Galaxy Just Can’t Strike at Dallas

The Galaxy owned the Dallas Burn in its previous two meetings with its Major League Soccer Western Conference rivals this season.

Of course, the Galaxy had its two starting forwards at its service.

Saturday night at Dallas, the Burn turned the tables on the striker-depleted Galaxy with a 2-0 victory in front of 9,289 in the Cotton Bowl.

The Galaxy, which played without Carlos Ruiz (strained right hamstring) and Jovan Kirovski (right knee tendinitis), fell to 10-8-8 and remained in third place in the conference with four regular-season games to play.

Dallas improved to 10-11-5 and jumped ahead of San Jose for fourth place.

The Burn, which will change its name to F.C. Dallas next season, was led by forward Eddie Johnson’s two first-half goals.

Johnson’s first score came on a misplay by the Galaxy in the 10th minute.

Sasha Victorine’s pass to goalkeeper Kevin Hartman was wide and with Hartman giving chase, an opportunistic Johnson pounced on the ball and shot into an open net.

Johnson’s second goal came in the 44th minute when he was again in the right place at the right time.

After Hartman saved a shot by forward Jason Kreis by re-directing it, the ball rebounded toward Johnson, who took advantage with his second unassisted goal of the game.

With 11 goals, Johnson pulled into a three-way tie for the league lead in goals scored with Ruiz, San Jose’s Brian Ching and New England’s Pat Noonan.

The Galaxy was coming off its most complete game of Coach Steve Sampson’s regime, a 2-1 victory over San Jose on Sept. 11.

In its previous two matches against the Burn, both Galaxy victories, the Galaxy outscored Dallas by a combined 7-2. Ruiz and Kirovski combined for five of those goals under former coach Sigi Schmid.

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In other MLS games:

Edson Buddle scored a career-high and team-record four goals and host Columbus beat the MetroStars, 4-2.... Diego Gutierrez scored to lift host Kansas City over San Jose, 1-0.... D.C. United ended a six-game skid against Chicago with a 3-1 win at Washington.... Steve Rolston, Taylor Twellman and Patrick Noonan each scored two goals for New England in a 6-1 victory over Colorado at Foxboro, Mass.

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Gutierrez reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press contributed to this report.