MLS FC Dallas

FC Dallas Tops LA Galaxy, 3-2

Published on May 31, 2018 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Dallas News Release


LOS ANGELES, Calif. - (Wednesday, May 30) - FC Dallas (6-1-5) took its' second consecutive 3-2 result over the LA Galaxy this season to pick up the club's 100th all-time win on the road tonight at StuHub Center.

Dallas is the fifth team in MLS history to reach the century mark in road wins.

Kellyn Acosta nearly put FC Dallas ahead in the fourth minute when Cristian Colman got him the ball in the middle of the field. Acosta dribbled to his left side, down the corner of the box, and got off a left-footed shot that nearly caught the far post.

Making his second start of the season, Jesse Gonzalez was alert and snuffed out a chance for Romain Alessabdrini nine minutes later. The midfielder came free, down LA's right side, and tried to beat the 23-year-old to the near post. Fortunately for FC Dallas, Gonzalez got just enough of the close-range shot to steer it wide of the near post.

Ryan Hollingshead put FC Dallas up 1-0 in the 33rd minute after an impressive passing display in the offensive third. The second-to-last pass came from Kellyn Acosta, who played a ball to Victor Ulloa. Ulloa let the ball run through his legs to buy time for Mauro Diaz, who picked up his head at the top of the box and found Hollingshead in space. Hollingshead netted his first goal since June 2, 2016, like a seasoned goal-scorer. The left back picked out the top corner of the goal behind Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham with a right-footed strike.

Diaz set up another goal for FC Dallas, his fifth of the season vs. the Galaxy, in the 40th minute. Diaz pulled the ball in centrally before using the outside of his foot to slide a low pass out to the flank for Hollingshead. The left back bent a dangerous ball to the far post that floated past two Galaxy defenders before finding Colman. The striker's textbook header bounced up off the turf and into the back of the net to Bingham's left side, giving the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Looking to get back into the game, LA Galaxy came out firing in the second half. Gonzalez made his first save of the second half in the 54th minute after Zlatan Ibrahimovic came free at the far post. Alessandrini found him with a curling cross but Gonzalez read it well and was in position to make a routine save on Ibrahimovic.

Gonzalez stone-walled the legend again in the 64th minute after Ola Kamara set up the striker with a perfect chance. Ibrahimovic tried to beat the goalkeeper low to his left side but Gonzalez got a piece of the shot, knocked it wide, and then dove on the rebound.

Two minutes later, FC Dallas took a 3-0 lead on a goal by Carlos Gruezo. The play was set up by Acosta, who found Michael Barrios free on the right side of the box. The midfielder's shot was deflected past Bingham and looking to be bouncing wide of the far post, but Gruezo pounced on his chance, beating his marker to the loose ball and heading it over the line.

Ibrahimovic pulled one back for LA in the 69th minute. The Galaxy took possession back in the midfield before Ashley Cole and Sebastian Lletget combined to find the Galaxy striker inside the area on the right, where he slid a shot to the far corner for the home team's first of the night.

LA pulled within one in the 97th minute with eight minutes added on as Perry Kitchen found Chris Pontious on the end of a long cross. His header at the top of the 18 went right to Ibrahimovic, who scored his second of the night past Gonzalez.

Lineups:

FC Dallas - Jesse Gonzalez, Ryan Hollingshead, Maynor Figueroa, Reto Ziegler, Reggie Cannon, Victor Ulloa, Carlos Gruezo, Kellyn Acosta (Roland Lamah 89), Mauro Diaz (Jacori Hayes 70), Cristian Colman, Michael Barrios (Santiago Mosquera 76).

Substitutes not used: Jimmy Maurer, Jordan Cano, Maxi Urruti, Tesho Akindele.

