LA Galaxy Earn 4-1 Win over Colorado Rapids at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday Night
September 18, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – LA Galaxy News Release
LOS ANGELES – Playing their third match in the span of seven days, the LA Galaxy earned a 4-1 win over the Colorado Rapids in front of 20,325 fans at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night. Gastón Brugman tallied a brace, while Riqui Puig notched three assists in the Galaxy’s first win over the Rapids since 2017.
LA Galaxy Run Of Form
In their last eight matches played dating back to Aug. 13, the Galaxy hold a record of 3-1-4, outscoring the opposition 19-15 during that span. In the Galaxy’s last five matches played at home dating back to July 24, LA holds an unbeaten record of 3-0-2. Following the win over Colorado, the Galaxy (12-12-7, 43 points) moved up to seventh place in the Western Conference standings, with a game in hand and two points behind sixth-place Portland Timbers (11-8-12, 45 points).
Riqui Puig Contributions
In his first five starts with the Galaxy dating back to Aug. 28, Riqui Puig has tallied two goals and five assists. Notably, Puig’s three assists against Colorado were the first time a Galaxy player recorded three assists in a match since Landon Donovan did it in September of 2014. Since Aug. 28, Puig leads MLS in assists (5) and passes completed (421), and ranks second behind only Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar (7 goals, 2 assists) in goal contributions (2 goals, 5 assists) during that span.
LA Galaxy Firsts
Brugman recorded his first two goals as a member of the Galaxy in the win over Colorado. Additionally, Martín Cáceres registered his first assist with LA in the win over the Rapids. Notably, Raheem Edwards, who tallied his first career goal for the Galaxy, recorded his first goal in league play since scoring for Chicago Fire FC on March 16, 2019.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Gastón Brugman (Samuel Grandsir, Riqui Puig), 22nd minute: Samuel Grandsir delivered an outside the boot pass behind the Colorado defense that released Gastón Brugman down the right side of the penalty area. Brugman took a touch before sending his low shot past Colorado goalkeeper William Yarbrough.
LA – Raheem Edwards (Martín Cáceres), 28th minute: Raheem Edwards dribbled down the right flank and cut inside on his right foot. Edwards faked a shot inside the penalty area before rifling his right-footed shot into the top right corner of the net.
LA – Chicharito (Julián Araujo, Riqui Puig), 31st minute: In transition, Riqui Puig switched the field of play to Julián Araujo down the right flank. Araujo dribbled toward the end line and fired a low cross to Chicharito, whose back-heeled shot beat Yarbrough.
LA – Gastón Brugman (Riqui Puig), 52nd minute: Gastón Brugman received the ball from Riqui Puig, dribbled toward the top of the 18-yard box and curled his shot into the top right corner.
COL – Sam Nicholson, 90+1st minute: The ball fell to Sam Nicholson inside the box and his half-volleyed shot from just outside the six-yard box found the lower far corner of the goal.
Postgame Notes
Saturday’s match marked the 91st all-time meeting across all competitions between the LA Galaxy and Colorado Rapids, with the Galaxy leading the all-time series 46-33-12.
LA improved to 25-10-6 in 41 all-time regular-season matches played at home against Colorado.
Following the win over Colorado, the Galaxy (12-12-7, 43 points) moved up to seventh place in the Western Conference standings, with a game in hand and two points behind sixth-place Portland Timbers (11-8-12, 45 points).
The Galaxy improved to 10-6-3 in 19 matches played at home across all competitions this season.
LA improved to 11-1-4 this season when scoring the first goal of the match.
In their last eight matches played dating back to Aug. 13, the Galaxy hold a record of 3-1-4, outscoring the opposition 19-15 during that span.
In the Galaxy’s last five matches played at home dating back to July 24, LA holds an unbeaten record of 3-0-2.
The victory marked LA’s first win over the Rapids since a 3-0 win over Colorado on Sept. 2, 2017.
This marks the fourth time this season the Galaxy have scored four goals or more in a match this season.
Gastón Brugman recorded his first career goals for the Galaxy with his brace against the Rapids.
