The Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Sporting Kansas City figures to be an intense Western Conference rivalry from here on out.
By Ivan Yeo
For the past four seasons, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Sporting Kansas City have been the standard bearers in MLS.
The Galaxy have been doing its damage in the Western Conference while Sporting Kansas City has dominated the Eastern Conference for the most part. Things however will be a whole lot different now whenever these two teams face each other. With SKC having moved to the Western Conference, you can expect things to get a whole lot more feisty between the two teams, and if Saturday’s match at StubHub Center was any indication, there should be some great games in store between the Galaxy and Sporting KC.
“KC has been a great team for a few years,” Galaxy Center Back Omar Gonzalez said. “They put a lot of energy, they put a lot of pressure into the game. They are a really fit team. Now that they’ve entered the Western Conference, the Western Conference is even tougher now. You can expect these games to be gritty, tough, hard battles. I can’t wait to face them again because they are a very tough team.”
Kansas City had been in the Western Conference for the first nine years of MLS’ existence, back when they were known as the Wizards. However, the addition of Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake to the league prior to the 2005 season saw Kansas City move to the East to accommodate the two expansion clubs. Perhaps fittingly, it was expansion that enabled Kansas City to switch conferences again a decade later, as the addition of NYCFC and Orlando City saw Kansas City as well as the Houston Dynamo switch back to the West, making an already strong Western Conference even more competitive.
“We knew from the start of the season that our division was going to be even more tough,” Galaxy forward Alan Gordon said. “It’s been, in my opinion, a tougher conference in the last several years so it just adds to the depth of our schedule, the challenges and they showed it tonight.”
The two teams have been dominant forces in the league for the better part of four seasons, with the Galaxy’s reign having started just a little earlier. Since 2009, the Galaxy have won three regular season Western Conference titles, two Supporters Shields, and have won three MLS Cups over the last six seasons. Kansas City meanwhile has gone a 360 degree turn that began in 2011 when the team was rebranded from the Wizards to its current name, Sporting Kansas City. The team also got its own Soccer-Specific Stadium, Sporting Park (back then known as Livestrong Sporting Park) and in its first year in the new stadium and under the new name, won the regular season East title and made it to the conference final, though it fell 2-0 to the Houston Dynamo.
Sporting captured the top spot in the East again in 2012, but lost in the first round, again to the Dynamo, but everything came together for the team in 2013, as Sporting finished second in the East, defeated New England in the first round of the playoffs, then finally overcame the Houston jinx in the conference final. SKC then defeated Real Salt Lake in penalty kicks in front of a raucous capacity crowd on a wet, freezing December evening at Sporting Park to win its second MLS Cup title in franchise history.
The two teams have actually faced each other in the posteason prior to Kansas City’s move to the East. LA and Kansas City met in the playoffs four times (1996, 2000, 2002 and 2004), with the Galaxy coming out on top in 1996 and 2002 while Kansas City claimed victory over LA in 2000 and 2004. Saturday’s meeting suggests the two teams are ready to renew their match-ups as a fierce conference rivalry. LA took the lead early in the first half as Baggio Husidic buried a rebound shot in the ninth minute, Kansas City equalized on a Krisztian Nemeth goal in the 22nd minute, as he just managed to keep himself in an onside position when Benny Feilhaber sprung him for goal, a scrum between Juninho and Dom Dwyer developed midway through the second half that resulted in yellow cards for both players, and LA stole the three points with a goal from Gonzalez off a corner at the death.
“I thought we were resilient in the fact that we got back into the game pretty quickly,” Sporting head coach Peter Vermes said. “Sometimes it is not easy when the other team scores, you want to check the reaction, I thought our reaction was very good. We figured out how to get back in the game and I thought we played actually pretty well most of the game.”
The Western Conference has featured some great rivalries over the last few years. From the Cascadia rivalries to Galaxy vs. Earthquakes, Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake, Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake, and formerly, the Superclasico between the Galaxy and Chivas USA, the Western Conference has featured some awesome battles between is teams, and the return of Kansas City (as well as Houston) means you can expect to be even more intense matches in the West, and Galaxy-SKC figures to be just as intense. Yes Kansas City will have its games against RSL and the Pacific Northwest teams, but given LA and Kansas City’s recent history, the matchup between these two teams will surely be the best for years to come.
