Photo by ISIphotos.com
Yes Real Salt Lake fans, last night really happened.
Real Salt Lake won the 2009 MLS Cup Final, beating the Los Angeles Galaxy in penalty kicks to cap a dream run through the playoffs.
RSL outplayed the favored Galaxy over the course of the 120 minutes before penalties, then the underdogs showed their poise yet again, winning their second penalty shootout in eight days to bring Utah its first professional sports title.
The ending was a bitter pill for the Galaxy, which enjoyed a strong season to help its club climb out of a three-year long spell of ineptitude. League MVP Landon Donovan won't soon forget his crucial penalty kick miss, but he was not alone in delivering a disappointing performance for the Galaxy.
Here are some observations from Sunday night's dramatic final:
Kyle Beckerman was a beastall match long. Yes, he missed a penalty that he clearly rushed, but the RSL captain was the stabilizing force in midfield for Real Salt Lake and didn't put a foot wrong in outplaying the Galaxy tandem of Chris Birchall and Jovan Kirovski.
Clint Mathis captures his long-awaited title. The veteran midfielder stepped in for the injured Javier Morales and provided some creativity in midfield that helped RSL's attack keep the Galaxy on its heels in the second half. He then delivered a club penalty to win his first MLS title, exactly ten years after losing in the '99 final with Los Angeles.
Bruce Arena's central midfield fell flat. With David Beckham hobbled and unable to handle the rigors of the middle of the park, and with Dema Kovalenko sick, Arena was forced to play a central midfield tandem of Jovan Kirovski and Chris Birchall. That spelled doom for the Galaxy attack because it placed an even heavier burden on Landon Donovan, who was given little service and even less support as RSL threw numbers at him.
Robbie Findley rose to the challenge. Nick Rimando won game MVP honors, but Findley was just as deserving. He finished off one of RSL's only clear chances to equalize, he pressed the Galaxy back-line throughout the match, and he stepped up and converted his penalty attempt in the shootout. He has really matured throughout the latter part of the season and established himself as a young player with heart to go with his talent. He also has the look of a player ready to fight for a place in the U.S. national team mix.
Jason Kreis earned deserves tons of credit. Real Salt Lake's head coach saw his team go through phases of inconsistency for most of the season, but he eventually settled on a lineup that hit its stride and proved to be the right combination to deliver a title. As the youngest head coach to ever win an MLS Cup at 36, Kreis has established himself as one of the most promising young head coaches MLS has seen in years.
MVP honors for being a great host city. For the first time I can remember (and this was my eighth straight MLS Cup) a host city truly embraced an MLS Cup Final. In past finals, you could pass through a city and not even realize a championship was being played that weekend. Not so in Seattle, where there were signs of the Cup's arrival in town all over the city and visiting fans were treated to an atmosphere befitting a Cup Final.
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What did you think of the final? Impressed with Real Salt Lake's performance? Disappointed with the Galaxy's showing? Still surprised that Donovan missed his penalty? Think RSL can repeat?
Share your thoughts below.
Did you see Beckham looking around for anyone to listen to him say he didn’t mean it as Morales hobbled off? He looked like my kids after they break a lamp or something. “But I didn’t MEAN to!”
Does Landon still take pk’s for the national team? I think something like that could stick with a player for a long time.
I strongly disagree. If someone from a visiting team books a plane ticket on one week notice and travels to an away playoffs match, then they do deserve good seats in a designated section of the lower bowl. As a Dynamo supporter, I really appreciated the way Galaxy set aside a corner section at the Home Depot Center for us last week. It allowed us to meet other hardcore Houston fans and some healthy back-and-forth with the L.A. supporters occurred. An away section also made for good television.
On a related note, in a country as big as the US, MLS really needs to look into partnering with an airline (Southwest?) to package ticket deals for away supporters. Having good visiting support at away games — in a designated, secure section — can be an enriching experience for everyone.
WE ARE…..
Kirovsk=crap has-been…I knew we were done as soon as I found out Bruce inserted him into the lineup. I mean…starting over klien? For pete’s sake…
Talk about Bradley giving his favorites complimentary starts…now I know where he gets that from. Kirovski gets a couple of starts during the reg season and bruce expects him to be effective in starting center Mid role…for over 90 min. What a bone head.
Congrats to RSL. But enough of these neutral field finals. The Galaxy deserved to play at home in front of their supporters. Yes that may sound like an excuse, but it kinda bothers me that we lost to a team that finished the regular season with more L’s than W’s. That being said, Real outplayed LA for the entire second half and overtime, they were the better team last night, and for that i applaud you.
Galaxy ’till I die!! & Up The Villa!!!
Ives- Regarding the first line your wrote on this article- Utahns believed, it’s the rest of the world that didnt. Are you going to have the Expansion Draft players list posted?????
