Landon Donovan will make his final regular season visit to Frisco this weekend as the LA Galaxy are in town to battle FC Dallas.
LA has already wrapped up a playoff berth while FC Dallas hopes to do so this weekend with a win over their Western rivals. LA is also looking to keep pace with the Seattle Sounders for the league’s Supporters’ Shield trophy, given to the team that finishes first overall in the standings.
The Galaxy come into this match unbeaten in their last 10 matches, including a 3-0 victory last weekend at home over Toronto FC. Donovan broke the all-time MLS assist record in that match while Robbie Keane extended his MVP campaign with his 18th and 19th goals of the season.
TICKETS - FC Dallas vs LA Galaxy - Sunday, October 12th 6:00PM Toyota Stadium
The two sides have met twice already this season, both coming in California. Each time the Galaxy got the best of FCD in two separate 2-1 victories.
Injury Watch
Going into Sunday’s game, Bruce Arena’s squad is fairly healthy with one only long-term injury to report. Defender Todd Dunivant is dealing with a left groin tear. Robbie Rogers is also a question mark for Sunday’s game as he picked up an injury last week.
International duty
The Galaxy have a slew of international call ups that they are dealing with as well this weekend. Donovan and Omar Gonzalez were called up by Jurgen Klinsmann to play on Friday.
Donovan is expected to still make it to Frisco in-time for Sunday’s game.
Robbie Keane on the other hand has been called in by Ireland for upcoming Euro qualifiers.
Key Matchups
Tesho Akindele vs Leonardo – The attack has to find a way through Akindele for FCD to see some success this weekend. The Rookie of the Year candidate has been quiet these last few weeks but if he wants to make a big splash at the end of the year, doing it against the Galaxy is the way to go.
#VoteForTesho for 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year
Matt Hedges vs Alan Gordon - Donovan will still get a lot of touches in this one, even if he comes off the bench. But expect Gordon and Gyasi Zardes to carry the weight of the attack for the Galaxy this weekend. Gordon has been on fire since joining the Galaxy earlier this summer and given Keane’s absence, he will be looking to make sure the Galaxy remain in the Supporters’ Shield race.
Key Player for the Galaxy
Landon Donovan - While Donovan may not go the full 90 in this one due to his play with the United States national team on Friday, he is still the biggest threat on the field for the Galaxy. He isn’t just the all-time goal scoring king in MLS but he is now the assist king as well. He always finds a good way to lead the attack but he is still deadly within the penalty box too.
Projected Lineup
Arena has stuck with his 4-4-2 formation again this season, with the occasional look of a diamond midfield.
Goalkeeper: Jamie Penedo; RB: A.J. DeLaGarza; CB: Tommy Meyer, Leonardo; LB: James Riley; RM: Stefan Ishizaki; CM: Juninho, Baggio Husidic; LM: Landon Donovan; FW: Alan Gordon, Gyasi Zardes
Keys to three points
Given the absences from both sides, this one could come down to the play in the midfield. Last weekend in Vancouver, the Whitecaps dominated play in the midfield against Dallas. For FCD to win this game they have to be smart with the ball and limit what the Galaxy can do on the counter-attack.
LA is a very strong team from front to back but they do give up chances on the outside. FCD will want to use their speed on the wings to spread out the Galaxy. LA doesn’t have the speed to match Dallas on the outside.
Defensively, FCD has to find ways to limit the chances created by Donovan and even players like Juninho out of the midfield. Gordon and Zardes do excellent jobs at finding space in the penalty box to poke in a rebound or cause issues with defenders on crosses into the box.
FC Dallas knows that a win gets them into the playoffs. It is as simple as that.
