FC DALLAS vs LOS ANGELES GALAXY
PIZZA HUT PARK, Frisco, Texas
May 23, 2009 (WEEK 10) / MLS Game #73
7:30 p.m. CT (FSN-SW; FSN-W)
Two of the four remaining teams with just one win thus far will both look to climb into view of the playoff line as the LA Galaxy travel to Pizza Hut Park to take on FC Dallas for the next installment in a series that has seen a ton of goals scored in recent years. The Galaxy have also lost just once this season - they have seven ties in nine games - while FC Dallas ended a three-game losing skid with a 1-1 draw with Seattle last weekend at home. The teams combined for 14 goals in three league meetings last year, after scoring 11 goals in a SuperLiga encounter the year before.
REFEREE: Paul Ward. SAR (bench): Hector Vergara; JAR (opposite): Kyle Borne; 4th: Shane Moody MLS Career: 8 games; FC/gm: 22.5; Y/gm: 2.8; R: 0; pens: 1
INJURY REPORT: FC DALLAS - OUT: GK Dario Sala (L knee); DF Steve Purdy (R knee); FW Jeff Cunningham (L hip); DF George John (R hamstring) ... LOS ANGELES GALAXY - OUT: DF Yohance Marshall (R MCL sprain); QUESTIONABLE: FW Edson Buddle (L quad tightness); DF Todd Dunivant (R ankle sprain); DF Sean Franklin (R hamstring strain); PROBABLE: GK Donovan Ricketts (R adductor tightness)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: LA: Stefani Miglioranzi
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (48 meetings): FC Dallas 17 wins (1 shootout), 64 goals ... Galaxy 23 wins (1 shootout), 87 goals ... Ties 7
AT DALLAS (24 meetings): FC Dallas 13 wins (0 shootout), 44 goals ... Galaxy 6 wins (0 shootout), 38 goals ... Ties 5
RETURN MATCH: 9/12: FC Dallas at Los Angeles Galaxy, 7:30 p.m. PT
LAST YEAR (MLS):
5/18: DAL 1, LA 5 (Oduro 54 - Klein 25; Buddle 31, 39, 85; own goal 34)
7/27: DAL 4. LA 0 (Cooper 15, 16; Oduro 36; Thompson 89)
10/26: LA 2, DAL 2 (Buddle 21; Donovan 79 - Moor 34; Sikora 39)
• The teams engaged in a wild season series a year ago, splitting the set with a win apiece (and a third match ending in a draw), scoring seven goals each. The two meetings at Pizza Hut Park were remarkable, the Galaxy winning 5-1 on May 18, and FC Dallas winning 4-0 two months later.
• The last previous meeting at Pizza Hut Park was also a wild contest, the Galaxy taking a 6-5 win in SuperLiga in Frisco, winning advancement out of Group A in the process.
• The FCD victory at The Home Depot Center in the first meeting in 2007 was the first-ever by FCD at The Home Depot Center. The Galaxy had won all eight prior league meetings between the clubs in Carson, as well as the 2005 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final. The last Dallas win against the Galaxy on the road had been Sept. 6, 2000, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
• The Galaxy won for the first time ever against FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park in league play in the 5-1 victory last year. Their last MLS win against the club in Texas came May 8, 2004 at the Cotton Bowl. The Galaxy did defeat FCD in the 6-5 match in SuperLiga in 2007 - as well as, of course, capturing MLS Cup 2004 in Frisco.
• Coaches record: Schellas Hyndman v LA: P2 W1 L0 D1 ... Bruce Arena vs. DAL: P12 W6 L5 D1
FC DALLAS
FC Dallas put an end to their three-match losing skid, coming back for a 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday evening at Pizza Hut Park. FCD has five points from nine matches, now in a tie for seventh place in the Western Conference with the San Jose Earthquakes. LAST MATCH
• FC Dallas has lost three games in a row but were back home for the first time in nearly a month, while Sounders FC were coming off back-to-back draws, the first in club history.
• The expansion side took the lead after 18 minutes. Steve Zakuani chipped the ball from the right touchline, Nate Jaqua flicked it on into the area, and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado - still forward from a corner kick - was able to hook his leg around a defender and pop the ball into the goal for his first in MLS.
• But FCD pulled even in first-half stoppage time. A clearance went to Marcelo Saragosa outside the area and he launched a diagonal ball to the right side of the box where Andre Rocha flew in to hammer a volley past Kasey Keller and inside the far post for the tying goal.
• FC Dallas head coach Schellas Hyndman made one change to the team that lost 1-0 to the Houston Dynamo the week before. Pablo Ricchetti came back into the team as Blake Wagner was dropped.
• Here's Hyndman's team (4-3-1-2): Ray Burse - Marcelo Saragosa, George John (Daniel Torres 28), Steve Purdy (Bruno Guarda 46), Drew Moor - Pablo Ricchetti - Andre Rocha, David Ferreira, Dave van den Bergh -Kenny Cooper, Jeff Cunningham (Brek Shea 24). Substitutes Not Used: Josh Lambo, Dax McCarty, Alvaro Sanchez, Anthony Wallace
TEAM NEWS
• Injuries forced Hyndman into all three of his changes by the start of the second half. George John had to come with an injured hamstring before the half-hour mark, and Steve Purdy, who had also injured a knee early in the game, came off at halftime.
• "It was like a full season tonight. I had four different center backs. It was a situation where I was comfortable in every move that was made," said Drew Moor. "Not just with the formation, but with the personnel that was brought in. It's good that when we do have injuries, we can put on guys and change our formation."
• The result was that, in the second half, Hyndman went to a 3-5-2, with Pablo Richetti playing as a sweeper behind Moor and Daniel Torres, and Marcelo Saragosa and Bruno Guarda playing as a deep midfield screen.