That being said- WAY TO GO RSL!!! I thought the Galaxy really had the better of RSL’s midfield in the first 20 minutes. But the last hour-that was the RSL we know here. I can’t believe that Donovan lauched the kick!
RSL two centerbacks were the real MVP’s of this one. Landy does need to go play in a bigger league whether he had won this one or not. MLS is a good starting or finishing point but for good players at their peak Europe is the only true test.
I thought the same thing about Donovan’s penalty. He usually takes alot of time to go through his knuckle-kissing ritual. But last night, he seemed a bit rushed and then hit a terrible kick. As others have said, I hope he got that out of his system and continues to bury them for the national team.
As for Beckerman’s PK, I thought he took it well. Just a great save.
Uh…why shame on Seattle? Every seat closer to the field was held by a season ticket holder. We didn’t owe you better seats.
I felt the turf played too big a part in the game, and possibly the injuries, and it didn’t have to be that way. I think They brought in grass for Chelsea and Barcelona.
That’s about the dumbest comment a commentator could EVER make about PK’s. It doesn’t matter where the player is looking when he takes the kick, the keeper has a 33% chance of guessing correctly to make the save (left, right, stand in place). For all the keeper knows, the player could be trying to psych him out by looking in the wrong direction.
Where a player is looking is not always where they will shoot. My coaches ALWAYS taught to pick a place to shoot and pick a place to look (they typically were different) but never change either when shooting. This forces the keeper to pick a side and to stick with it…. in this case the keeper GUESSED right.
I liked Findley’s game last night except when he pushed his break-away too far in front. Rimando was terrific.
Seattle saved MLS this year, excitement, attendance. Garber thinks Philly will bail them out next year, and Portland, Vancouver the following year. It looks like he’s creating a soccer bubble, MLS Ponzi. I think it will come crashing down like the housing bubble if he doesn’t invest more in the field product. As the model now stands, MLS fans are much more likely to see more Buddles and Gordons than Donovans and Beckhams.
Ole ole ole ole, Real Salt Lake! Although winning on penalties sucks and bears no relation to the actual game of soccer, it was a deserved win. Good attacking soccer, even with their most creative player sitting on the bench. Kreis did a great job tactically, although he sure would have been the goat if RSL had lost the penalty shootout. I was joking with a friend that I’d have probably had Andy shoot 11th, and he was chosen to shoot the cup decider? Weird.
Real Salt Lake, 2009 MLS Champions… yawn.
..And, I agree — Kirovski wasn’t good enough for LA to win.
Finley isn’t great, but he does look like the best option to replace Davies. He lacks Charlie’s strength, creativity, soft first touch and accuracy, but he’s got the legs.
“He finished off one of RSL’s only clear chances to equalize…”
ONE OF RSL’S ONLY WHAT CLEAR CHANCES??? Is no good English, Mister….
Just glad the better team won.
I’m glad Donovan tries to support the growth of the sport, but maybe he should have been working on his SPARQ score rather than jinxing himself on the BS report. He’s still a great player, but really great players should normally be able to put more of a stamp on big games like that.
There were separate sections for the traveling fans in the corners of the stadium and a significant presence of RSL fans in the upper deck. Guess you had to be there to see that 🙂
Its not running away… and let’s be glad the MNT best field player isnt you
Just run away to Europe?
I suppose after his effort last night that is what he will do. No heart IMHO.
If it were me, I would post a picture of Salt Lake holding a trophey, bathing in confetti, on my wall and win it all next year.
how much does cost to get grass for a single game?
ok game as far as play, great competition, great atomsphere.
Findley has seemed to figure things out; should be looked at for the national team, either he or Cunningham has to be on the field, we need to make space and have someone that can run with Donovan.
Great game. Tons of fun.
I did feel bad that the us Sounder’s fans had the best seats in the house.
Worse for the Salt Lake fans, as LA didn’t have enough fans in the upper deck to feel bad for.
Beckham, Lambert played a SuperBowl on a broken leg.
Donovan, get a heart.
They just didn’t want to win it all as badly.
Also — I puked everytime John Harkes said “carpe diem”.
I second that, the plastic just makes it so hard to watch with the ball never sitting properly and bouncing too much. I don’t have an issue with playing in Seattle, but they should bring in grass for the final. The injuries to Morales and Omar could both be attributed to the plastic turf.
I think some kudos should also be reserved for the RSL supporters (of which I am not) who were the largest contingent at the March to the Match and made their presence known throughout the game. It was almost as though the RSL supporters made Qwest their own. It was a job well done.
Why would Donovan take the fourth penalty instead of the first or secon? And as long as I amm second guessing the penalty selections, why was Andy Williams taking a penalty at all when he came up limp on the last play in overtime?!
