LA Galaxy Take It To Dallas; Win 3-1

The name of the game this season, has been set pieces, and in a game as chippy as the one the Los Angeles Galaxy played against FC Dallas, restarts were a dime a dozen. David Beckham directly contributed to all three of the Galaxy's goals, as the LA Galaxy defeated FC Dallas 3-1. 

It was somewhat of a different lineup trotted out there by Bruce Arena, after the trouncing in Portland. Juan Pablo Angel sat on the bench, and Landon Donovan started up top with Adam Cristman. While neither forward got on the scoresheet, their creative runs were a nice contrast to Angel's usual "all by himself" routine. 

"We beat a good team tonight," said Bruce Arena. "I think both teams were fatigued by a pretty busy schedule. It wasn't going to be easy, and I thought the difference in the game was that our team showed a lot of determination. That's something you need to be able to do to neutralize Dallas. I thought Dallas came out and played real well in the first twenty minutes. Once things settled down, we played a little better. That first goal we got was critical, because it would have been real difficult to chase Dallas in the second half."

Bruce Arena has said he doesn't care where the goals come from, and tonight was surely a sharing of the wealth as Omar Gonzalez (2), Juninho (4), and Mike Magee (2) were the goal scorers. Omar's goal was considered unassisted, as Kevin Hartman went to punch away a Beckham cross but collided into George John. The ball bounced up and the mask wearing Gonzalez nudged it in with his head.

The game winner and the put away goal both came from David Beckham assists. On the first one, Beckham's free kick from just inside the corner was kept in play by Gregg Berhalter, landing and Juninho's feet. Juninho took a lazy swipe at it, and bounced it against the woodwork and in. Mike Magee's goal was a direct assist from a David Beckham corner kick, the little guy was in the right place at the right time.

The result puts the Galaxy six points ahead of FC Dallas in the west and in the whole of MLS. At the post-game press conference, Bruce Arena admitted the change in forwards was an attempt to give some energy to an attack that hadn't done well over the past month. He also said that buying Juninho's contract permanently from Sao Paolo is something the Galaxy would be interested in doing. 

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