristian Espinoza (Penalty Kick), 74th minute: Cristian Espinoza fired his penalty-kick attempt into the right side of the goal.
SJ – Nathan (Miguel Trauco, Cristian Espinoza), 90+4th minute: Cristian Espinoza’s corner-kick delivery was flicked on by Miguel Trauco to Nathan, whose header was deflected past LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Bond from close range.
Postgame Notes
Following the win over San Jose, the LA Galaxy (13-12-7, 46 points) moved up to fifth place in the Western Conference standings, one point behind fourth-place Nashville SC (12-9-11, 47 points).
Saturday’s match marked the 112th edition across all competitions of the California Clásico between the Galaxy and the Earthquakes, with LA leading the all-time series 44-33-35.
The Galaxy improved to 35-28-16 in 79 all-time regular-season matches against San Jose, while holding a 4-1-1 record in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and a 5-4-1 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs against the Earthquakes.
The Galaxy improved to 6-7-4 in 17 matches played on the road across all competitions this season.
LA improved to 12-1-4 this season when scoring the first goal of the match.
In their last nine matches played dating back to Aug. 13, the Galaxy hold a record of 4-1-4, outscoring the opposition 22-17 during that span.
LA holds a record a 2-1-2 in its last five road matches played dating back to Aug. 28.
The victory marked LA’s first win over the Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium dating back to a 1-0 win over San Jose on June 28, 2014.
In eight matches played against the Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium, the Galaxy hold a 2-5-1 record.
The Galaxy improved to 2-1-2 in five matches played during the month of September this season.
With his goal scored against San Jose, Gastón Brugman has tallied three goals in his last two games played dating back to Sept. 17.
With his two-goal performance against San Jose, Chicharito moved past Mauricio Cienfuegos into seventh place on the Galaxy’s all-time goal-scoring chart with 36 goals in 63 regular-season appearances.
In his last 10 games played dating back to Aug. 6, Chicharito has tallied 10 goals, which ranks second in the league behind only Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar (11) during that span.
Chicharito has tallied 17 goals for the Galaxy for the second consecutive season.
Mark Delgado notched his first career two-assist performance in the win over San Jose.
Julián Araujo tallied recorded his team-leading ninth assist of the season, and notched an assist for a second consecutive match.
Efraín Álvarez registered his sixth assist of the 2022 campaign.
Riqui Puig finished the match with 55 attempted passes, 54 completed passes (98% pass accuracy), five possessions won and six duels won in the victory against the Earthquakes.
Samuel Grandsir led the Galaxy with three tackles won, 10 duels won and five successful dribbles.
Next Game
Up next, the LA Galaxy play host to Real Salt Lake in the regular-season home finale at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, Oct. 1. The match on Oct. 1 kicks off at 7:30 p.m. PT and features a regional television broadcast on Spectrum SportsNet and a stream on LAGalaxy.com.
LA Galaxy (13-12-7, 46pts) at San Jose Earthquakes (7-15-10, 31pts)
Sept. 24, 2022 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Stanford, Calif.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 2 1 3
San Jose Earthquakes 0 2 2
Scoring Summary:
LA: Chicharito (Araujo, Delgado), 12
LA: Brugman (Delgado),42
LA: Chicharito (Álvarez), 69
SJ: Espinoza (penalty kick), 74
SJ: Nathan (Trauco, Espinoza), 90+4
Misconduct Summary:
SJ: Judson (caution), 29
LA: Chicharito (caution), 31
SJ: Tsakiris (caution), 47
LA: Grandsir (caution), 56
LA: Bond (caution), 73
SJ: Remedi (caution), 83
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julián Araujo, D Séga Coulibaly, D Derrick Williams, D Raheem Edwards; M Mark Delgado, M Gastón Brugman (Víctor Vázquez, 75), M Riqui Puig (Daniel Aguirre, 84), M Samuel Grandsir (Dejan Joveljić, 75), M Kévin Cabral (Efraín Álvarez, 61), F Javier “Chicharito” Hernández © (Nick DePuy, 84)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Chase Gasper; M Sacha Kljestan
TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Chicharito, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Chicharito, 2); FOULS: 9 (Raheem Edwards, Chicharito, 2); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 1
SJ: GK JT Marcinkowski; D Paul Marie (Tommy Thompson, 70), D Nathan, D Tanner Beason (Miguel Trauco, 58), D Rodrigues; M Jackson Yueill ©, M Niko Tsakiris (Shea Salinas, 78), M Judson (Eric Remedi, 59); F Cristian Espinoza, F Jeremy Ebobisse, F Cade Cowell (Benji Kikanovic, 70)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Matt Bersano; D Oskar Agren, M Jack Skahan, M Jan Gregus
TOTAL SHOTS: 13 (Nathan, Jeremy Ebobisse, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Three players tied, 1); FOULS: 13 (Eric Remedi, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 1
Referee: Alex Chilowicz
Assistant Referees: Adam Garner, Felisha Mariscal
Fourth Official: Victor Rivas
VAR: Malik Badawi
Weather: Clear, 72 degrees
Attendance: 44,200
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On the Galaxy’s inability to win the big games, now doing it twice in two weeks, and what the mindset in the team is after tonight’s win and jumping to fifth place in the standings:
“Concur winning the two games. Mindset is good. Guys are confident. I think that’s been building, to be honest. I mean, even in the stretch where we were getting draws, in many of those games we were positioned to win at one point in those games. It’s just about finishing opportunities when we have opportunities. We still left a few on the table, maybe even tonight, to get a couple more. But, we’ve been more solid. Especially in first halves, giving ourselves the lead. And then doing a good job in the second half, generally speaking, managing games. I think, again, the confidence has been building, now the execution is a little bit better. And I still think there’s another level for us to keep trying to get to as we pushing forward in these next couple of games.”
