The Galaxy had one clear mission heading into Wednesday’s game with FC Dallas: make sure no one got hurt.
Winning? Well, that would be nice too. But after entering the day with a list of unavailable players that was almost as long as the starting lineup, it was safety first.
Turns out the Galaxy were able to make both things work, emerging from the game seemingly unscathed and with a victory, with first-half goals from French newcomers Rayan Raveloson and Kévin Cabral sparking them to a 3-1 victory before an announced crowd of 16,453 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
The Galaxy’s second-half score came from Ethan Zubak, who picked up his first goal of the season off a 55-yard Nick DePuy pass six minutes after the intermission.
Franco Jara came off the Dallas bench to spoil Jonathan Bond’s shutout in the 71st minute, but that did little to spoil the night for the Galaxy (8-4-0), whose three goals and two-goal margin of victory matched season highs.
The result also ended a two-game losing streak at home and moved the team within two points of idle Sporting Kansas City and the second spot in the Western Conference standings.
Just as important, however, was the fact that everyone walked off the field under their own power.
That hasn’t always been the case lately.
The Galaxy lost Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, who shares the league’s scoring lead, to a calf injury before their last game even started.
And center back Sega Coulibaly didn’t last much longer, coming out before halftime with an abductor injury. As a result, the 10 players the Galaxy were missing Wednesday may have be better than the 10 they started.
In addition to Hernández and Coulibaly, starting center backs Daniel Steres (hamstring) and Derrick Williams (suspension) were out with injuries while starting midfielders Efraín Álvarez and Jonathan dos Santos, who are off on international duty.
In their place the Galaxy bench consisted of seven players with a combined 33 games of MLS experience. Two — defender Josh Drack and midfielders Daniel Aguirre — didn’t sign with the team Wednesday morning.
Two others are teenagers.
And with the exception of Williams, who will return from a six-game suspension for the team’s next game July 17, it may be later rather than sooner before the Galaxy return to anything approaching full strength — bad news for a team that will finish July by playing four games in 14 days.
In the meantime, Galaxy coach Greg Vanney is adapting.
He started Raveloson, a midfielder, at center back Wednesday, and Raveloson rewarded him with his first MLS goal in his second game.
That came in the 17th minute when Raveloson, who has been in the U.S. less than two weeks, won a wrestling match with Dallas defender John Nelson to get to a Víctor Vázquez corner kick, then headed it in from about 10 yards out.
Cabral doubled the margin 10 minutes later with his first MLS goal, although Sebastian Lletget did most of the hard work, battling Dallas’ Edwin Cerrillo to the end line before slipping the ball into the middle of box for an unmarked Cabral, who had an easy right-footed finish.
The assist was the team-leading third of the season for Lletget, who left after the game to join the U.S. national team in Kansas City, Kans.
It’s unlikely he’ll be back until early August, leaving Vanney with another big hole to fill.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.