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MLS LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy Earn 1-0 Shutout Victory over Real Salt Lake at Home on Wednesday Night

August 5, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
LA Galaxy News Release


LOS ANGELES - Playing the first of two matches at home in the span of five days, the LA Galaxy earned a 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake at Dignity Health Sports Park on Wednesday night. Efrain Alvarez scored the game-winning goal, his second of the season, while goalkeeper Jonathan Bond tallied four saves to earn his third shutout of 2021.

Galaxy Run of Form

In nine matches played at home in 2021, the Galaxy are 7-2-0, scoring 17 goals and conceding nine. LA is 5-4-1 in 10 matches played in its primary kit this season. The shutout against Real Salt Lake marked the third shutout at home during the 2021 campaign. Additionally, the win marked LA's fourth back-to-back win of the season. Since earning a 2-2 draw at Real Salt Lake on July 21, the Galaxy are 2-1-1.

LA Galaxy Against Real Salt Lake

Wednesday's match marked the 44th MLS regular-season meeting between LA and Real Salt Lake, with the Galaxy leading the series 19-15-10. In its last six meetings against RSL dating back to April 28, 2019, LA holds a 4-1-1 record. In 23 regular-season home contests vs. Real Salt Lake, the Galaxy hold a 14-7-2 record.

Goal-Scoring Plays

LA - Efrain Alvarez (Sacha Kljestan), 27th minute: Receiving the ball from Kljestan down the right side of the penalty area, Alvarez dipped his shoulder, cut onto his left foot and curled his shot into the far corner of the goal.

Postgame Notes

The LA Galaxy are 10-6-1 (31 pts) this season, sitting in third place in the Western Conference standings.

The Galaxy's 10 wins this season ranks tied for the second most in MLS in 2021.

The Galaxy (31 points) sit in fourth place in the Supporters Shield race, behind the New England Revolution (37 points), Sporting KC (33 points) and Seattle Sounders FC (33 points).

Wednesday's match marked the 44th MLS regular-season meeting between LA and Real Salt Lake, with the Galaxy leading the series 19-15-10.

In its last six meetings against RSL dating back to April 28, 2019, LA holds a 4-1-1 record.

In 23 regular-season home contests vs. Real Salt Lake, the Galaxy hold a 14-7-2 record.

LA is unbeaten in its last five matches played at home against RSL (4-0-1), dating back to Sept. 30, 2017.

In the first meeting between the two sides this season, LA battled back to earn a 2-2 draw on the road against RSL on July 21.

In nine matches played at home in 2021, the Galaxy are 7-2-0, scoring 17 goals and conceding nine.

LA is 5-4-1 in 10 matches played in its primary kit this season.

The shutout against Real Salt Lake marked LA's third shutout of the season and third shutout at Dignity Health Sports Park in 2021.

The Galaxy rank fourth in the league in goals scored (28) this season.

Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney has a 3-2-2 record in seven MLS regular-season games managed against Real Salt Lake during his time as a manager in MLS (2014-Present).

Dating back to the beginning of the 2015 MLS regular season, Vanney ranks first amongst all MLS head coaches in wins (95). Sporting KC's Peter Vermes ranks second (89), while Philadelphia's Jim Curtain ranks third (84). Orlando's Oscar Pareja (81) ranks fourth, while Seattle's Brian Schmetzer rounds out the top five (76).

Efrain Alvarez tallied his second goal of the 2021 campaign in the win over Real Salt Lake.

The goal marked Alvarez's second game-winning goal of the season.

Alvarez has tallied two goals in 10 games played (7 starts) for LA in league play this year.

Jonathan Bond leads all MLS goalkeepers in wins (10) and saves (68) during the 2021 campaign.

Across 12 seasons played in MLS (2006-10, 2015-16) Sacha Kljestan has made 296 regular-season appearances (261 starts), ranking eighth all-time in league history in assists (97) and adding 41 goals.

Kljestan's assist against Real Salt Lake marked his fourth assist of the season for the Galaxy.

Sebastian Lletget made his first appearance for the Galaxy since starting and tallying an assist in a 3-1 win over Dallas on July 7.

