Brian Perk Does the Work as LA Galaxy Hold Seattle Sounders Scoreless

Seattle, meet Brian Perk.

Sure, he isn't the Big Cat from Montego Bay known as Donovan Ricketts or the trusty backup known as Josh Saunders, but he's a goalkeeper nonetheless.

The Fourth of July was Perk's coming-out party, and he made the most of his debut appearance by making a number of stops and even saving a Fredy Montero penalty as the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders played to a scoreless draw at the Home Depot Center on Monday night.

It seems as if he learned his lessons from the U.S. Open Cup match with the Los Angeles Blues and stepped his game up when the team needed him most. You talk about continuity and consistency, and you talk about this humble third-stringer who probably might be a legit first-string keeper one of these days.

“I think the final score is a fair result," said manager Bruce Arena to reporters. "That was a game that was pretty even. I would have liked the chance to make a couple of other substitutions in the second half, but obviously we had to make changes to the center backs that’s difficult. The first change to A.J. [DeLaGarza] was going to have us hampered in the second half. The issue with Omar [Gonzalez], that was difficult.

"Having said that, I think [Brian] Perk did very well for his first game in the league. I think the adjustments our team made losing two center backs was pretty good, but certainly the best chance out of the run of play was [Juan Pablo] Angel’s and obviously the chance in the game was the penalty kick. Having said all that, I think it was a fair result at the end of the game. I give Perk a lot of credit in his first game. I don’t think he was tested a whole lot, but a penalty kick is as much as a test as you are ever going to face. A lot of credit to Brian.”

Perk made stop after stop after stop. You know, I thought this was going to be the night in which Seattle got their first-ever victory over the Galaxy in league play. Turns out, they may have to wait until the playoffs for their next opportunity, and by that point, it's either Ricketts or Saunders filling in.

Well, to be honest, the Sounders do have a chance to rectify their misfortunes with reprising their efforts in the U.S. Open Cup from last year on July 12, but that too isn't a guarantee with the performance delivered by Perk.

On the flip side, the Galaxy are going to be sweating on the health of Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza, who came down with injuries, forcing Bryan Jordan and Gregg Berhalter into the mix. Already Los Angeles are thin in their backline and they are going to likely be a bit thinner heading into Saturday's match with the Chicago Fire at the Home Depot Center.

“0-0 is not the best result for your team, I mean, I think three points is what we deserved, but we didn’t give up a goal and that’s a credit to our back line. We don’t concede many goals," Perk admitted. "Whether it’s me, (Josh) Saunders or (Donovan) Ricketts, it seems like we’re always giving zero or one goal. When Omar (Gonzalez) went down I was thinking, maybe we should take the draw, 0-0 is not the worst result with both our center backs down.”

And this was not a good night for the finishers. Juan Pablo Angel and especially Chad Barrett were simply awful. Easy chances, all wasted. Not even David Beckham getting minutes off the bench could prevent Los Angeles from being consigned to a four-to-one point split. The only fireworks that came out were the ones in the sky, and they were long after the match was over.

“It was a weird game," team captain Landon Donovan admitted. "It’s not often that you start a game with one of your DP’s on the bench, your third string goalie and within a half hour you have to take off one of your center backs. It was a weird game, but given all of that, I was really proud of the adjustments that we made, the effort was good, we just weren’t sharp. All in all I think that we’re actually pretty proud of the performance we put in given everything that happened tonight.”

“I’ve been out for three weeks; haven’t been able to do anything for three weeks," Beckham said. "So, it’s good to be able to be back out there again, of course.  Obviously I’ve got a week until the next game so it’s going to be a good week. I didn’t expect to play in this game. I’ve had an epidural and a cortisone injection last week and seemed to react well and took the pain away. Obviously the fracture is still there, but the pain’s died down a bit.”

There is a good possibility that Mr. Beckham will be coming off the bench again—maybe earning more minutes, but not starting—against the Fire. Still, the night belonged to Perk. Hands down.

"We have three great goalkeepers," Arena concluded. "Perk we’ve had for about a year and we could see as he got some reserve games his confidence grew, he got the experience that he needed. I think tonight he looked like a guy that’s played. He’s an experienced player at the youth level. He’s played in international competition. We didn’t throw a player into the game that’s going to run around like his head is chopped off.

"I think the game he got last week in Open Cup was good for him and obviously, playing tonight at home makes it a little easier for him. All I can say he’s a keeper we can put in there and be successful.”

At least the Punjab uniforms looked nice.

And as previously mentioned, the LA Galaxy take on the Chicago Fire at the Home Depot Center on Saturday, July 9. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT and will be televised by Fox Soccer Channel.