Shorthanded LA Galaxy fall to FC Dallas

An LA Galaxy team missing key players and cohesion were second best Saturday afternoon in Frisco, falling to FC Dallas by a pair of goals.

LA Galaxy

Romain Alessandrini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were unavailable, however new signing Joe Corona was handed his first start in a Galaxy uniform.

The first real chance for LA came in the 15th minute when a fortuitous ballrolled in Ema Boateng’s direction but he scuffed the shot wide while moments later Sebastian Lletget’s blast at the corner of the 18 was high and wide.

Lletget was closer in the 22nd minute, blasting a bouncy square cross from Jorgen Skjelvic just over the bar. Soon afterwards Uriel Antuna hit a narrow cross that Jesse Gonzalez lost in the air and clanged off the right post.

LA were fortunate not to give up the opener when Dominic Badji raced onto an errant touch from Diego Polenta and rounded David Bingham only to miss an empty goal by a foot. You could argue the same for FC Dallas after an Uriel Antuna cross floated to Rolf Feltscher at the far post and his powerful half-volley smashed the crossbar.

FC Dallas would make the Galaxy pay in the second half. Rene Ziegler put away a penalty kick after Polenta was retroactively guilty of fouling Matt Hedges in the box, then Bryan Acosta took advantage of a breakdown in LA’s shape to absolutely nail a stunning blast outside the box that a sprawling Bingham could only watch scorch the net.

Efrain Alvarez was subbed on and Ethan Zubak made his senior team debut but LA were unable to mount a comeback.