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Recap: Galaxy 2, Toronto FC 1
Oct. 15, 2007
Landon Donovan had a goal and assisted on Edson Buddle's game-winning goal in the 78th minute as Los Angeles won its fifth in a row, 2-1, over Toronto FC on Saturday to remain in contention for a playoff berth.
Los Angeles , which had only three wins in the first five months of the season, can qualify for the playoffs by winning its final two matches against New York and Chicago this week.
The Galaxy's five-game winning streak ties Houston for the second longest in MLS this season. L.A. is unbeaten in six overall, all without star midfielder David Beckham.
Collin Samuel scored in the 68th minute for Toronto , which played the final 35 minutes with 10 players after a red card to Marco Reda.
Donovan scored the Galaxy's first goal on a penalty kick resulting from Reda's ejection.
L.A. is four points behind Kansas City and Chicago for the final playoff spot but if it defeats New York on Thursday, it just has to beat Chicago on the final day of the regular season on Oct. 21 to qualify for the postseason.
The first half of the match was rather uneventful as neither side produced on offense. Los Angeles had the best chance of the first half when Donovan passed to Kyle Martino at the top of the 18, but his chip shot sailed over the goal.
The Galaxy (9-13-6) were put in perfect position to get a victory in the 56th minute when Gaven Glinton was pulled down in the box by Reda. Not only did it give L.A. a penalty kick, but Reda was ejected and struggling TFC had to play the rest of the match down to 10 players.
Donovan converted the attempt by using a stutter-step to get TFC goalie Kenny Stamatopoulos to dive toward the left post and tucked the ball into the right side of the net.
But Toronto (6-17-6) didn't fold and Samuel had a shot in the 62nd minute L.A. goalie Joe Cannon had to punch wide.
Not long after, Samuel had another chance and converted to tie the match. He ran onto a long pass from Chris Pozniak and with one touch of his right foot beat Cannon into the lower right corner. It was just the second goal of the season for Samuel.
L.A. showed right away it wasn't playing for a tie as Donovan and Carlos Pavon had great chances just a few minutes apart. Stamatopoulos stopped both shots.
TFC's goalie couldn't come up with any more magic in the 78th minute, though, as a three-man breakaway led to Los Angeles' second goal.
The play started in midfield when Donovan made a long pass down the right side to Chris Klein. He sent the ball across the box and by one teammate to Buddle, who nearly hit the shot over the bar but found the roof of the net.
Donovan just missed another goal seconds into extra time on a breakaway when Stamatopoulos made another big stop, a foot save to deny the Galaxy captain.
But it didn't matter, L.A. held on for the victory and is one of four teams - New York , Kansas City and Colorado are the others - still vying for the final two postseason spots.
And Beckham, who has been out with an injured knee, could return on Thursday.
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The Galaxy opened their stadium, the Home Depot Center on June 7. But in order for their home to be ready, the team had to play a record 8 games to start the season and failed to win a game. In fact, the Galaxy finish the season without a win away from home the whole season. After the season's final game, the Galaxy had the final playoff spot in the West. In their aggregate series with the Earthquakes, they seemed well on to vindication for the MLS Cup loss 2 years earlier as they held 4 goals to 0 lead midway through the 2 nd game. A thing happened as the Earthquakes scored four unanswered goals to force a tiebreaker. In that session, the Earthquakes' Rodrigo Farina score to send the Quakes onto the next round.
In 2004 Looking to return to the top, the Galaxy would go through a mediocre 1 st half of the season before 3 straight wins over the summer. But from July 14 on, the Galaxy won only 2 more games, one in September and one in October. The Galaxy had a record of 11-9-10, good enough for 2nd in the West and the playoff, remaining the only club in MLS to have a playoff spot in every year of league in the playoffs, the Galaxy withstood an early challenge from the Rapids to win the aggregate goal series, 2-1, scoring 2 times in Game 2. In the conference final, the Galaxy's season would come to an end in Kansas with a 2-0 loss to Arnaud and the Wizards.
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