Zlatan Ibrahimovic found the back net twice against FC Dallas on Wednesday night.
By Ivan Yeo
It has become a common theme for the LA Galaxy this season.
Throughout the season, the Galaxy have allowed its opponents to assert themselves with early leads and on most occasions, the Galaxy rallied back to make the other side sweat it out, only too see it end up being all for naught.
Unfortunately for the Galaxy on Wednesday night, not much changed in terms of the scenario, as FC Dallas jumped out to a 3-0 lead, the Galaxy clawed back to within a goal late in the match, but time eventually ran out on this latest rally, as Dallas escaped with the 3-2 win over the Galaxy at StubHub Center.
“It followed a pattern that we had prior to the last two games,” Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid said. “We’re a team that’s always going to find goals. We found goals. We probably should have found more goals in the second half. It’s a lot easier to find goals when you’re playing at 0-0 than it is to find goals when you’re down by two or three. Just the performance defensively was not acceptable.”
FC Dallas got going in the 33rd minute. Mauro Diaz played a ball to Ryan Hollingshead at the top of the box in the center lane, Hollingshead took a quick touch before flicking a volley in the box that sailed a diving David Bingham near post. Both players help set up the Hoops’ second goal seven minutes, as Diaz played a ball out wide to Hollingshead, who crossed into the box and Cristan Colman swooped in and headed a ball that bounced inside the six-yard box, and into the back net.
FC Dallas then caught the Galaxy on a counter early in the second half. Kellyn Acosta took a ball from Colman, then sprung Michael Barrios for the penalty area. Bingham came off his line, Barrios aimed for the far post, Bingham got his right hand on the shot, but not enough to keep the ball from trickling inside the net and Carlos Gruezo came in and buried the open net shot.
“We didn’t come out in the first half how we’ve wanted to,” Galaxy left back Ashley Cole said. “Again at home, we conceded sloppy goals.”
The Galaxy did its best to make a game out of it. The Galaxy forced a turnover inside Dallas territory, Ola Kamara passed a ball to Cole, who broke for the penalty area. Cole found Sebastian Lletget, who then played Ibrahimovic into the penalty area and Ibrahimovic sent the shot past Jesse Gonzalez far post to get the Galaxy on the board in the 69th minute. The Galaxy pressed on, and almost got to within a goal in the 85th minute. Tomas Hilliard Arce sent a long ball into the penalty area, Gonzalez leaped over Kamara to punch the ball away, but he didn’t punch it far enough, Romain Alessandrini took the ball inside the box and with Gonzalez and the Dallas defense scrambling, Alessandrini sent a shot towards goal, but it went off the crossbar.
Things however continued to tilt towards the Galaxy stealing at least a point in the match. First and altercation between the FC Dallas’ Colman and the Galaxy’s Michael Ciani resulted in Colman being sent off with a straight red card in the 80th minute. the scuffle along with other stoppages meant eight minutes of stoppage time were added onto the match. The Galaxy however did not get a second goal until deep into the stoppage time when Perry Kitchen sent a long ball into the penalty area, Lletget headed a ball and Ibrahimovic one-timed a shot past Gonzalez. By then however, it was too late to press for an equalizer.
“Losing 3-0 we come to 3-2, but it’s not enough,”. Ibrahimovic said. “Every game we shouldn’t be losing two or three goals and then you have to catch the game and try to win. This is not the game; this is absolutely not the game.”
Things won’t get an easier for the Galaxy, as they head to Portland to face the red hot Timbers at Providence Park on Sunday.
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