LA Galaxy - David Bingham, Tomas Hillard-Arce, (Chris Pontius 86) Ashley Cole, Daniel Steres (Michael Ciani 58), Jorgen Skjelvik, Sebastian Lletget, Romain Alessandrini, Ola Kamara, Servando Carrasco (Emmanuel Boateng 58), Perry Kitchen, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Substitutes not used: Emrah Klimenta, Dave Romney, Joao Pedro, Justin vom Steeg

Scoring Summary:

DAL: Ryan Hollingshead (Mauro Diaz, Kellyn Acosta) 33

DAL: Cristian Colman (Ryan Hollingshead, Mauro Diaz) 40

DAL: Carlos Gruezo 66

LA: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sebastian Lletget, Ashley Cole) 69

LA: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Chris Pontius, Perry Kitchen) 90+7

Misconduct Summary:

LA: Emmanuel Boateng (caution) 63

DAL: Cristian Colman (ejection) 80

DAL: Jesse Gonzalez (caution) 90+2

Weather: Cloudy, 65 degrees

Attendance: 18,003

Referee: Drew Fischer

Assistant Referees: Eduardo Mariscal, Jeremy Kieso

4th Official: Baldomero Toledo

VAR: Kevin Stott

FC Dallas Head Coach Oscar Pareja

On getting back-to-back wins on the road...

Yeah, it has been a great week for us. The players showed up for 80 minutes, and I'm going to say 80 minutes because I don't think the image of this game has to be the last 10 minutes or the time that they aggregated. I hope they don't get that image. But the team, for 80 minutes, did an excellent job. The tactical part was really good. They scored three goals against a great side. Unfortunately, I think with the red card, which we don't understand what happened, we just saw the review and put it in the past. The game just became long-ball and defending. They had size. They have players who are 6-4, 6-5, and we aren't that size, so it was difficult. But we held the result and we'll take the three deserved points.

How have you been able to win in places like Toronto and LA this week?

The tactical decisions of the players have been remarkable. We are finding different ways to face different teams. We have different strategies. We are changing at will, making everybody more integrated into what we want. That refreshes us and gives us different ways to win.

On being tied in points per game with SKC...

To be honest, we have been cruising in the last month. I'd rather just let these guys grind and work and earn this stuff. Putting ourselves in any ranking doesn't make us better. It's a long journey. What we're going to do is just keep working. We have to get better and every day we will work.

On the progress the team has made since it's last match in LA (May 5, a 1-1 draw vs. LAFC)...

There is not a shortcut to maturity. It's about experience... success, failures and moments like this where we have to grind out wins. I see a team that is getting mature. This will make us more mature. There's not a shortcut. We will learn. There were many positive takes today. I see a team with personality, managing the tempo, keeping control of the ball much more, getting more players involved and being effective in the back.

On the play of Ryan Hollingshead...

He did play well. And it's good that you asked me that because we had a few players today that are not regulars in the lineup. Today they came in and played very well. That will make us a better team.

FC Dallas defender Ryan Hollingshead

On his first start of the season...

It was good to be back out there... first start of the season, so I was pumped, ready to go. This is a fun place for me to play, having lived here and having a lot of friends and family here. So yeah, it was good. It was good to be on the field.

On the first goal...

Honestly, I don't remember how I got to the middle of the field. That wasn't supposed to be the plan. I was supposed to be out wide, but I know Mauro drifted out wide, and so when I saw him drifting out wide, I tried to get in the middle and get on the end of a cross. Then as he got the ball, I just realized I had tons of space at the top of the box, so I was screaming for it. He played it to my feet and it was just an open finish from there. I had to just kind of bend it around a guy to get it there, but it was good.

On his assist on the second goal...

Yeah, that was more of the game plan. Trying to find Mauro tucking inside, and let me overlap down the flank... But Mauro played a perfect ball. I had tons of space again. No one was closing me down. I looked up. I saw Kellyn in the box. I saw Colman in there. I'm like, I'm just going to put this in there and let them win it and that's exactly what happened.

FC Dallas midfielder Victor Ulloa

General thoughts on the match...

