It’s not a surprise that the two best teams in MLS this season are meeting again in the playoffs. It is, however, a surprise as to where in the playoffs they’re meeting. Some might say that this is for all purposes that this game is the MLS Cup final. That would simply sweep aside Sporting Kansas City and Houston Dynamo (who beat a weakened LA at the close of the season) as being nobodies that aren’t worthy of the title of MLS Champion, but the overall domination of Western Conference teams over Eastern Conference teams this season lends credit to those who would think that. Oh wait, last year’s champion was from the Eastern Conference after the West dominated the regular season on points.
But I digress. This is a game that doesn’t really need to be built up by mass media hype. There’s enough legitimate history here to make this game worth watching for any casual MLS fan without the pre-packaged hype that was RBNY/LA. So I’ll give you the rundown of what’s what and who you should be watching out for on Sunday night.
For LA, it would be wise not to look too far ahead. It was around this time last year that LA unceremoniously got dismantled by FC Dallas in the Western Conference finals, mostly because the Galaxy expected to win and did not take the game or their opponent seriously. Add to that, the opponent is Real Salt Lake. I don’t think anyone’s forgotten the 2009 MLS Cup final and the fact LA and RSL constantly fighting, either real or imagined, for the title of elite team of MLS bodes well for both teams to go out and grab the game early.
The Galaxy’s early first-half performance left a lot to be desired and left a lot of fans in near cardiac-arrest. LA will need to be the aggressor here and shore up the defense that very nearly let Luke Rodgers beat them single-handedly. I hope that Omar Gonzalez and AJ De La Garza fixed whatever holes they had in their telepathic network because they will both need to be on the same page with the forward tandem of Fabian Espindola and Alvaro Saborio, who have 21 goals between them, knocking at their door step. Javier Morales will look to give the defense fits in the midfield so look for Juninho to hopefully lock up Morales and help push the ball forward. This team put 3 past Seattle and looked a lot better than LA has in the playoffs doing it.
That may seem pretty heavy and negative, yet it’s not all doom and gloom for the Galaxy. Despite their play in the New York series, they did come out on top and have not played their best during this stretch. Also, the back four of RSL is a bit of a mess with both Jamison Olave and Nat Borchers possibly out with injury. Both are game-time decisions and even if the two do play tonight, I don’t expect either one of them to be 100%. Expect the Galaxy to exploit that chink in the defense.
Mike Magee and Robbie Keane also have great chemistry with both players looking to be threats to score when the ball is on their feet. David Beckham seems to be ok to go as well after going down and having to leave the field against Red Bulls so there’s no injury worries for LA coming into this one.
At the end of the day, I don’t expect LA to come out like they did last Thursday. There’s too much at stake here and the memory of being trampled by FC Dallas 9 days from the day last year has to be weighing on their minds somewhat. I also expect both Olave and Borchers to play for the same reason. Unless both players’ injuries are worse than what’s been described or they are not ready to go, I would expect Kreis to put his best players on the field regardless of effectiveness because of the prize that’s there for the taking. I think I share everyone’s hopes we get the LA of Game 1 of the Conference Semi-finals and RSL of Game 2 of their semis. Perhaps we’ll get the same result we did on Thursday. Is Roy Miller available for RSL?
(image courtesy of lagalaxy.com)
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