Galaxy take step backward in defeat
Improved Los Angeles defense cedes six goals to FC Dallas
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With a chance to move into first place in the Western Conference, though, the Galaxy reminded folks of their defenses of the not-so-distant past as FC Dallas ripped apart the Galaxy 6-3 at The Home Depot Center on Saturday.
"I have seen this before. This looked like the 2006-8 LA Galaxy," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. "We've got to make that disappear real quick. We weren't right from the start of the game."
The Galaxy remained in second place in the Western Conference but the team did not look much like a team battling for the conference's top spot against one of the weaker teams in the West. FC Dallas, who trailed the Galaxy by 14 points before the match.
But Jeff Cunningham was too much for the Galaxy defense to handle. Gregg Berhalter was booked for chopping down Cunningham from behind in the sixth minute, a foul that helped set up FC Dallas' first goal. Dave van den Bergh's ensuing free kick led to a Beckham handball and van den Bergh put his second free kick attempt into the back of the net.
Cunningham made it 2-0 in the 25th minute when he beat the Galaxy's defense and beat Donovan Ricketts from close range.
An own goal a minute later and a goal from A.J. DeLaGarza three minutes before the half sent the game even into the break.
Still, the Galaxy had little response to FC Dallas' speed. FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman attributed his team's success offensively to the advantage his team had with regards to speed (attackers Cunningham and David Ferreira versus LA defenders Berhalter and Tony Sanneh).
Arena initially disagreed with the statement but said the Galaxy did themselves in by not handling FC Dallas' speed well.
"If we had to go out in the track tomorrow and had a race with Dallas tomorrow, they probably beat us," Arena said. "Our problem (Saturday) was that we allowed it to be a track meet and not the kind of soccer game we needed it to be and we got beat for it."
It wasn't until the 71st minute, however, that FC Dallas was able to find the back of the net. Cunningham beat Berhalter on the right side, dribbled the ball into the penalty area and again beat Berhalter. With space to move, Cunningham sent a ball to Dax McCarty, who redirected a shot past Ricketts.
The match-winner came in the 82nd minute and touched off a three-goal spurt in six minutes. McCarty whipped a ball from the right side in to Atiba Harris, who buried a header past Ricketts.
"We got a little naïve, and we let it get away from us. 3-2, we still had a chance to win the game," Landon Donovan said. "Then, they scored a good goal for 4-2. And then all of us, especially us the older players, needed to be better there not to be embarrassed, and we have to learn from that."
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Ferreira and Cunningham tore down the field on a breakaway one minute later and Ferreira kept it himself and buried a shot from 10 yards out past Ricketts.
FC Dallas was not done, however. Cunningham found himself with the ball unmarked on the right side of the area and ripped a shot past Ricketts.
Edson Buddle got a tiny bit of reprieve as he buried a header in the 90th minute but it was not nearly enough.
After the game, Donovan and Ferreira were involved in a bit of a fracas, and Donovan eventually was involved in some pushing and shoving with FC Dallas newcomer Daniel Hernandez.
"It was nice to see that we had a little bit of fight in us at the end of the game," Arena said. "It would have been nice if we saw some of that in the 90 minutes before that incident."
While FC Dallas' rout was historic -- the six goals were the most allowed by the Galaxy in club history -- Arena said it could have been worse.
"That's remarkable. I'll be honest with you -- we got away with murder getting out of here with six goals tonight. It could have been worse," he said.
Still, Arena said the match was a bad loss, a terrible performance and one that left no positives, his hope was that it was a one-off performance.
"This is our 25th game this year. There is no reason to use this game as the means for evaluating what we do well and don't do well," Arena said. "This is just a bad game and if we analyze it too much and dwell on it too much we're not going to do well in our last five games."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
