Photo by Jerome Miron / USA Today Sports Images
By ADAM TROXTELL
With both teams operating somewhat shorthanded, the LA Galaxy’s missing pieces were more evident against FC Dallas.
Tesho Akindele came off the bench to give FCD a 2-1 comeback victory against the Galaxy at Toyota Stadium on Saturday night. Without striker Robbie Keane again, the Galaxy were unable to produce anything more than a Gyasi Zardes header against a makeshift FCD defense.
Without both Matt Hedges and Zach Loyd, FCD had to defend with Walker Zimmerman and usual left back Moises Hernandez in the center of defense. The back line face five Galaxy shots, three of them on target, while the FCD attack offered double in return.
After Zardes’ opener, Mauro Diaz produced FCD’s answer by playing Blas Perez in behind the defense. Diaz then found Akindele on the wing for the winner with just four mintues remaining to hand FCD a valuable win.
FCD spent much of the first half backing off of the Galaxy, perhaps showing some concern over the missing defensive pieces. Yet in the midst of this caution, the attack went to work.
Castillo in particular was lively, producing a save from Jaime Penedo in the 36th minute with a right footed shot that didn’t quite curl out of the goalkeeper’s reach.
The Galaxy thought they had the opener just before halftime when Ignacio Maganto sent a rebound from a free kick past Dan Kennedy in the FCD goal. Tommy Meyer was standing in an offside position, though, and the referee’s assistant determined he was far enough in Kennedy’s way for the flag to go up.
The visitors did start the second half better, and soon benefitted from it. Zardes shook Je-Vaughn Watson and produced enough space to head Stefan Ishizaki’s corner into the net for a 1-0 lead.
That sparked the FCD attack into action, and with 13 mintutes to go, it was all level. Diaz dribbled straight at the Galaxy back line before neatly lifting a pass over the top of everyone for Perez to meet it. The Panamanian took a touch around Penedo before finishing into an empty net.
Before eventually scoring the winner, Akindele could have, himself, produced the equalizer. Castillo’s low cross was corralled by Perez at the left post, and instead of shooting, the striker centered for Akindele, who skied his shot from seven yards out.
The 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year made amends with four minutes to go, taking Diaz’s pass down the left before tucking inside of Dan Gargan and curling a shot far post.
With the win, FCD remains level with the Vancouver Whitecaps at the top of the Western Conference. A visit from New York Red Bulls is next for FCD this Friday, while the Galaxy head to the east coast to take on Orlando City next Sunday.
I’m late on this post … just wanna say Galaxy are best when DLG is at right back. Don’t know why he’s not playing more in that position.
How in the world is Atiba Harris still being paid to play soccer in MLS? Let alone start a match?
Complain about Dan Gargan all day, but having Atiba Harris start somewhere in your lineup is a blemish on the overall product FCD put out there – and theirs is pretty solid in 2015. A lot of positives, but every single time I watch this team it’s a major takeaway.
That’s true… and anyone who gets overrun all game long by Baggio Husidic definitely isn’t an outside back. I’m surprised Acosta was playing in midfield instead of in the position that Pareja keeps trying to shoehorn Harris into.
This was such a better played game than the RSL game, and showed that the Galaxy do have a few people that can move the ball around. But they have nothing going on up top. They generate so few scoring chances that right now their best hope is usually a 0-0 draw. Hopefully RK coming back, and SG coming in will help that, but I kind of feel like teams like Seattle, Dallas, NE, and even C-bus have moved past us offensively.
Bad Dan Gargan…. BAD!!
Yeah…replacing Sean Franklin with Gargan was kind of a…downgrade, and they’ve never filled that hole. You could live with Gargan as your backup outside back but when he’s your starter…yeesh.
For all the young homegrown forwards LA has produced, they have not done a very good job finding or developing young defenders or young mids. Surely there is SOMEBODY in the vast city that is LA who can play right back better than Gargan? Right backs are just not THAT hard to find.
Gargan did fail to step to Akindele. But, Gargan did help us win The Cup last year.