FC Dallas blinks, and Galaxy's Keane makes it pay

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Aug 17, 2015

Even though the LA Galaxy had added Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos and Sebastian Lletget (six goals in his first 11 MLS games) to its MLS Cup championship team, Bruce Arenasaid talk of his team being favored to win its fourth MLS title in five seasons was "garbage."

He looked like he knew what he was talking about, at least for the first half of Saturday's match at FC Dallas ...

A sell-out crowd at Toyota Stadium watched FC Dallas take a 1-0 only to lose to the Galaxy, 2-1, on a pair of goals five minutes apart early in the second half by Robbie Keane. The result was the third straight win for the Galaxy, which moved into first place in the Western Conference ahead of Vancouver, which lost at Sporting Kansas City, 4-3.

"It was a difficult game," said Arena. "They pressed us."
 
FC Dallas had more than 60 percent of the possession in the first half and took the lead on a goal by Michael Barrios. Dallas had been unbeaten when it scored first -- 10 wins and two draws -- and seemingly had the game in control until Keane scored in the 51st an 56th minutes.

Keane tied the game on a header off a cross from Robbie Rogers and added his second on when chested a ball played to him by dos Santos after the Mexican international had his shot saved by Dan Kennedy.

“The way we played in the first half wasn't good enough," said Keane. "We couldn't keep the ball the way that we like to and, again, we conceded another goal."



The Irish star said the halftime break allowed the Galaxy to get back into the game.

"We regrouped and got ourselves together," he said, "and in the second half you saw a certainly different Galaxy team in the way we played, got the ball down quickly into feet. Into Stevie's feet, Gio's feet, my feet, and we caused problems getting that first goal back.”

Saturday's game was the opposite of the last FC Dallas-Galaxy meeting in Frisco, where the visitors led 1-0 until late in the game when FCD rallied for a 2-1 win. FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja said the tying goal changed the complexion of the game.

“We started throwing some bodies [forward] because we wanted to win it," he said. "This team is not going to stop attacking. We have that mentality. We have gotten results like that. It gets open and then obviously, L.A. is going to have some options as well. We didn’t want to play conservative and we didn’t want to play for just one point. These guys wanted the game and they deserve all of the game, so I have to praise them.”

Pareja said the Galaxy deserved at least a point.

"The work that they've put in during the week towards this game was unbelievable. Today, they deserved more. I guess that’s the game. The quality of the players that [the Galaxy] has just showed that you cannot blink and give away two opportunities. [If you do], they'll get the points and that's what it is.”