The Los Angeles Galaxy came to Pizza Hut Park knowing a victory would put them into the SuperLiga semifinals. And after just 19 minutes against FC Dallas, it looked as if the job had been completed. But the Galaxy had no idea what a wild evening was yet in store before hanging on for a 6-5 win.
"It was great to get through. That's the first thing that we accomplished tonight was winning the match. Scoring six goals against Dallas at home is something that's very difficult to do. Conceding five wasn't good," Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop said.
"It was just one of those games where we get up 4-0 within 17 minutes and when that happens in a game, you don't know what to do. Dallas was trying to get people forward and did a great job of getting back into the game. Until we got that sixth one, I was not relaxed."
By the time the first 18 minutes had been played, the visitors already had a 4-0 lead. L.A.'s first goal came in the third minute when Landon Donovan got his first of three assists in the game as he set up Alan Gordon off a corner kick.
Donovan then found Chris Klein in the middle of the FCD box in the 12th and Klein score his first goal since coming to the Galaxy from Real Salt Lake on June 21. Gordon added a second tally in the 15th after a great feed from Kevin Harmse and the two L.A. players switched roles on Harmse's tally in the 18th.
But Arturo Alvarez started the fightback just before halftime with the first of his two goals, and after Toja scored in the 78th minute and Alvarez added his second four minutes later, the lead was down to one. But Donovan scored on a breakaway to make it 5-3, and after a Carlos Ruiz goal, Carlos Pavon scored after a great feed from Donovan for the Galaxy's final score of the evening.
"Our finishing was almost perfect," Donovan said. "We can obviously defend better. We understood that if you got down 4-1 at home, you're going to come out flying to get goals back. They (FC Dallas) are a good team with good players and eventually, they are going to break you down."
Slow starts had plagued the Galaxy in their first two SuperLiga games; they survived the first with a win against Pachuca, but lost to Chivas in the second. But the fast start -- highlighted by the two goals from Gordon -- put those doubts to rest.
"In our last two games, we didn't start that well," he said. "We addressed that and couldn't have asked for a better start but didn't finish the game too brightly. Ninety minutes is a long time and I was pleased with our attitude to start the game and thought we went at them and started to test them out. We scored some very good goals early."
Said Gordon: "I think I've been motivated since I got back from injury. I've been itching to get on the field for four months. I have to fight in every game to solidify a position because we have a lot of good forwards. Every opportunity that I get, I just try to stay sharp. Tonight it just worked out."
Besides Donovan and Gordon, one of the other stars of the evening was goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who came up with six saves, several of highlight-reel quality.
"We're happy to win but I'll never be happy after we give up five goals. I think with the quality of players that we have that even though they threw a lot of players at us, we should still be able to manage," Cannon said. "I give Dallas credit. They have some good players and played with a lot of energy after being down for a long time. When they were down 4-1, they could have just hung their heads. But you have to give them credit for knocking on the door. It was one of the best games in MLS this year."
Donovan also offered high praise for Pavon, who he set up for the Galaxy's final goal of the game well into added time.
"It was good," Donovan said. "He was working hard because we got chances where he had a lot of space. I had the ball a few times and wanted to play him, but didn't want to lose the ball. It was nice to find him at the end. I was waiting for the defender to come over and found him. In front of the goal, he's quality."
The Galaxy head coach admitted that even though the win wasn't pretty, it was the end result that mattered the most.
"To get through to any semifinal competition, you have to commend the club and players for getting us through," he said. "No matter what happened, we got through. We look forward to our semifinal."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
