Dallas responds to Mike Magee’s goal in quick fashion
One hundred minutes of play went by without a score in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal game Wednesday night before Galaxy midfielder Mike Magee broke the stalemate on a penalty kick for a 1-0 lead over FC Dallas, then the visitors responded with two goals in the last five minutes to win, 2-1.
The matchup against the top team in the Western Conference was the Galaxy’s second of three games in a seven-day span at StubHub Center. The busy schedule led Coach Bruce Arena to begin the game with all but three of the players who started in a tie with the New York Red Bulls three days before on the bench.
Dallas used its top starting lineup and dominated the shot count throughout the game with 26 shots compared to the Galaxy’s 11.
Galaxy goalkeeper Brian Rowe made nine saves.
Strikers Giovani dos Santos and Gyasi Zardes, the Nos. 2 and 4 leading scorers for the Galaxy, subbed in at the 74th minute. Zardes had sat out the previous two games because of a chest muscle strain.
It was a Zardes pass to Dos Santos about 25 minutes later that led to a foul call on goalkeeper Chris Seitz — a call that Coach Oscar Pareja said he disagreed with — and Magee’s goal.
The goal was the second in two games for Magee, who usually comes off the bench but served as captain Wednesday in place of sidelined defender A.J. DeLaGarza.
As overtime ticked away, the Galaxy seemed set to head to its first Open Cup final in Arena’s eight-year reign and simultaneously extend its 10-game unbeaten streak, with eight of those games in MLS play.
Instead, Dallas engineered two set pieces resulting in headers to the back of the net. The first came in the 116th minute from defender Matt Hedges, and the second was scored by midfielder Victor Ulloa in the one minute that was added to overtime.
“It’s certainly frustrating,” Arena said. “We did a terrible job, obviously, in the last five minutes of the game, and lost the game after working our [butts] off for 115 minutes. Really a naive performance at the end of the game.”
The loss was the first defeat for the Galaxy at home in 2016, and the first time the team has lost in the U.S. Open Cup at home since 2000. Reaching the semifinals was the closest the squad has gotten to hoisting the Open Cup trophy since 2006.
Though the game didn’t carry the importance of most MLS games, with the majority of starters sidelined, Dallas piled onto Ulloa after the game-winning goal while Galaxy players were left stunned.
Midfielder Baggio Husidic called the loss “the low point of the season.”
“You get on them and have them accept that responsibility for failing in that situation,” Arena said about how he would speak to the players. “There’s no excuse.”
The Galaxy now face a quick turnaround, hosting the Colorado Rapids in MLS play Saturday night at StubHub Center.
renee.griffin@latimes.com
