CARSON, Calif. – It was a game the LA Galaxy believed they had to win after a poor outing last week and a series of humdrum results, but it wouldn't have been possible if not for one of Jaime Penedo's defining performances.
The Panamanian goalkeeper made an MLS career-best 10 saves, including a half-dozen superb stops, as LA halted a four-game winless skid with a hard-earned 1-0 triumph over visiting Seattle, and his teammates sang his praises when it was done.
“He kept us in the game,” said defender Omar Gonzalez. “When your 'keeper makes those key saves, those brilliant saves, that keep the game at 0-0, it just gives you an opportunity to make something happen. And, sure enough, after Jaime made those saves, we figure out a way to score, we scored, and late in the game he makes some more key saves.
“I just thought Jaime Penedo played brilliantly.”
It was the most important among several vital elements for the Galaxy (2-2-2), who struggled to fill an 18-player roster without the services of injured Robbie Keane, Leonardo and Edson Buddle and after Jose Villarreal and Mika Väyrynen weren't fit to train all week.
Alan Gordon capped a strong performance up top with a goal in the 23rd minute – “I thought [he] was a real man today,” Bruce Arena said – and Rafael Garcia shined in his first start since July 2013, getting man-of-the-match compliments from those around him.
The Sounders (2-2-1) afterward suggested they'd given their best performance of the young season, and without Penedo's heroics, they might have had a 5-1 scoreline to go with it.
“He did what a goalie needs to do, step up when we need him,” midfielder Baggio Husidic said. “He did a great job, definitely saved us the game.”
Penedo set a tone right at the start, with back-to-back point-blank saves on headers by Lamar Neagle and Chad Marshall in the ninth and 10th minutes, then made a leaping stop on another Neagle header in the 21st.
Those saves, Gordon said, were “everything.”
“If we take one of those goals, then when things aren't going your way and you take another goal, then your confidence goes down,” Gordon said. “But him keeping us in the game, he kept us alive and kept our energy going, and we were able to fight and win.”
He made huge saves on Andy Rose, Neagle and Aaron Kovar in the second half, and easily handled rockets fired at him by Neagle in the first half and Obafemi Martins with about 20 minutes to go.
Penedo said his best save was “whatever save I was able to make to help the team,” then acknowledged it was the stop on Rose in the 53rd minute. Neagle brought the ball into the box from the right, then sent a hard cross toward the near post. Rose blasted it, and it stuck Penedo and bounced away.
“I would honestly say I don't know how I saved it ...,” Penedo said. “The play was right in front of me, and it just bounced off of me, and if you'd asked me, I would guess I never would have stopped it.”
It punctuated a spirited performance by an LA team that was badly outworked last weekend in Vancouver.
“This win was very badly needed,” Gonzalez said. “The attitude in the beginning of the week, everyone was a little but short with each other. And toward the end of the week, we all recognized that the way we played at Vancouver can't happen again. So I'm happy that we all changed our attitudes and put in the hard work tonight and got rewarded for it, and it feels good.”