Bond, Samuel Grandsir, Kljestan and Jorge Villafaña are the only four Galaxy players play in every match this season (17).

Bond and Villafaña are the only two LA players to start every match this year (17).

Next Game

Next up, the Galaxy play host to Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday, Aug. 8. The Aug. 8 match kicks off at 5:00 p.m. PT and features a regional television broadcast on Spectrum SportsNet.

LA Galaxy (10-6-1, 31pts) vs. Real Salt Lake (5-5-6, 21 pts)

July 24, 2021 - Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

LA Galaxy 0 1 1

Real Salt Lake 0 0 0

Scoring Summary:

LA: Alvarez (Kljestan), 53

Misconduct Summary:

RSL: Besler (caution), 35

RSL: Toia (caution), 70

RSL: Meram (caution), 85

Lineups:

LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julian Araujo, D Séga Coulibaly, D Derrick Williams, D Jorge Villafaña; M Adam Saldaña (Daniel Aguirre, 90+1), M Rayan Raveloson, M Efrain Alvarez (Augustine Williams, 90+1), M Sacha Kljestan © (Sebastian Lletget, 66), M Samuel Grandsir (Daniel Steres, 81); F Kévin Cabral

Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Danilo Acosta, D Nick DePuy, D Oniel Fisher; M Daniel Aguirre; F Cameron Dunbar

TOTAL SHOTS: 14 (Samuel Grandsir, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 8 (Efrain Alvarez, 3); FOULS: 8 (Samuel Grandsir, Kevin Cabral, 2) OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 4

RSL: GK Zac MacMath; D Donny Toia (Ashtone Morgan, 77), D Erik Holt, D Marcelo Silva, D Aaron Herrera; M Jonathan Menendez (Justin Meram, 63), M Albert Rusnak ©, M Nick Besler (Damir Kreilach, 64), M Everton Luiz; F Bobby Wood (Rubio Rubin, 77), F Anderson Julio (Maikel Chang, 66)

Substitutes Not Used: GK Andrew Putna; D Toni Datkovic, M Justin Portillo, M Pablo Ruiz

TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (Bobby Wood, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 4 (Damir Kreilach, 2); FOULS: 6 (Anderson Julio, 2) OFFSIDES: 0; CORNER KICKS: 8; SAVES: 7

Referee: Nima Saghafi

Assistant Referees: Jeremy Hanson, Apolinar Mariscal

Fourth Official: Ramy Touchan

VAR: Alejandro Mariscal

Weather: Clear, 75 degrees

Attendance: 15,544

All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial

LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY

On reaching the mid-season goal of points at the halfway point of the season:

"Yeah, we talked about it and celebrated in the locker room and then we put that behind us and say we start the second half of the season with an opportunity to take nine points. That's what's in front of us now, but like I said when we were a very small group that hadn't pulled a lot of pieces together at the beginning and the put a target out there that was like 1.82 or 1.8 something points per game which would take us to this I thought it's an ambitious number, given the fact that we don't really, we haven't really pulled the team together yet and nevertheless this group has shown a lot of character and compete and battle over the first half of the season as we pull the pieces together and gotten to a good spot. I mean we are only a couple points away from the top spot and we've battled through this period, we look forward to getting some guys back as things start to kind of settle in now."

On Efrain Alvarez's goal and his return to the team:

"We had texted a little bit through the tournament, just here and there, just obviously congratulations, different things like that as he was working his way through the tournament. You know we talked over the last two days as the tournament ended just to see how much work he had done while he was there to try and gauge what his fitness level would be because he obviously didn't play a ton when he was there and sometimes when you're in tournaments and not playing a lot then you don't get a lot of training and then your fitness levels can vary, so I wanted to get that from him. But I thought, I mean the young man's a heck of a player and he went there and he spent three weeks and played about a total of 90 minutes so it's time to get him in the fold, he needs to play some games, he needs to get back into a rhythm and I thought he came out tonight and I thought he looked very much in a rhythm, in the first half I thought he was one of the few players that actually looked like they were in a rhythm and moving the ball and moving themselves and making good decisions and things like that so I thought he has a very, very solid night. It's nice to have him back and he can continue to build on what he has.

