FRISCO, Texas – The LA Galaxy’s pursuit of the Supporters’ Shield will come down to their final two games of the regular season after LA dropped a 2-1 defeat to FC Dallas on Sunday evening at Toyota Stadium.
The Galaxy needed just a point to take a thin lead in the Supporters’ Shield chase, but David Texeira and Fabian Castillo scored second-half goals to cancel out a first-half Stefan Ishizaki strike to give LA their first loss in two months and bring the team’s 10-game unbeaten run to a screeching halt.
On both goals, Galaxy defensive miscues were to blame, but none was greater than on Castillo’s tally in the 87th minute. With Ishizaki off the field due to injury, the 10-men Galaxy defense were unable to clear a late Dallas throw in that fell to the onrushing Andres Escobar.
The midfielder then played the ball across the face of goal only to see his attempt punched out by goalkeeper Jaime Penedo but fall perfectly for Castillo who nodded the ball into the back of the net to seal the victory for the home side.
“It's a little bit fluky,” Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan said recalling the game winner. “A bunch of guys challenging, it falls down to Escobar, it's a decent cross, and I think if that ends up going anywhere but right to Castillo's head, it's safe. But it's one of those where it literally landed in the perfect spot.
“It's frustrating but it happens. It's part of games. We can be better, but we also were a little bit unlucky on the play. All in all, we didn't deserve to win, but I don't think we deserved to lose either.”
While Donovan was quick to note that after Dallas pulled level the Galaxy had numerous opportunities to pull ahead as forwards Gyasi Zardes and Alan Gordon failed to capitalize on their chances in front of goal.
LA’s struggles on both sides of the ball led to some harsh words from head coach Bruce Arena about the manner in which his squad squandered their opportunity to move into sole possession of first place.
“It’s the sloppy play at the end of the game that makes the difference. We didn’t execute over a simple throw-in play,” said the Galaxy boss. “We [also] had chances, but we couldn’t execute… [This loss] is not a learning experience. These are things that we should have learned a long time ago.
The defeat to Dallas means that Seattle finds themselves in the driver seat in the Supporters’ Shield chase heading into the two-game series to close out the season. If Seattle can claim their first victory in Carson since 2009, the Sounders will clinch the Supporters’ Shield on Sunday. The Sounders could also clinch the top spot in the MLS regular season and home field throughout the MLS Cup playoffs by picking up just two points in the two matches.
Meanwhile the Galaxy will need any combination of four points to give the four-time MLS Cup champions their first Supporters’ Shield since the 2011 campaign.
Although the odds may be stacked against his squad heading into the final two matches of the regular season, Arena remained defiant when asked about his team’s Supporters’ Shield prospects.
"That's fine,” Arena said after the FC Dallas defeat with a sly grin. “We know what is ahead of us."
Donovan agrees.
“I think we always knew it was going to come down to these last two games, so that's the way it goes,” he said. “It's better to have a little bit of a wakeup call now than to lose in the playoffs. We'll learn from it, and then we'll move forward.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
