What we learned in FC Dallas' 2-0 win over LA Galaxy

It felt like a pretty complete win, right?

Photo via Mike Brooks

I won’t beat around the bush here; I had very low expectations for FC Dallas going into Saturday’s home game against the LA Galaxy. Part of that may have been due to the two losses in Kansas City leading up to the game. The other part may have had to do with how good the Galaxy had been as of late (going into Saturday, they had two losses in their last 13 games, a 7-2-4 record).

It is funny how this game works at times, though. When you least expect good, something rather excellent happens. When you expect the best, the worst tends to follow. At least, that is how it feels to follow this FC Dallas team at times.

So what was it about Saturday’s 2-0 win that felt so complete? Let’s dive back into it to see if that feeling from Saturday evening still feels the same way on a Monday.

A defensive performance

For starters, this was FC Dallas's first shutout in six games—ironically, the first game under Peter Luccin. That game was also a 2-0 win at home over St. Louis.

The Galaxy did what they do best: hold the ball for stretches of time and find ways to get Riqui Puig time on the ball to do his thing. On the night, Puig got plenty of time on the ball. He had a game-high 85 passes (tied with teammate Jalen Neal). The difference was that a lot of the passes for Puig and the Galaxy were short, with direct passes in the midfield. The few times that they were able to get the ball wide, Dallas snuffed it out.

More importantly, they didn’t give the Galaxy a lot to work with inside the penalty area.