Twelve minutes.
It took FC Dallas all of 12 minutes to assert themselves against the LA Galaxy on Saturday night. Led by Jesus Ferreira’s brace, Dallas capitalized off some sloppy plays on the Galaxy’s part and scored three quick goals, and rode it all the way to three points, leaving Dignity Health Sports Park with a 3-1 win.
“We just had a sloppy 12 minutes, and we can’t do that against better teams,” Galaxy defender Derrick Williams said. “We didn’t start the game as we wanted, we made a mistake and they punished us straight away. A better team will do that.”
The win shakes up the Western Conference standings. FC Dallas is now in second place in the conference, just one point behind LAFC, who lost to the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park earlier in the day. The Galaxy meanwhile drop to fourth in the conference.
It took FC Dallas 11 minutes to get on the board. Emmanuel Twumasi sprung Jader Obrian from the right side into the penalty area, Obrian beat Chase Gasper to the ball, which drew the attention of keeper Jonathan Bond, Obrian then played a short cross just outside the six-yard box and Ferreira buried the open net chance to give Dallas the lead.
The Galaxy were back on the attack, and thought they had equalized in the 17th minute, as Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez headed a Kevin Cabral cross right at goal, but first keeper Jimmy Maurer got his left hand on the ball to redirect the shot, then the ball deflected off the far post and Maurer got his hands on the ball, even as Chicharito pleaded his case that the ball crossed the goal line.
The Galaxy might have still been thinking about that missed chance minutes later, when FC Dallas was gifted a chance and took advantage. Rayan Raveloson played a pass, but didn’t put enough on the pass, because Paxton Pomykal intercepted the pass rather easily. Pomykal quickly played a ball to Paul Arriola, who touched a ball into the penalty area, then fired a ball despite pressure from two Galaxy defenders and the shot beat Bond far post to double the Dallas lead. Dallas completed its hot stretch in the 23rd minute, as Marco Farfan pressured Julian Araujo into a turnover, then sent a ball forward for Ferreria, who again had raced past Gasper. Bond saw that and apparently decided to leave his line to try to beat Ferreira to the ball, but not only did Ferreira beat him to the ball, but he knocked down Gasper in the process, leaving Ferreira all alone to chase down the ball inside penalty area and eventually bury the open netter for his second goal of the match, and in the blink of an eye, FC Dallas was up 3-0. Only a Douglas Costa goal on a free kick in the 67th minute kept the Galaxy from being shut out.
“I thought we weren’t up to the speed, of it right from the start,” LA Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “I felt like we were slow with the ball, we were passive sometimes, we weren’t transitioning fast enough, and they (FC Dallas) came out sprinting.”
The Galaxy’ busy stretch will continue on Wednesday, as they travel to the midwest to face Minnesota United.
