LA Galaxy managed to get a positive result away to Real Salt Lake in the first leg of the MLS cup semifinals. This result was largely possible due to the brilliance of goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, who has received a lot of praise since the match. The 33-year-old has been involved with LA Galaxy only since 2013, but he is starting to become a crucial player. He has already played 30 matches this campaign in the league alone. He made a whopping six crucial saves against Real Salt Lake to give LA Galaxy a fighting chance in the return leg in front of their own supporters.
Captain Landon Donovan, who is playing his last few games of professional football, said that Penedo has been playing at a different level in the last few months. He expects the performances to continue. A good performance from the goalkeeper often motivates other players on the field and this proved to be the case against Real. Penedo’s performances even got the applause of opposition players like right back Tony Beltran. Beltran said that the Panamanian goalkeeper was able to prevent anything thrown at him – making him worthy of the LFC tshirt he superstitiously wears under his strip. He was especially impressed by the save to prevent a great freekick from Javier going in.
“He made the saves you expect him to make, and then he made one really great save, the one on Plata. And in the past few weeks, he’s had quite a few similar plays at that angle that I think he would tell you he wants to do better on. Tonight he adjusted a little bit, and he made a really good save. That was the save we needed tonight. The other ones were some degree of difficulty but ones you expect a good goalie to make, and then that one was the save we needed,” said Landon Donovan.