On what he makes of Javier Hernández and Gastón Brugman both scoring three goals in the last two games:
“Yeah, excellent. You want your striker to be hot at this time of year, that’s for sure. He’s finding good spots. Finding him with the ball. He’s putting it in the back of the net, that breeds confidence for him and for the group, so that’s always positive. And the Gastón [Brugman] goals, I think he’s been exceptional. Just all around. I think he’s been outstanding. I mean, that’s one of the reasons for me that we’ve been so good through good parts of this stretch. He just brings so much clarity and maturity in the position. And obviously in the last couple games, we’ve played teams that are a little bit more man marking at times, and he’s been able to step on the other side of the attacking midfielder, pick himself up the ball, facing the goal. And he’s a good finisher. I told you a few weeks ago, he keeps telling me he’s the goal scorer. He keeps showing me that he can do that. But, as long as he keeps playing the 6 position the way he’s doing it, I’ll allow him those opportunities to get going. But I think he’s just been playing so mature for our group, which has just brought a lot of flexibility in our midfield as well on that defensive side.”
On tonight’s game being the game in hand, taking care of business tonight and the significance of being able to move up to fifth place and capitalize:
“I think it’s important, because, for a long time, when you don’t have that game, or you have it in hand, you’re calculating ‘what can that game mean for us,’ ‘what can that game mean for us?’ You know, you try not to, but, certainly, it’s there when you’re table watching and you know you’re a game or two behind. It’s hard to put those in there bank and count on them. You have to go out and make sure you secure them. To secure them is huge. It does two things for us. It continues the momentum. We respond with a good win at home, with an important win on the road. When we back things up. It continues to build the momentum and confidence that you want down the stretch when you’re going into, now, the two most important games of the season. Which is to close things out. And it puts us in a position, too, where, you never know, we could fight for a home game in the playoffs, you just have to keep building momentum and keep working on our performances. As I say to the guys, the only way to control the performance is to play in the moment. So, that’s what we’ve been trying to do, is just focus on the moment and perform well. And, you know, if we execute then these results will go in our favor. So, it’s an important three points. No two ways about it. The momentum is important. The results is important. Everything about it was really big tonight. And, it’s a strange week when you play inside of an international window. Because you have some of your teammates away. Your dynamics are weird, because this is usually a time where guys maybe recover, or catch their breath. We were trying to keep everybody focused to get into this next game, and the importance of this next game. It feels really good for the group, I can speak for them, to get these three points and get on a plane and go home.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD JAVIER “CHICHARITO” HERNÁNDEZ
On the team mindset after tonight’s win and moving up to fifth place in the standings:
“Thank you for the congrats on the goal, but, I want to mention the three points. Because coming over here, playing this stadium that is not an easy stadium, it’s very narrow. The field is not used to play soccer, so that went pretty well. Three goals on top of them. Yeah, they scored twice, but hopefully we could finish. We’re very happy. We’re very glad that the momentum keeps going. And now we have a game against [Real] Salt Lake at our place next Saturday, to hopefully get in the best position for playoffs.”
On momentum and if he feels that in the locker room and everything is clicking for the team:
“Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And, more specific on that, like you said in the question, the momentum is there and we can feel it.”
On his first goal and the celebration, and if it was in response to the Earthquakes’ supporters’ tifo:
“Yep. An amazing response. The best way to respond, you know. Sometimes people think that those kinds of stuff is going to put our confidence and ourselves down, but they do completely the opposite. They motivate us. They motivate me, at least. So, thank you. Thank you for them to put that, because that brought something else from me, because now I had more desire to win and to get the points.”
On scoring 10 goals in the last 10 games, and what has changed in this stretch versus the beginning of the season:
“To correct you, I think in the beginning of the season, I still was scoring a lot of goals, and then there was a gap and I wasn’t scoring as many as I wanted. But, I think it was a consequence of the performance of everyone, because we couldn’t adapt ourselves. We couldn’t be very consistent in our performances. And, thankfully, in the last part of the season, when it matters the most, we all are improving our performances. So, we’re very happy. Very glad. It doesn’t matter who is going to score the goals, as long as we create chances. As long as we put the ball in the back of the net, it doesn’t matter who is it. So, we’re very happy that the goals are coming and it’s giving us a lot of points.”
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