On Efrain's decision to play with Mexico:

"I don't know, because I talked to him through this process, how much it was weighing on him, being between the two countries if you will, but now that he's made that decision that can kind of be in the back of his mind and not something he has to worry about right now. Hopefully that will help him relax, I don't think it really impacted him in a great way in terms of his training and his performance or any of that kind of stuff but I think he knows where his future lies now and so at least that piece of it is not there anymore and what he needs to just continue to focus on is the development of himself as a player and continuing to improve and get better, and continue to help our team and good things are going to happen for him because he's very, very talented."

On the team shifting into another gear moving forward:

"I would agree in terms of the professional win. I thought we started the game, you know, fairly conservative on the defensive side we didn't get out and start pressing all over the place, we kept our lines pretty tidy and pretty tight and controlled the game on the defensive side. We weren't as good with the ball in the first half as we would like to be but we managed the game and got to halftime zeroes and then made some adjustments and the group came out and looked sharper. As I said in the second half, we played a little bit more of what we'd like to see from our group, but I do think we have probably more than one gear, I think for us now it is to get everybody into the group and that's in the group into the fold, start to reestablish some of the relationships that we were starting to form when guys left for three, four weeks, you know, obviously get guys back from injury. I really like this group when we get everybody together and I think we have lots of opportunity in front of us as we move into the second half. I think we are still just scratching the surface of what we're capable of doing over 90 minutes. I think we see little flashes of what we're going to be capable of doing, but we have still yet to put our highest level for 90 minutes on the field, we've had like you said professional moments, we've had character moments, we've had some good performances and flashes. But I do think we, as you said, we have another level or two and we just need to get to where we're doing that for 90 minutes because you have to do that when you get to the playoffs and it's a one and done type of scenario, you've got to really put together a complete 90 minutes game after game."

LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER JONATHAN BOND

On what he saw in goal today:

"I thought we were strong, the back four were really good, we won most of the aerial challenges across the middle of the box and just as a team we were more solid, we maybe decided to sit a bit deeper today and just defend, kind of in our block and our space and not allow them to play in between our lines, and it kind of worked. I think we are pretty comfortable, but like you said maybe the last few saves I made in the final 15 minutes, but as always probably going to happen when the other team is pushing so hard and putting so many attacking players on. Shutout number 3, which is pleasing, but not enough. We should have had more, it was very frustrating some games there's probably like three of four games that come to mind straight away that weren't shutout games that should have been, then letting in stupid goals. Hopefully we've got a little run now and get a few more. Both [Derrick & Julian] were brilliant. Strong and athletics, reading things, leading, talking, organizing the guys in front of them. And then when Danny [Steres] comes in the last 15 minutes as well we went back to a five and he was great. They made it difficult for us to play sometimes they stepped down quite intelligently, it was awkward at times, but the guys did very, very well and it was a very, very big result."

On hitting the mid-season team goal:

"Happy to get our goal, but it means nothing at this point in the season, but like I mentioned yesterday I thought it was a really ambitious goal for a team that's in transition, trying to play a completely different style with a new manager, new players, new style. I liked the positivity and enthusiasm behind that target but I was thinking okay we can go for that target and maybe just miss it, that's great, but here we are, we hit the target and now using that and pushing into the second half of the season."

On the team spirit in the dressing room:

"I think it is something we said at halftime, we had an OK half, defensively we were OK, on the ball we were OK, probably could have created a little bit more and we said it to ourselves you know, we have got a few more gears to go up, so let's up the level and we did up the speed a little bit on the ball, we decided to create more. In terms of the spirit, I mentioned in my press conference before the game, it really is a team with no ego, we have a DP with no ego, obviously another young DP, no ego. Everyone is pulling together in the same direction. Whenever we have a bad loss you should see the group chat, everyone is very encouraging, we speak open and truthfully with each other. I think every time this season we've lost the game, we've not followed it up with another loss so there are several things you can point too, even within games, we've been behind and we've always kind of found a way of getting level or winning the game so there's lots of factors that go into the spirit."

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