L.A. Galaxy advance to the SuperLiga semifinals after one of the most remarkable games of the season on Tuesday night.
Scoring four goals in the first 18 minutes it looked like the Galaxy had secured their trip to the semis, but FC Dallas fought back to 4-3 and only two goals by Landon Donovan and Carlos Pavon, in a tense last ten minutes, clinched the victory 6-5 for Galaxy.
A corner delivered by Donovan in the third minute found Gordon unmarked at the near post who headed past FCD keeper Dario Sala for the first goal, the 12th minute again saw Donovan putting the ball into the box, this time to find Klein who scored his first goal for Galaxy.
Six minutes later Gordon and Harmse had put two more into the back of the net and Galaxy were up 4-0. FCD created plenty of opportunities, but it wasn’t until the 43rd minute that Alvarez scored their first goal for from a ball put into the box by center back Drew Moor.
Pressing hard after the half time break FCD missed a series of chances, with a 47th minute goal by Ruiz ruled offside by the linesman.
It took until the 78th minute for Toja to slot in the second for FC Dallas, followed four minutes later by Alvarez second goal of the game taking the scores to 4-3.
With victory still a possibility FCD continued to fight even after Donovan put another one away for Galaxy in the 84th minute, but despite two goals from Ruiz and Thompson in stoppage time FC Dallas’ hopes were crushed by Carlos Pavon who struck in the fifth minute of stoppage time to seal L.A. Galaxy’s place in the semis; his first goal in seven games for the Galaxy.
FC Dallas ended the night having taken 25 shots on goal, while L.A. Galaxy scored their six goals with only eight shots.
The game equaled the MLS league record for the most goals scored in a single game, also set by the Galaxy in 1998, although SuperLiga games will not count towards official league records.
L.A. Galaxy will now advance to the semifinals of the SuperLiga, which will be held on August 14-15th, placings and opponents are still undecided.
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