Photo by Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports
By RYAN TOLMICH
Just days after Landon Donovan’s international send-off, FC Dallas spoiled the LA Galaxy’s party while ensuring their own would continue into the postseason.
FC Dallas clinched a spot in the postseason Sunday at Toyota Stadium with a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy, who will now head into the start of their two-part series with the Seattle Sounders level as co-Western Conference leaders.
It was the Galaxy that opened Sunday’s scoring through Stefan Ishizaki, who chipped FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz in the 21st minute.
After being played through by Alan Gordon, Galaxy forward Gyassi Zardes ran towards the right corner before crossing into the center of the box. The ensuing FC Dallas clearance was headed right to Ishizaki, who took a touch past a pair of defenders before looping the ball up and over Seitz to give the Galaxy the 1-0 lead.
The Galaxy lead remained until shortly after halftime, when FC Dallas forward David Texeira struck for an FC Dallas equalizer.
Texeira’s finish came as a result of an Andres Escobar through ball, as the Colombian forward threaded the ball through the Galaxy backline to put Texeira in all alone. The Uruguayan finished past goalkeeper Jaime Penedo with his first touch to level the scores.
The visitors looked to be well on their way to earning a share of the points until substitute Dan Gargan went down with an injury in the 86th minute. With Gargan sidelined and the Galaxy down a man, FC Dallas took full advantage via a Fabian Castillo goal that saw the hosts punch their ticket to the postseason.
Castillo’s finish came via a rebound, as Escobar’s original shot was parried back into play by Penedo. Castillo, lurking in the center of the box, headed the ball home into the wide open net, sending Toyota Stadium into a frenzy as the team clinched playoff soccer.
With the win, FC Dallas pick up their 51st point of the season, which puts the club just one point behind Real Salt Lake for the crucial third place position. FC Dallas returns next weekend against the lowly Colorado Rapids, while the LA Galaxy kickoff their Supporters’ Shield series against the Sounders Sunday.
Here are the match highlights:
Heart Bruce
Good game, great action, and most surprisingly of all, decent referees. Bummer to see the first official go off at halftime with an ankle knock, but I think both Kelly and Guzman handled the game much better than the usual refs (can’t say I can recall seeing either of them as a first official for an FCD match this season off the top of my head). Also, hats off to the ARs…there were several possible offside calls that they got right, most notably the Texeira goal. Nothing to complain about on the red card, you can’t dive in from behind like that, even if (and I’m not saying there was or wasn’t) there is embellishment on the part of the player being fouled. I’m just glad that Hernandez played a pretty good game up to that point and he didn’t lose his head 20 minutes earlier.
Looking forward to Ian telling us that LA is overhyped….
http://www.soccerbyives.net/2014/10/whitecaps-sounders-playoff.html#comment-1494758
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MLS scheduling is absurd and how in the world is Seattle and galaxy playing each other twice at the end of the season, Jesus garber.
This is not MLB or NBA, and galaxy playing fc Dallas was pointless since galaxy would be playing sounders twice in a roll.
So now what, just win 🙂 how immature from MLS
Hopefully fc Dallas wins the west and MLS regrets their stupid scheduling.
Imagine an fc Dallas vs revolution MLS cup because we all know MLS wants galaxy vs red bull or sounder vs red bull
Vancouver should run the table. Morales is the most underrated player in MLS.
Playoff intensity. And, it just gets more intense next week. I love it. Let’s Go Galaxy!
The scene was crazy after the goal. Good turnout!
All we needed was a tie, and Bruce went for the win. Someone buy the man a calculator. Absolutely pathetic that the announcers both didn’t realize this. They said over and over again how a win would be better for LA. News flash! It would yield the same benefit a tie would!
+1 Seemed like Bruce wanted to make a statement. A weird, weird statement. Sad the total lack of awareness of the mathematical situation from the booth… things we MLS fans like to politely ignore 🙂
Still, you have to be impressed by Dallas. This is not a team with a lot of A-list talent (on paper) and they gave us a headache at the SHC last month, as well. They’ll be a tough out in the playoffs.
Well, Diaz should be A list but the man just hasn’t been healthy this year. Castillo is most of the time. I really want Dallas to do well.
They take their academy really seriously.(Cause they are cheap but still.) It would be disappointing if it didn’t pay off.
I wasn’t able to watch the match—did Arena go for a win or just push for a safety goal?
Arena put on a defensive mid a few minutes before the goal. (Announcers said he was.) It didn’t really translate to more defensive play. It wasn’t so much going for the goal as just not focusing on defense.
“not focusing on defense”
Hmmm, that and the coach doesn’t live up to the quality of the players on his roster.
Fry says, “Not sure if Sigi or Bruce.”