Los Angeles Galaxy v Real Salt Lake – The View from Friday
Qwest Field, Seattle – Kick off 5.30 PT
Referee: Kevin Stott
And so a chapter comes to an end, 233 games of football have been played, goals have been scored and games have been won, lost, and mostly drawn. There are now just two sides left standing. And they are here. In Seattle.
In a season that has been characterised more than any other factor by parity, it would appear on the face of it that an imbalance in player inventory is the hallmark of the match up between Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.
Galaxy have the best player in America and the most famous player in the world in their line up. David Beckham is probably the most written about footballer on the planet. Some of the intense media and marketability is down to his choice of wife, and some is down to his looks. Ever since he left Manchester United, it has become a harder and harder task to strip away the peripheral and look at Beckham the footballer. He has had the privilege to only play for privileged sides in Europe, Real Madrid and Manchester United, and only really his England record can lay testament to his ability to inspire ordinary sides to great things, as opposed to fit in comfortably with already great sides.
Landon Donovan Earlier in the Season at Qwest
Los Angeles Galaxy are an above average side in MLS. Much of this is down to a qualified manager, former USA coach Bruce Arena, and much has been down to the form of league MVP Landon Donovan. Donovan has scored 12 goals in 23 starts and to many has demonstrated the best form of his career, both at club and international level. 56 shots, more than half of them on target, help build a picture although with the soap opera that LA Galaxy have been, statistics alone can’t tell the whole story.
Kyle Beckerman
Defensively, LA have a bear of a man in rookie Omar Gonzalez. Omar has had a breakout season, starting all 30 games and remarkably committing less than one foul per game. He has rightfully picked up the MLS Rookie of the Year Award, the second successive year LA have lifted this prize, Sean Franklin, another defender, being last season’s winner.
But if you’re tempted to go down the David and Goliath route in describing this battle, there are some cautionary tales. The two sides have met twice this season. RSL won one game 2-0 and tied the other 2-2. Beckham of course played in neither. They both took place while he was still a Milan player. But RSL have bottle for the big game. In the quarter finals, they overcame the best side in the country, Columbus Crew, having beaten then in both home and away legs. If RSL have anything, they have the big game mentality. They also tend not to cower in front of greatness. For 120 minutes in Chicago, they withstood everything Cuauhetemoc Blanco could throw at them.
And they have Nick Rimando, the goalkeeper who produced three blinding saves in the penalty shoot out in Illinois, to bring them to Seattle. As the fifth place side in the Western Conference, they found themselves propelled into the Eastern Conference to make up the numbers, and have promptly found themselves the winners of it, their first ever MLS prize on any note. LA have won the Western Conference six times, the MLS Cup twice, the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup once, and the US Open Cup twice. But no, they have never won the Eastern Conference!
Further reporting:
Bobby McMahon – Cup Finals Need an Early Goal
Listen to Grant on Radio Sounders
Rimando the Hero as Real Salt Lake Reach Final
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