In FC Dallas' first two SuperLiga matches, a pair of 1-1 draws, the Hoops felt they were victimized by some refereeing decisions that left them with two points in the standings instead of six.
But on Tuesday night at Pizza Hut Park, the Hoops had nobody to blame but themselves as they fell 6-5 to the Los Angeles Galaxy, a loss that eliminating them from SuperLiga. FCD dug themselves an early 4-0 hole as L.A. hit for four goals in the first 18 minutes. They did outscore the visitors 5-2 the rest of the way, but in the end, it wasn't enough.
"I didn't like the way we started the game. I thought that our heads weren't in the game. We didn't start with the same intensity that we had in the last two SuperLiga games, which was disappointing," said FCD head coach Steve Morrow. "We certainly raised our game against Pachuca and Chivas but failed to do that in the first half tonight. I told them at halftime that I still felt that we could win the game. We came very close but at the end, we couldn't stop goals from going in, which was disappointing."
The FCD coach didn't notice anything amiss about his team before kickoff but after L.A.'s first goal in the third minute, he definitely realized that something wasn't right.
"Sometimes you do get a feeling before the game, but I thought we were OK," Morrow said. "Sometimes you don't know until you step onto the field. I could see in the first five minutes that our preparation and mentality weren't right early in the game and we got punished for it."
Morrow was quick to credit Los Angeles goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who had six saves on the evening, several of which prevented FCD goals, for his solid performance.
"I thought he made some unbelievable saves, especially the one to start the second half," Morrow said. "We thought if we could have gotten a goal early in the second half and a couple of early goals, it would have put them under early pressure."
After the early onslaught, Arturo Alvarez pulled a goal back in the 43rd minute, his second tally in three SuperLiga games. But Cannon robbed Dominic Oduro in the second minute after the restart, and the Hoops didn't find the back of the net again until the 78th minute when Juan Toja converted to make it 4-2.
Alvarez added a second in the 82nd and after Landon Donovan scored in the 84th, Carlos Ruiz answered for FCD in the 91st. A tap-in by the Galaxy's Carlos Pavon five minutes into stoppage time proved to be the game-winner but the Hoops made it interesting with a goal a minute later by Abe Thompson that cut it to 6-5.
Morrow feels that had his side been able to break through against Cannon earlier than in the 78th minute for their second goal, they might not have run out of time.
"It was a long time before that first goal came and I think that was because of Joe Cannon," Morrow said. "He made a couple of unbelievable saves on Dominic Oduro. I thought that the offside call on Carlos' (Ruiz) goal was harsh as well. If we had gotten those two goals, the second half would have been a lot different."
Just after Cannon slapped Oduro's shot when he was all alone in the goal area, Ruiz knocked home a bicycle kick in the 48th minute for an apparent goal, but it was waved off after the Guatemalan international was deemed to be offside.
"I think we came to play," Toja said. "When they scored four goals on us early, it was tough. I think that it's always hard to be one of the main players on the field. I felt like I played pretty well. We did pretty well but it was a complicated game going down 4-0. But what to take out of it is that you learn that you have to play for 90 minutes."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