• "We trained a little with the 3-5-2 last week and thank goodness we did. Pablo did a great job at center (back) and I thought at that point with Brek Shea and Bruno Guarda in there it gave us a different look," said Hyndman. "It gave us what we've been missing, that bite and aggressiveness in the team and I thought the boys played a good second half."
• To start the match, Moor came out at left back, a position he said he had not played since his college days at Indiana University. About midway through the opening 45 minutes, he switched sides with Saragosa. Moor has now played everywhere across the back four this season.
• "It was fine," Moor said. "It's no different. I played there in school and with the under-20s a little bit. It feels a little different but at the end of the day, it's the same as right back."
• The other FCD change came in the first half with Jeff Cunningham, making his second consecutive start after going five games out of the first team, had to come off for an injured hip. That meant Brek Shea came on for the first time this season; Shea, in his second professional season, was drafted as a midfielder, then converted to a defender to end the 2008 season.
• "I think Brek Shea for the last couple of weeks, has done extremely well in training," Hyndman said. "One of the problems with him is that he is so versatile that you have to say what is his best position? He can be a center back, a left back, a left midfielder or a striker. You never really help the player by moving him around because he doesn't really get the feel of any position. Right now, we feel like he could help us as a striker and that he could add something up front for us."
LOS ANGELES GALAXY
The Los Angeles Galaxy played to a sixth draw in seven matches - unbeaten over that stretch - coming back for a dramatic 1-1 tie with the Columbus Crew on Sunday afternoon at The Home Depot Center. The Galaxy have 10 points from nine matches on the season, sitting in sixth place in the Western Conference, 13 points behind MLS overall leader Chivas USA.
LAST MATCH
• The defending MLS champion Crew were coming off their first victory of 2009 the week before, while the Galaxy were back home after playing to draws in both ends of a two-game road trip that extended their unbeaten streak to six games.
• It looked as if the Crew had snatched a victory in the 70th minute. Galaxy defender Tony Sanneh was stripped of the ball by Guillermo Barros Schelotto at the edge of the Galaxy penalty area, and the 2008 MLS MVP took advantage to lash home his fifth goal of the season.
• The Crew were left a man down when Danny O'Rourke was sent off in the 89th minute after a foul on Landon Donovan, receiving a second yellow card in a three-minute span.
• Then it was the Galaxy's turn to take advantage. A clearance went only as far as Eddie Lewis some 30 yards from goal, and he hammered a blistering first-time drive inside the right-hand post for his first goal on the year and the leveler.
• Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that played to a 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders FC the week before. Sean Franklin came back into the back four for Tony Sanneh, while Bryan Jordan started up top in place of Jovan Kirovski.
• Here's Arena's team (4-4-2): Donovan Ricketts - Sean Franklin (Tony Sanneh 46), Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Eddie Lewis - Landon Donovan, Dema Kovalenko, Stefani Miglioranzi (Jovan Kirovski 80), Mike Magee - Alan Gordon (Chris Klein 70), Bryan Jordan. Substitutes Not Used: A.J. DeLaGarza, Kyle Patterson, Josh Saunders, Josh Tudela
• "I don't think we showed a lot of energy, and I thought we were outcompeted on most positions on the field. Playing at noon in the heat is an excuse if you want to use it as an excuse. We certainly used it as an excuse," Arena said. "We responded a lot better in the second half. TEAM NEWS
• For Lewis, his goal came on his 35th birthday, as he returned to back four for the first time since April 18 as Todd Dunivant had taken over at left back. Lewis has started seven of nine matches on the season, with four starts in a row in the midfield before coming off the bench the Sunday before in Seattle.
• "We are still in the same rut until we really are pressed to change the way we play. We don't play adventurous enough," Lewis said. "It takes a while, and then we go down a goal, and then we get ourselves back in the game. We have to somehow transform that mentality from the kickoff."
• After starting two of the first seven matches, Mike Magee was given a second consecutive game on the left side of midfield. "I think [Mike] Magee was good today. He was our best player from start to finish. He wanted the ball in tough spots. He was confident with the ball at his feet," said Arena.
• As he had done in Seattle, Landon Donovan again reprised his role as an attacking midfielder on the right, with Bryan Jordan partnering Alan Gordon in attack. But at halftime, Donovan and Jordan switched positions.
• "I think our central midfield is getting a little bit better. We need to find a better combination of players to get our attack a little bit better," Arena said. "We've gotten better each and every game I think. We are getting close to where we want to be, but we have to get over the hump and win some games."
• With seven draws already, the Galaxy are rapidly closing on the club record of 10 in a single season, set in 2004. The league record is 13 in one year, set three times previously, last by Houston and Chivas USA in 2006.
• It was the sixth time on the season the Galaxy were able to secure a result after conceding the opening goal of the game, which they've done in seven of their nine contests (as well as playing to a scoreless draw).
• "In all honesty, I just think it's the mentality that we play with a very attack-minded lineup but we started slow," Lewis said. "Sometimes guys are scared to really get into the attack. I think we're a little too worried about the other team. We need to be worried about us. We're all aware of it. We're trying to get better."
• Second-year defender Sean Franklin was forced off at halftime with a hamstring strain, which will keep him out of action for the foreseeable future. Franklin was slowed in preseason with sports hernia surgery, but recovered to start the season and had made appearances in eight of the nine games this year.
• "Last year was a pretty special year, and I'm thankful for that," Franklin said. "This year is a lot different. I came in with the injury, the surgery, and I got that healthy. Now this. Yes, it's frustrating, but injuries do happen. I just have to take care of myself, get healthy and worry about the rest of the season later."
