The difference between the FC Dallas game last Saturday against Minnesota United and the game on Wednesday at LA Galaxy is quite simple. The former was a home game against a team playing basically their second choice, while the latter is road game against a first-choice team with big stars in the top half of the Western Conference.

That's night and day in a parity-driven league like MLS. Mix in a young team and a young coach and you get the poor road results.

The 2-0 loss drops FC Dallas to 8th in the West and will make it quite hard to get into the postseason.

Let's break it down.

Lineups and Tactics

Not shockingly, FCD Coach Luchi Gonzalez rolls out the same 4-3-3 lineup from the 5-3 win. When you score 5 it's not likely the coach is going to change much. Perhaps he should have. We'll come back to that.

FC Dallas' starting XI at LA Galaxy. (8-14-19) (FCD / FC Dallas)

Coach Gonzalez goes to the same sub as the MNUFC game too, bringing on Brandon Servania for Santiago Mosquera - who can apparently only go about 60-70 minutes these days - shifting Jesus Ferreira to left wing and then rather quickly back to the middle putting Paxton Pomykal on the wing.

Shortly after Pomykal went to the wing he was subbed out for Edwin Gyasi (73rd minute). Which raises the question mark in my mind as to Pomykal's health. I hope I'm wrong about that.

The last roll of the dice from Coach Gonzalez was Zdenek Ondrasek for Jesus Ferreira in the 82nd minute.

LA Galaxy in a 4-2-3-1 that collapsed into a 4-4-1-1 type look on defense.

The LA Galaxy starting XI vs FC Dallas. (8-14-19) (MLS / MLS)

LA's first sub, Uriel Atuna for Julian Araujo in the 53rd minute, was the catalyst that changed the game. Favio Alvarez for Efrain Alvarez in the 61st minute brought a more veteran presence into things.

Then Servadno Carrasco came on for Cristian Pavon in the 85th minute in a move that was mostly about Pavon' fitness I'm sure.

Goals

1-0 LA Galaxy goal. 68th minute. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who might as well have been standing still, finishes a lovely build-up down the left. Jørgen Skjelvik and Cristian Pavón work a nice give and go with a class pass from Pavon that splits Reggie Cannon and Matt Hedges. Skjelvik makes the easy cross to Zlatan for the goal.

2-0 LA Galaxy goal. 82nd minute. A PK for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He makes it look easy, Jesse Gonzalez has little chance even if he guesses correctly. Which he doesn't. Zlatan, of course, poses for the crowd and talks smack.

The penalty was drawn by Cristian Pavón when Reggie Cannon clips his heals. Another give and go, this one with Pavon and Zlatan gets Pavon inside Cannon.

Muy Feo

I'm flipping the order of the Good, Middle of the Road, and Bad this week cause I want to hit the bad first.

In hindsight, I think Coach Gonzalez made a mistake in not doing some squad rotation. When you score 5 it's really hard not to carry the team over. But FCD was gassed at the 60-minute mark. The game was there for the taking and FCD was playing some good ball right up until they ran out of juice. FCD did a lot of running and fighting against Minnesota and then traveled to LA, a place FCD almost always struggles. With three games in seven days, the squad needs some freshening and rotation. FC Dallas shots before 60 minute - 11. FC Dallas shots after 60 minute - 4.

It was interesting to watch LA play defense against FCD. Instead of a pure low-block, they used one just a bit higher toward midfield. They play a compact, mostly stationary defense. Not a lot of running and chasing. FCD has Luchi-Ball possession but they couldn't break down LA. Nor was there enough room to play over the top. As FCD tired, LA stayed fresh and exploited the FCD defense in the late going. The tactic that FCD used the week before, getting the extra man into the box, didn't work in this one. The longer the game went on the further back the FCD shots were coming from. In the end, FC Dallas had 15 shots, that's not horrible in and of itself, but only 1 was on target. 1. That's isn't going to get it done.

Compare that to LA - 11 shots, 5 on goal.