It was a tough game, especially with going down to 10 at the end. They almost had a chance to tie us, but we're just obviously happy with a huge three points.

On the strong build-up play on the first two goals...

It's something that we wanted to focus on. In Toronto, we did extremely well defensively, but we wanted to keep the ball a little bit more tonight. We were going to have some space here.

On facing LAFC at home in three days...

It's a quick turnaround. Obviously, it's going to be a huge game for us. We need three points to make these three points on the road count, so we're going to go home, recover well and get ready for the next one.

LA Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid

On if there's anything good to take from the match...

No. It followed a pattern that we had prior to the last two games. We're a team that's always going to find goals. We found goals. We probably should have found more goals in the second half. It's a lot easier to find goals when you're playing at 0-0 than it is to find goals when you're down by two or three. Just the performance defensively was not acceptable.

On what's to blame for the defensive performance...

Part of it is me. I made some lineup changes because I thought with the game coming up with Portland I thought we needed to make sure we had some guys who were fresh. So the first thing I'm going to do is analyze if I made the right decisions, but obviously there's other opportunities. We have more than 11 players on this team and when your number is called you've got to be ready. Just our intensity and our desire, our drive, our determination in the first 15 minutes was not good.

On how frustrated the team is...

I think the whole team is frustrated with today's performance. It's not just Ibra. We're all frustrated. Again, he changes how we play. We end up playing balls in the air. We've got to get on to second balls more often and our service has to improve. Our crossing is too inconsistent. When Ibra is on the field, crossing the ball and being able to get to balls in the air becomes a strength of our team, so that part of our game is improved.

LA Galaxy defender Ashley Cole

On why the LA Galaxy were unable to get a result...

We didn't come out in the first half how we've wanted to. Again at home, we conceded sloppy goals.

On how the team was forced to respond to Dallas' goals...

When we go behind we just start playing long balls. It's not ideal. We scored two goals from it today. But we have better quality than just hitting long balls. It worked today in the end, but I hope we don't keep doing that because I'm not a fan of hitting long balls. Like I've said, we have the quality to play. We just have to move and work with each other more to create chances. We're playing too much in our positions and not having the freedom.

On his frustrations with the team's form...

I think everyone's frustrated. In preseason we come here and we have a lot of new faces and we're kind of expecting from each other to really fight for the championship. There's still a long way to go, but I'll admit it's not going our way. So every day we train hard, we play well together. So when it doesn't work out on the pitch it's disappointing. It's not just me. I think all of the players are disappointed. Individually we can do better and as a team we can do better.

LA Galaxy forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic

On the game and what positives, the team can take from the loss...

Of course when you lose there aren't positive thoughts going through your head, it's never good when you lose. We have to change. We had two games on the road, today we played at home, losing 3-0 we come to 3-2, but it's not enough. Every game we shouldn't be losing two or three goals and then you have to catch the game and try to win. This is not the game; this is absolutely not the game. Even if you are in MLS or Premier League, wherever, it doesn't work like that. We need to be the leading team and play from there, not to catch the goal all the time, so obviously it's not good.

On his mindset for the game and how hard he fought...

Yes, this is my mentality. I want to win the games. I was suspended the last game, today I come to play and I just wanted to go in and play, and help my teammates, help the fans and the club to get the win, but obviously it was not enough.

On how hard the team fought...

No, because we didn't win, it's all about winning. It doesn't matter how much you give if you don't win. If the other team would be Barcelona or Real Madrid then I would say yes, we put in the hard work today and it was not enough, but we didn't play against those teams so, no.

On the team's offensive progress...

I feel it's positive and negative. The positive is that every time we are losing two or three to zero we are catching up with some goals, but it's not enough. The negative is that I feel we are a bit confused in the game and in the positions, in offense and definitely in the defense - which we have to find stability and organization and play from there. Without stability and organization, you are lost on the field, it doesn't matter how good you are.

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