Seattle Sounders FC hadn’t lost a home game since March, and hadn’t even trailed at home since May.
But those and a lot of other positive statistics came to a crashing halt Monday, as the Sounders were torched by the Los Angeles Galaxy, 3-0, before a crowd of 39,304 at CenturyLink Field.
The Galaxy moved ahead in the eighth minute, doubled its lead in the 18th minute and made it 3-0 going into halftime before playing out a scoreless final 45 minutes.
Seattle played without All-Star central defender Chad Marshall. The club reported that Marshall was rear-ended in an auto accident on Saturday and was held out with back spasms.
Landon Donovan figured in all of the Galaxy’s scoring, with a goal and two assists.
He assisted on the first goal, getting into the penalty area and patiently waiting a beat before laying the ball off to Gyasi Zardes, who knocked it in from the middle of the penalty area.
Donovan scored the next one himself, finishing off a rebound after Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei blocked but couldn’t control a shot from Marcelo Sarvas.
L.A. got its final goal in the 36th minute, when Stefan Ishizaki found lots of room down the right side of the box and took his time to wind up and power another blast past Frei.
The halftime statistics supported what the scoreboard showed. Over the first 45 minutes, the Galaxy outshot Seattle 11-3 and put seven of those shots on target to Seattle’s zero. Los Angeles also won 60.4 percent of the duels and held 58.3 percent of the possession.
The second half was far better for the home team, but the Sounders couldn’t get anything past Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo. Clint Dempsey finally got Seattle its first shot on target in the 59th minute, but Penedo knocked it wide of the far post.
Seattle (12-5-4) remains atop the Major League Soccer standings, while Los Angeles (8-4-6) climbed into a tie for third in the Western Conference.
The result ended a league-high six-game home winning streak for the Sounders, who return to MLS play Saturday at San Jose.
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