Franco Jara’s goal in the ninth minute proved the difference and Maarten Paes stopped three shots – including a mid-second half penalty kick – to earn the clean sheet as FC Dallas held on to beat the visiting LA Galaxy 1-0 on Saturday in a key Western Conference match in Frisco, Texas.

Dallas (9-6-8, 35 points) won its second straight match — having defeated Real Salt Lake, 1-0, on July 23 — after going seven games without a victory.

The win moved Dallas to fourth in the West and put some distance between itself and the Galaxy in the standings as the regular season heads into its final third.

The Galaxy (9-10-3, 30 points) have dropped four of their past five matches and have fallen to eighth in the West, one spot below the playoff line. LA trails seventh-place Portland by one point.

Dallas wasted little time asserting itself as Jara’s goal granted the home side a 1-0 lead in the early minutes. Marco Farfan spotted Jara on the run and with a step on Los Angeles defender Eriq Zavaleta and hit his teammate with a perfect pass;

Jara redirected the assist with his right foot through the legs of goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and into the left side of the box.

Paes kept Dallas in the lead when he dove to his right to stop a penalty kick by the Galaxy’s Dejan Joveljic in the 66th minute. It was the first penalty kick that was stopped by a Dallas keeper this season after the opposition had scored on the first five awarded.

The penalty kick came after Chicharito was fouled in the box by Farfan.

Paes’ shutout was the sixth of this, his rookie, season. Paes also stopped Joveljic from short range in the 90th minute as both teams were out of gas at the end.

Bond stopped five Dallas shots to keep his side in the match, and Dallas clanged two other shots off the crossbar in its win.

–Field Level Media