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Western Conference Final: Galaxy vs. FC Dallas: Match Night Commentary

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BY ADAM SERRANO

There's only one ticket left to be punched for Toronto and MLS Cup. 

The Los Angeles Galaxy take on FC Dallas in the Western Conference Final with the right to play the Colorado Rapids on the line. The Galaxy are looking to make it to back to the Cup Final for the second year in a row, but once more a team from the Lone Star State stands in their way. FC Dallas is seeking their first berth in the Final and led by their MVP candidate, David Ferreira, FCD is a legitimate contender to knock off LA.

I will be providing commentary throughout the match, live from Home Depot Center so please feel free to follow along here. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. 

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump): 

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FINAL – Total team effort by Dallas tonight. They were buzzing around the field and deserved the result. What a performance by FCD to earn the Western Conference Trophy. For those followingalong at home. Hyndman has his Butter Leather jacket back on. Credit to the players like McCarthy, Ferreira, who all did the extra mile to give Dallas a victory. That's all from me tonight. Thank you for following along with LA based coverage this year. This is Adam Serrano.

More on this match later. The final is FC Dallas 3 LA Galaxy 0 

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FINAL – THAT'S IT! FC DALLAS 3 LOS ANGELES GALAXY 0. FC Dallas is going to MLS Cup to face the Colorado Rapids!

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93rd Minute – Hartman with a great save on a Beckham free kick. Remember when Ricketts won GK of the Year? Yeah, I don't either

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90th Minute – Silence is deafing here, only the Angel City Brigade is keeping up the noise level. LA seems content to just play out the clock. Two minutes of stoppage. 

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88th Minute – McCarthy comes out for Alexander. In a way he was my MVP of the night a dominant performance that I can best describe as "buzzing", who was your MVP of the night? 

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86th Minute – Lost in the malaise of the defeat was Eddie Lewis being pulled for Kirovski. The end of a great career, but not enough in the tank tonight. What was your favorite Lewis memory?

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85th Minute – Yellow cards beginning to fly from the Galaxy. Hyndman trying to get off as many players as possible now. Arena wants to make sure that they chip FC Dallas as much as possible. 

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76th Minute – The Galaxy have their axes out now and are looking to hack out Dallas in the worse way possible. Expect a Red card to come soon. 

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73rd Minute – GOAL DALLAS!!!! Good Night Los Angeles. 3-0 with Marvin Chavez with the goal, but Harris was offside. What was a great season for Los Angeles is about to end in flames. 

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72nd Minute – Buddle on the sidelines receiving treatment and LA continuing to fail with the final touch. 

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69TH Minute – la earns a corner. Buddle gets pushed to the ground and is down. He seemed to have gotten hit on that play. No luck from Buddle today as his headers are just off. 

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66th Minute – Another move that comes a bit late. Birchall enters for Kovalenko. The Galaxy are hoping that he displays some strength going forward, but right now he's been outmanned by McCarthy, who is just ALL over the place.

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64th Minute – LA  beginning to run out of options. Beckham's crosses which were on target last week are just not there for the Galaxy right now. 

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61st Minute – LA starting to put some more pressure in the Dallas end. Jovan Kirovski on the bench warming up. Looks like he'll be coming in soon. Chavez on the break, but MISSES Harris. LA dodges a bullet. 

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58th Minute – LA fans attempting to will the Galaxy back into the match. BTW Magee was removed for Cazumba. About 5 minutes too late for Bruce Arena. 

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56th Minute – Shea with the ball played wide by Ihemelu. Shea sends in a GREAT pass to John that skirts past the LA defense for John to easily put in the back of the net. Dallas up 2-0! On the other end Donovan nearly cuts the lead in LA. LA needs a goal in the next few minutes. 

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55th Minute – GOAL!!! GEORGE JOHN!!!!!!

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52th Minute – WOW! What was Magee doing….Was Benitez offside there? Because that was just a baffling decision.  

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50th Minute – Hartman and Magee collide as the Galaxy subs get up along the sideline. Birchall, Stephens and Kirovski appearing to work the hardest.

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49th Minute  -LA earn a corner, but Dallas takes it away with a foul. Harris NEARLY gets behind the defense, but no luck. This one is getting tense.

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46th Minute – Franklin goes down after hitting heads with Ferreira. Both men shake off the cobwebs and play on.  

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46th Minute – No Birchall at the half as both teams stay the same. "Five minutes to save the World" by JT playing on the loudspeakers as we kick off. More like 45 minutes to save the Galaxy's season. We're off. 

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HALFTIME – Looking at LA's bench. Who do you bring in for a sub? Birchall, Stephens and Kirovski are the only options off the bench. Last year, the Galaxy were brought down for not having a second scoring option and this year…

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45th Minute – Hartman wraps up a chance by Lewis. He's incredibly motivated tonight and the whistle blows. FC Dallas up 1-0 at the half. 

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45th Minute – LA tries to strike back on the counter, but chooses to settle. Not the best service into the box from the Galaxy so far. One minute of stoppage.

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44th Minute – Dallas earns a corner. Ferreira will stroll to the corner flag.

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39th Minute – Let me hear from you. Should Marrufo be a bit more generous with the cards in this match or is he calling a good game by letting them play? 

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39th Minute – Could have easily been a second yellow for Kovalenko after bringing down Ferreira. There will be a red tonight.

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37th Minute – LA is starting to press just a bit. They're looking for that goal before the half, but FCD's defense is putting in a great display. Rough stuff as Marrufo allows Donovan to be brought down. This is playoff soccer folks.   

