Sergi Palencia’s shot came from the center of the box in the 93rd minute, aimed toward the top-left corner with FC Dallas still holding a 1-0 lead over Los Angeles Football Club. Jonathan Sirois stopped it, and Dallas soon earned a free kick that helped carry the match toward its final whistle.
That was the save with the loudest clock attached to it. It was not the only one that mattered.
Sirois finished his 100th MLS regular-season match with three saves, each arriving at a different pressure point: the 13th minute, just after halftime and deep into stoppage time. FC Dallas’s 1-0 victory at Toyota Stadium was built on Osaze Urhoghide’s header, but it survived because the goalkeeper kept answering when the game offered LAFC a chance to change its shape.
Ebobisse gets the second-half chance
LAFC tested him again soon after the interval. In the 49th minute, Jeremy Ebobisse attempted a finish from very close range after Armindo Sieb’s headed pass. Sirois saved the ball in the top center of the goal.
The timing made that intervention especially valuable. Dallas had taken the lead through a 34th-minute corner, with Joaquín Valiente’s delivery finding Urhoghide for a header from the center of the box into the top-right corner. LAFC had the rest of the match to chase the equalizer, and Ebobisse’s opportunity arrived just four minutes into the second half.
Instead of resetting the match at 1-1, the save left Dallas with the advantage it had earned from one precise set piece. That distinction shaped everything that followed. A one-goal lead gives every subsequent shot a little more importance, and Dallas never located the second goal that would have made the ending comfortable.
The Hoops did create enough of their own threat to complicate the idea that they simply sat back. Christian Cappis missed from the right side of the box in the 54th minute. Santiago Moreno’s attempt went high a minute later, and Shaq Moore had a shot blocked from the left side of the box in the 69th.
Sebastien Ibeagha forced a save from Hugo Lloris in the 78th, while Moore made Lloris work again late from a difficult angle.
Still, the scoreboard remained stubbornly thin. FC Dallas finished with 13 shots to LAFC’s 11, and possession was nearly even—48.4% for Dallas, 51.6% for the visitors. Those figures describe a close contest; they do not diminish Sirois’s contribution. LAFC put three attempts on target, and all three were saved.