Riqui Puig tallied three assists in the win against the Rapids. Puig’s three assists against Colorado were the first time a Galaxy player recorded three assists in a match since Landon Donovan did it in September of 2014
Chicharito registered his 15th goal in league play for the Galaxy this year.
In his last nine MLS regular-season matches played dating back to Aug. 6, only Hany Mukhtar has tallied more goals (11) than Chicharito (8).
Chicharito moved into a tie for eighth place with Gyasi Zardes on the Galaxy’s all-time regular-season goal-scoring list.
Raheem Edwards tallied his first goal in league play since scoring for Chicago Fire FC against Seattle Sounders FC on March 16, 2019.
Julián Araujo tallied his eighth assist of the season, a new career-high, in the win over Colorado.
Samuel Grandsir notched his fourth assist of the 2022 campaign.
Martín Cáceres registered his first assist with LA in the win over the Rapids.
Next Game
Up next, the LA Galaxy travel to face the San Jose Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 24. The match on Sept. 24 kicks off at 7:00 p.m. PT and features a regional television broadcast on Spectrum SportsNet and a stream on LAGalaxy.com.
LA Galaxy (12-12-7, 43pts) vs. Colorado Rapids (10-13-9, 39pts)
Sept. 17, 2022 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 3 1 4
Colorado Rapids 0 1 1
Scoring Summary:
LA: Brugman (Grandsir, Puig), 22
LA: Edwards (Cáceres), 28
LA: Chicharito (Araujo, Puig), 31
LA: Brugman (Puig), 52
COL: Nicholson, 90+1
Misconduct Summary:
COL: Gutierrez (caution), 26
COL: Abubakar (caution), 34
COL: Beitashour (caution), 60
LA: Costa (ejection), 62
COL: Barrios (caution), 63
COL: Max (caution), 65
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julián Araujo, D Martín Cáceres, D Séga Coulibaly, D Raheem Edwards (Chase Gasper, 56); M Mark Delgado (Kévin Cabral, 80), M Gastón Brugman (Sacha Kljestan, 80), M Riqui Puig, M Samuel Grandsir (Efraín Álvarez, 68), M Douglas Costa, F Javier “Chicharito” Hernández © (Dejan Joveljić, 69)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Chase Gasper, D Kelvin Leerdam, D Derrick Williams; M Víctor Vázquez
TOTAL SHOTS: 20 (Chicharito, Dejan Joveljić, 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 12 (Chicharito, Dejan Joveljić, 3); FOULS: 12 (Samuel Grandsir, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 5
COL: GK William Yarbrough; D Keegan Rosenberry, D Danny Wilson (Lucas Esteves, 45), D Lalas Abubakar, D Steven Beitashour; M Felipe Gutierrez (Collen Warner, 85), M Sam Nicholson, M Jack Price © (Darren Yapi, 64); F Jonathan Lewis (Michael Barrios, 45), F Diego Rubio (Max, 63), F Gyasi Zardes
Substitutes Not Used: GK Clint Irwin; D Gustavo Vallecilla; M Bryan Acosta, M Ralph Priso
TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Sam Nicholson, Darren Yapi, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Darren Yapi, 3); FOULS: 15 (Steven Beitashour, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 8; SAVES: 8
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Kathryn Nesbitt, Brooke Mayo
Fourth Official: Alex Chilowicz
VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 72 degrees
Attendance: 20,325
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
Postgame Media Assets
LA Galaxy postgame soundbites from media availability and match photos can be found below.
SOUNDBYTES: https://mlssoccer.box.com/s/fpffn727wbhia5qffvbnzv1su8789t1v
LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney (English)
LA Galaxy Midfielder Gastón Brugman (Translated from Spanish)
LA Galaxy Defender Raheem Edwards (English)
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On the difference he saw from the group tonight, and the four goals:
“It was, over the last couple games, and specifically Wednesday, it was a lot of possession that doesn’t really go anywhere, doesn’t end. It doesn’t end with chances. And, tonight, tonight was the opposite of that. Today it was much more purposeful. It was much more intense. When we played between the lines. When we faced forward. Making runs forward. We were putting pressure on their back line. With the speed at which we were moving, we were much more purposeful with our possession rather than just keeping possession. The other night, when we played between the lines, we would come back on the other side of the line we just broke. And tonight, obviously, having wingers and some guys coming from the outside, that plays a role a little bit for tonight. I think Julián [Araujo] really going forward hard on the right side played a role in tonight. So, the intent and the ask for the group today was the turning of possessions to attacks by being direct. Be more vertical about our running. That also led to the transitions being dangerous. Things like that. So, our game just had much more purpose. More purpose in the attack.”