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32nd Minute – YELLOW CARD – Kovalenko brings down Chavez and picks up a yellow card. That will severely limit his physical game. Or not knowing Dema. 

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31th Minute –  JUST WIDE!! Donovan beats Hartman but he gets a finger tip on it. LA corner 

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28th Minute – Harris plays the ball to Chavez who hits Ferreira with a beautiful pass. The Colombian confidently puts the ball in the back of the net and gives Dallas a 1-0 lead. Strap your seatbelts in folks its about to get real. 

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26th Minute – GOAL!!! DAVID FERREIRA!!!! 

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25th Minute – JUST OVER THE BAR! Juninho fires a shot that just misses the top of Hartman's net. LA wants that first goal and they want it bad. 

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24th Minute – SAVE!!! Hartman comes up big again after Beckham's free kick bounces into the box. What a save. LA loses possession and Hernandez will take the goal kick for Hartman.

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21st Minute – SAVE!!! Hartman with a cracker of a save on a Juninho LASER. LA with the corner kick, but Dallas clears and gains possession. 

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20th Minute – Both clubs seemingly feeling each other out right now. LA with the lionshare of possession, but not much to show for it. 

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17th Minute – Juninho brings down Dax with a little bit of the rough stuff to give FCD a free kick at the edge. Little in the ways of attack from Dallas so far, but their counter is too dangerous for LA to neglect 

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14th Minute – "LA Reject" being sung to Hartman. That's pretty surprising. Perhaps they're singing it to Ugo.

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12th Minute – Ihemelu THROWS Beckham to the turf in the box, but no call. High paced and highly physical right now expect some cards in this match. 

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10th Minute – Wow. Incredible sequence with both teams playing back and forth missing some clear chances. A Press box colleague just screamed out "so it's gonna be that kind of game." LA earns a throw in after Donovan gets into with Jackson. A lot of fire right now.

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8th minute – SAVE!!!!! MAGEE with a chance that Hartman saves. Jackson with a foul on Beckham for a free kick. LA knocking on the door. 

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5th Minute – A bit surprising that Hyndman left the butter leather jacket at home tonight. For some that has to be a bigger surprise than having Cunningham on the bench. This must be the lucky jacket that we heard of last week. What do you think? 

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3rd Minute – Inswinger is cleared by Dallas and FCD will go on the attack. Something that I do not expect to say very often tonight with this line-up. 

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2nd Minute – LA earns the corner, Beckham to take the chance. 

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1st Minute – And.Here.We.Go! Penultimate MLS match of the season. LA vs. FCD.

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PREGAME: The key players tonight for me are as follows: For FCD: Kevin Hartman, David F erreira and Atiba Harris and for LA: Donovan Ricketts, Dema Kovalenko and Landon Donovan. These three will have a major impact on this match. 

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PREGAME: Miss LA Galaxy is leading the team s out the tunnel with the Western Conference Trophy in tow. 

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PREGAME: Apologies for the delay in the Commentary. HDC internet is spotty and lets hope that it doesn't give too much trouble tonight. 

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PREGAME: If you're following along tonight, let me hear from you. Where are you coming from and who are you supporting. 

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PREGAME: Good atmosphere so far. Expect a capacity crowd at the HDC. 

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PREGAME: Big surprise is that Jeff Cunningham is on the bench for FCD. Looks like Dallas will plan to pack the back and hit LA on the counter. 

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PREGAME: Here are the line ups:

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

———Magee—————Buddle————–

Donovan————-Juninho————Beckham

———————-Kovalenko———————–

Lewis—-DeLaGarza——Gonzalez—Franklin

———————-Ricketts———————–

FC DALLAS

—————–Harris———————-

Shea————-Ferreira————-Chavez

———-McCarty———Hernandez———-

Benitez—-Ihemelu—-John———-Jackson

——————-Hartman———————-

PREGAME

Comments

  1. I’m a Galaxy fan and I know Dema is a bit of a thug, but there’s still something I like about him. Don’t know what it is though. haha

    Reply
  2. This doesn’t look good for L.A. Dallas seems to get even better when they are ahead. When they play with confidence they are without a doubt the best team in the league. I’m not so sure they aren’t anyway. This really seems like it should be MLS Cup. Colorado is a very good team but they should have had to go through either RSL, Dallas, L.A., or even Seattle before they got into the final. As it is they played the three weakest teams in the playoffs and are in the MLS Cup.

    Reply
  3. Marrufo, its ‘futbol’, not football. you can’t allow the kind of man-handling going on.

    Beckham looks hurt. Maybe after he was thrown down?

    Reply
  4. Hartman is having a game of his life, one shot on goal from Dallas and a goal…… Galaxy out playing them but are done a goal. 45 more minutes so anything can happen, a goal or two for the Galaxy is coming.

    Reply
  5. I wish they could keep the ball in play and on the ground for more than a minute. Constantly watching the ball fly out of bounds is really frustrating.

    Reply
  6. Haha, he dived? Should’ve been another yellow. If he wasn’t carrying one already, it would’ve been a yellow. I see why he didn’t give it to him, and I think it’s the right call, but man I don’t see how he doesn’t finish this game the way he’s making decisions right now.

    Reply
  7. following from san diego. screw the galaxy — they’ll get the ref to disallow a goal or better yet have a power failure if they’re not winning.

    Reply
  8. Is Atiba Harris a striker?

    Interesting that Lewis is still starting at left back, but I guess I’m not surprised. It’s worked so far

    Reply

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