Disappointing, I thought we had better control of the game for more parts of the game, with more shots, but they were more efficient, they put away their chances, their shots were on target, ours were not and we had more shots in the box than them, yet we couldn't put them on target and at the end of the day it is going to cost you points. - FCD Coach Luchi Gonzalez

This was probably Paxton Pomykal's worst game this season. 81% passing, 1 shot, 0 dribbles, dispossessed 1 time, and 3 bad controlled pass receptions. He just couldn't get his game going, couldn't take anyone on, and was overall ineffective. Then Pomykal moved to the left wing and was subbed out. It all made me wonder if he might be injured or ill. Perhaps dealing with something we don't know about. Did he catch Cannon's illness from last week?

Jesus Ferreira was also ineffectual. The clump of action he was making last week in the hole behind the striker (below left) was missing (below right). He ended up taking only 1 shot vs LA from around the top of the box. 86% passing is above his average. But look where it all is? It's slightly wider and deeper as LAG clogged the middle in front of their defense. All his successful dribbles against LA came near midfield as well (not pictured).

Just to show it wasn't all on those two guys - it was mostly about the LA defense - the next 8 in, Brandon Servania, had 0 passes into the final third in 27 minutes of play. Servania wasn't bad - 20 touches, 89% passing, 1 key pass - FCD just couldn't break LA down.

Rough day for Reggie Cannon. He was dispossessed three times and was only 2 for 4 on tackles. He spent most of the day playing aggressively forward trying to take advantage of Pavon current fitness. But then Cannon got tired and started to break down. He was at least partially at fault on both goals. The first goal, he turned the wrong way, lost sight of the attacker, and let Skjelvik run clean into the box. The 2nd goal, he just got outrun by Pavon, which should never happen with Cannon. He's much quicker than that. Then Cannon makes the tired legs/tired mind foul for the PK. Consider it a day of learning.

In 17 minutes, Edwin Gyasi had 11 total touches. 4 passes, all backward toward midfield. 1 shot, way wide. 0 defensive actions. 2 dribbles, both failed. He was fouled once and was dispossessed once. This is not the impactful signing FCD was looking for.

El Camino del Medio

Credit to Jonathan dos Santos and Sebastian Lletget in the Galaxy midfield. I think those two guys were the biggest difference in closing down the FCD attack through the middle and stifling Pomykal and Ferreira.

El Bueno

Finally something good to say.

Matt Hedges was my Man of the Match. The FC Dallas legend passes Jason Kreis for All-Time FC Dallas starts with his 228th. Then Hedges went out and played a heck of a game. He was all over the place, constantly covering up for his teammates, relieving pressure, starting the build, and, for the most part, he did a terrific job on Zlatan when he was on the big man. 96% passing, the only Los Toros player with more than 5 passes that hit at 90% or better. 76 touches, 4 clears, 1 block, 1 key pass, 1 aerial won. Just an outstanding performance.

3rd Degree's newest contributor Austin Banks (@MisterKranks) put together a fantastic video from the last two games showcasing some of Hedges prenominal skill set.

20,128 minutes, 235 games, 228 starts, 15 goals, 1 club... and he's got a fair few years left. Amazingly only career 1 red card, earlier this season.

Matt still has years ahead of him and he is already a legend on this club, putting in those starts and those minutes, they have been earned. He is a model for all of our young players in our academy and the players in the league. - Luchi Gonzalez

I continue, despite this result, to prefer this 4-3-3 with a single pivot 6 to the 4-2-3-1 of the middle part of the FC Dallas season. I hope they continue using it. I like the extra attacker into the box as a concept. Now they need to find that over the top counter punch to make teams sit back.

Speaking of which, Bryan Acosta continues his solid play in the single 6-role replacing Carlos Gruezo. I was worried about that and so far so good. Acosta's defense has been up to par and the drifting out of position seems to have gone away, perhaps because he's on a defensive island. He's taking too many shots from deep though. I know that's part of his nature but playing as the 6 he's way too far out for that. Just keep possession and keep moving the ball forward.

Next Game

FC Dallas flew from LA to Montreal on Thursday. The team will train up in the presumably nicer weather and get ready to face the Impact on Saturday. Kickoff at Stade Saputo is set for 6:30 pm CT on Texas 21.