Recap of LA Galaxy Pre-Season Match Against Hammarby IF
- Updated: February 17, 2015
(Via @LAGalaxy)
On February 16, 2015, the LA Galaxy played the first match of its 2015 European Tour against Hammarby IF, a Swedish football team, at Tele2 Arena. Before the game, I predicted a 2-1 game with the Galaxy winning.
Here was the LA Galaxy’s lineup:
Goalkeeper: Jaime Penedo
Defenders: Robbie Rogers, Omar Gonzalez, Leonardo, Todd Dunivant
Midfielders: Stefan Ishishaki, Juninho, Baggio Hussidic, Bradford Jamieson IV
Forwards: Gyasi Zardes, Robbie Keane
Substitutions: Brian Rowe, Rafael Garcia, Tommy Meyer, Daniel Keller, Oscar Sorto, Jose Villareal, Kenny Walker, Mika Vayrynen (a Finnish midfielder), Ignacio Maganto, Alan Gordon, Edson Buddle
Edson Buddle and Mika Vayrynen are two trialists with the LA Galaxy. After he left the Galaxy in 2012, Buddle spent two difficult seasons with the Colorado Rapids and has returned to try to rejoin his former team. Vayrynen plays for the Finnish National Team and HJK Helsinki. He is also hoping to join the Galaxy for the 2015 season.
Here was the line up for Hammarby:
Goalkeeper: Johannes Hopf
Defenders: Stefan Batan, Thomas Guldborg Christensen, Lars Saetra, Birkir Mar Saevarsson
Midfielders: Jan Gunnar Solli, Erik Israelsson, Kennedy Bakircioglu Mans Soderqvist, Lars Mendonca Fuhre
Forwards: Linus Hallenius
Substitutions: Tim Markstrom, Nahir Besara, Pablo Pinones-Arce, Viktor Nordin, Amadaiya Rennie, Jonathan Tamimi, Oliver SIlverholt, Marko Mihajlovic
Unfortunately, right before the live stream started for the game, the LA Galaxy twitter account announced that technical difficulties disrupted the video. Luckily, Adam Serrano (@LAGalaxyInsider) and @LAGalaxy live-tweeted the game, so this article will be a recap based on their first half reports and the second half live stream.
Robbie Keane scored the first goal of the game in the seventh minute when he converted a penalty kick—the result of a Hammarby tackle on Gyasi Zardes in the box. Only five minutes later, Erik Israelsson of Hammarby scored after Omar Gonzalez failed to properly clear the ball from the Galaxy side. For the rest of the half, Jaime Penedo kept them from scoring several times more and Zardes almost put the Galaxy back on top when he just barely shot the ball wide. Thanks to Robbie Rogers, the score remained tied after he cleared a shot when a Hammarby player chipped it over Penedo. Unfortunately, the lone Galaxy goal seemed like a lucky break compared to how Hammarby started the game off strong.
At the start of the second half, Linius Hallenius of Hammarby scored a second goal to make the game 2-1. In the 54th minute, the referee gave Juninho a straight red after the Hammarby player appeared to trip right before Juninho reached him. Unfortunately, the call left the Galaxy playing with only 10 men, and according to Robbie Keane, “The sending off killed the game.” Rogers almost gave the Galaxy the lead, but Johannes Hopf saved his shot. The match continued with many fouls called on both sides, and the Galaxy fought to equalize the game, but failed to do so with fewer players.
Unfortunately, I predicted the correct final score, but the wrong victor—Hammarby IF won 2-1 in the first match of the LA Galaxy’s European Tour. Hopefully, the team will have better luck against the Shamrock Rovers in Ireland on February 21 before they return to California to play the San Jose Earthquakes on February 28.
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things LA Galaxy and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, all the time!
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3 Comments
About Patrick Salkeld
asd
February 21, 2015 at 8:55 am
Mika, not Mike.
MH5
February 21, 2015 at 9:05 am
Thanks for the heads up! It’s changed!
janetjtillery
December 21, 2015 at 10:36 am
Mario, it was 70,205 officially. 75K + would’ve made it 2nd highest attended NHL game ever.