AN EARLY BLITZ saw LA Galaxy bounce back with a 3-2 win over FC Dallas to go top of the MLS Western Conference last night.
Giovani dos Santos and Robbie Keane struck in the opening quarter-hour as Galaxy returned to winning ways after a three-match run without victory, with the MLS defending champions leapfrogging Vancouver Whitecaps and Dallas to lead the West.
Steven Gerrard scored the clinching goal for LA as they rose to 50 points, two ahead of the Whitecaps, while Dallas (47) dropped to third, just a point clear of Seattle Sounders, who are undefeated in five games.
Bruce Arena’s Galaxy started their defence of the 2014 MLS Cup with just three wins from 12 games but have recovered in the second half of the 2015 campaign, with mid-season signings Dos Santos and Gerrard again playing critical roles against Dallas.
Dos Santos opened the scoring in the 11th minute with a clever flick from Gyasi Zardes’ cross, while the Mexico international teed up Keane three minutes later as the home team surged into a 2-0 lead at Stubhub Center.
Michael Barrios dragged the visitors back into the contest in California with a looped header 10 minutes before the interval but Gerrard’s quick reflexes stretched Galaxy’s advantage again in the 57th minute after Dallas failed to clear a corner.
Atiba Harris’ goal gave Dallas some hope in the 86th minute but Arena’s men held on.
I live in England. Watched the game in a packed pub. They cheered and sung football’s coming home and then went about their business. I can honestly say the fans are not getting carried away. The media, they just can’t help themselves.
Also possible that they’ve just had a very kind run of fixtures.
@Sean Moore: they have had a nice run of fixtures but why would anyone care.
@Sean Moore: hasn’t stopped England getting knocked out in the past which is kind of the point.
Like them or not the the English football league is arguably the best football league in the world what’s surprising is that it’s been 28 years since their last semi final on the world cup
@Jim: it’s still a technically inferior and grossly overated domestic league in my opinion, but a very well drilled and organised current national team.
@Jim: It is a good league but its not down to English players, italian; spanish, dutch, french etc, make it the league it is
j
No way they’ll beat Croatia
@Cathal: Ir France. Or Belgium.
Its not coming home. Finito.
Everyone seems to know he score we’ve seen this all before England gonna throw it away.
Good luck to them- playing as a team no egos.
Unlike Slippy, Rio, Carra, JT et al. They are all the experts now. No wonder Scholes walked away .
Englands golden generation failed due to previous coaches believing they could play other teams off the park with attacking football. This was a huge mistake. The likes of Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard were all amazing players but never had the technical ability to to play the tika taka of Spain or the disciplined attacking tactics of say Germany. Southgate has been brilliant as he has done a Mourinho where he has made them ultra defensive while also picking lesser names based on their speed, energy and work rate over their reputation so you have players like Lingard, Delph, Loftus-Cheek, Pickford getting chosen ahead of Jack Wilshire, Rooney, Walcott, Hart etc.
I’ve no doubt England’s golden generation would have cruised to WC semi finals also had a manager like Mourinho been in charge.