DC Josh,
What the TV’s didn’t show was a huge section of RSL fans that were put in the nose bleed section behind the cameras. I guess they never bothered to show it. Shame on Seattle for not putting RSL fans down nearer to the field but we still rocked, especially at the parade to the field.
And what’s with harping on RSL’s attendance this year?
It was 4th best in the league this year:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/attendance?league=usa.1&year=2009&cc=3888
Jozy-Dempsey
Mathis-Mathis-Mathis-Mathis
Bornstein-Boca-Spec-Dolo
Howard
I think they’ll move to Tulsa.
Let the excuses begin. Never mind that the hack Beckham (who should have had about 4 yellow cards) injured Morales, the RSL playmaker, who left the game after 15 minutes and RSL’s Johnson was sick and had to leave the game. So LA probably lost less talent than RSL did.
Decent game. Very sloppy most of the time since the ball was bouncing like they were playing on the moon.
One thing I’d like to see in the MLS Cup in the future:
Designated fan sections. Having RSL and LA fans mixed in together loses on the spectator spectactle. Group the fans together and they will be loud and proud.
Overall a momentous year for MLS.
I was at the game and RSL supporters outnumbered LA supporters by at least 10 to 1 actually.
great game the only thing…
MLS please remove all turf fields. playing 120 and running 9 miles isn’t good for players or soccer.
I enjoyed the move to Sunday night for MLS CUP. Perhaps the atmotsphere of Seattle helped as well–but, it just felt more like a Championship event played in primetime (east and central) than on a weekend afternoon.
Good analysis, but I have to disagree that Beckerman “clearly rushed” his penalty. He took it very well–Saunders just came up with an even better save. Most times, against most keepers, Beckerman’s penalty goes in.
(SBI-We’ll agree to disagree. It looked like he was anxious to take it and looked to give away his direction. As he stepped up, I turned to ESPN colleague Steve Davis and said “He’s rushing this, it’s going to get saved”, then it happened. A well-struck penalty can still be ineffective if the shooter gives away the side he’s shooting to. Not sure if that’s what happened but that’s how I saw it.)
You guys are just wrong–lol
Although it probably doesn’t count as disappointment when your expectations are low to begin with, I felt Buddle was a disaster up top for the Galaxy. MANY times Donovan, beckham, Klein, (insert midfielder out wide here) provided buddle with something to run onto or hold and turn…nuthin’. First touch not only out of control, usually RIGHT to RSL. Also, he was incapable of holding himself onsides during critical breaks towards goal. Finally, when all he had to do was run onto a stationary ball and kick with power past a keeper…he couldn’t even do that.
Disaster, thy name is Edson. (not the Pele version either)
I thought RSL put on a clinic as to how you take Donovan out of a game. Everytime he had the ball and a little space they simple fouled him off the ball. Totally took him out of the game except for the LA goal. The penalty miss was a huge shock. When it comes down to it the league MVP was no where close to being an MVP last night. It is too bad. I so wanted them to win it but in the end RSL put in a better performance.
Just watch the 2nd half TimN. RSL took LA to the woodshed. I think I remember a stat saying the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half, RSL had a 85% possession edge and that pretty much continued through the whole half.
Grow up that’ll never happen.
Oklahoma City Sounders just doesn’t sound right.
Funny how the missed PK could so strongly overshadow his beautiful cross to get LA their goal…
Seattle is going to be very sad when the sounders move to a new city…
i agree the game was lost when you have to replace Dema with Kirovski and not so healthy beckham. you had to press beckherman and without dema there, it wasnt happening.
Well, I haven’t finished watching the match yet, but I plan to watch the DVR tonight. However, the first 45 minutes I did see did not seem to be dominated the way Ives says LA was dominated the entire game. LA was putting together nice pieces in the first half, and their first goal was the product of a nice midfield counter-attack and beautiful service by Donovan. Donovan could not have played that ball into the box any better.
I’ll be curious as to what the rest of the match looked like…
RSL was the better attacking team, although I am sure losing Gonzalez and Ricketts didn’t help LA.
Everyone will blame Donovan, but there were 2 others that didn’t stike the ball with much power.
I thought it was a nice showing by the RSL supporters, it seemed as though they outnumber LA fans 2 to 1. Hopefully this win can lead to a little more success at the gate next year
RSL has been playing well. quick, decent passing. I didn’t have a good feeling about LA’s chances. They were exposed as s l o w more than usual. Donovan himself in the last few games has been dispossessed of the ball quite often and seems to have gone back into a bit of a shell again. Not totally, but outside of brilliant flashes, he seems to have gone down a notch or two and his work rate (with exceptions) seems to have gone down a tad from where it was during the Confed Cup and following.
Donovan needs a fresh start in Europe to get this bad taste out of his mouth. Also, when will Becks return from AC Milan?