The Galaxy prepare for their second game of their Independence Day home-stand against FC Dallas again with the sense that their best play hasn’t come yet. LA’s struggles continued last week against Columbus, with 2 penalties deciding the game and various chances during the run of play squandered by poor shot selection. The Galaxy were certainly heading for defeat when a defensive gaffe by Omar Gonzalez allowed Bernardo Anor a free header in the 76th minute before Robbie Keane grabbed two goals from the spot in the last 10 minutes of the game to seal a much-needed 3 points.
However, the win more than likely felt empty by the continued woes of the team. The last 15 minutes for LA seem to be the worst, with 14 goals given up in that span and 5 of those goals becoming point-losing goals. Despite having 23 shots on goal, only 4 made it on frame with Keane’s 84th minute shot that struck the crossbar being the closest chance LA had to scoring in open play.
Dallas itself has been struggling as of late and comes into town on a nearly 2 month old win-less streak. While the tandem of Blas Perez and Kenny Cooper have done the brunt of the offensive work this year, it was the defense that carried Dallas to its early season success and also has contributed to their latest slip in the standings. Dallas has given up 2 or more goals in Being away from home hasn’t help Dallas much either as they haven’t won an away game since the first month of the season.
It’s beginning to feel like a broken record for LA. It seems they know what they must do to get back on track but seem either unable or unwilling to put together a decent 90 minutes of play over the last month and a half of play. Bruce Arena made mention of being embarrassed after the San Jose game, but it doesn’t look like the team is doing any better now than it did a week ago. It’s hard to predict which LA team is going to come out for this game, but LA must out guns blazing and put chances on goal because Dallas is in the same place and will be that much hungrier for a win. If they don’t, Dallas can easily do damage despite their current run of form.
(image courtesy of USA Today Sports)