On if the challenge now is to replicate that for next week:
“Yeah. I mean, I think, again, it’s keeping that mentality. And we’re shown the capacity to have possession of the ball. Now it’s finishing the attacks and it’s getting production off the end of that possession. And, tonight, we were able to do it. I thought our transition game came back. I think for a few games, we weren’t as direct in the transition when we had the opportunities. We would play forward, then we would come back. Tonight, our intentions, again, was to attack the opposition. We were able to put some numbers, put some speed, create some opportunities, some goals. Things like that. So, I feel like, just more parts of our game came together tonight. Which, we have to keep doing.”
On scoring not only three goals in 10 minutes, but three brilliant goals in 10 minutes and if it means more, and if he has a favorite:
“I have to go back and watch them. I felt like Ra [Raheem Edwards] got lost in the play somewhere, and the next thing you know, he picks out the upper corner. Obviously, Javi [Javier Hernández] little pirouette back heel was a good one. It was also good speed on the whole transition of the play. Gastón [Brugman], both goals, he keeps telling me he’s a goal scorer, so it was nice to see him step up and take some opportunities. I don’t care how they hit the back of the net, I like for just the emotion of the group to feel that moment. You could see the joy that they had. To take our possessions and turn them into chances, and score goals. You don’t always live on world class goals, but it’s nice to get some when you do. But, I thought the goal, like Javier’s goal and a couple of goals, were just good team action where we really built some speed and created some problems. So, there’s a couple more goals out there for us. I know Dejan [Joveljić] had a couple and is a little upset that he didn’t something in the back of the net. But, again, I thought it was just a good team performance. All that.”
On the Galaxy moving to seventh in the standings, above the playoff line and what it means back in their hands now with three games left:
“I think it’s great. I mean, it’s a great feeling emotionally. I think, you know, with our group, we have a pretty emotional group that rides the… we probably ride our results more than we should. I think our group is good enough that, internally, they should trust themselves and each other a little more. Results shouldn’t make such a difference on our group in terms of our understanding of where we are, and sometimes our belief in ourselves. Because we have a ton of quality in there. So, any time we have good results, we take that step forward, it’s an emotional boost for this group in particular. I think that’s a good sign. And now we’ve got to recover. And lace ’em up and go play, I think this is our game in hand that’s coming up, which, we’ve got to try and make something out of it, for sure. So, we’re in a position, certainly it’s a much better position than we were at the beginning of the night, so we’ll take it. And, we still have a lot of work to do it front of us and make sure that we’re focused on that. Again, for us, it’s just one game at a time, and one play at a time. And I thought, tonight, we did a nice job of handling all of that.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER GASTÓN BRUGMAN
Spanish with English Translation
On his comfort level with his teammates and if he think he will continue to chip in with goals from the midfield…
“When I first got here, I knew in the beginning that the physical aspect was going to be tough, but I feel great today. Playing alongside Riqui [Puig], Mark [Delgado] and Víctor [Vázquez] in our midfield makes it so easy for me. I’m happy for the two goals tonight and the win tonight, which was an important one for us.”
On his goals scored from midfield…
“My position, especially last year, was to be a little bit more offensive. This year, Greg [Vanney] asked me to be more of the number six, but I’ve always had the goal in mind. Sam [Grandsir] gave me a really good ball and I was able to score that.”
On how the team has developed since he made his debut for the club…
“I think we are more solid and we’re more of a unit. I think today we had a good signal after a really bad loss to Vancouver. The team is alive and I think it’s dependent on us. We have three finals to play and we’ll give it our best.”
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