The final two spots in the MLS conference finals will be decided tonight as the Western Conference whittles its field down to two teams with a pair of juicy semifinal second legs.
The Los Angeles Galaxy will face Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium tonight (ESPN2, 9pm) up 1-0 after their first-leg victory. RSL will look to finally win a big game at home after years of disappointments through the years.
In Portland, the Timbers take on arch-rival Seattle Sounders at Jeld-Wen Field tonight (11pm, NBC Sports). The Timbers posted a 2-1 victory in the first leg in Seattle, but the Sounders will be eager to return the favor and hand Portland their first home loss since March.
If you will be watching tonight’s match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
LA clearly misses Beckham & Magee. They waste a DP spot on a defender and use minimum wage players to fill in all over the field…it all caught up with them this season and especially tonight. Btw, how did that Rogers for Magee thing work out?
Unfortunately, the MLS playoffs have probably turned out badly for MLS. Even though the games have been good from a pure soccer perspective, they have not been nationally televised and the teams that have the handful of players who might draw some attention in the finals from the casual sports fans who MLS would like to recruit have all lost. Now that the larger market, star-studded teams have mostly been eliminated, what interest would the casual fan have in watching a bunch of players they’ve never heard of in the finals? Very little I’m afraid. No stories about a Galaxy Dynasty, or the return of Dempsey, how New York’s designated players can still produce some magic or even the young talent and fighting spirit of New England. Nope, now the final will be for previously existing soccer fans only and will feature the not so major stars of Kansas City and Salt Lake. That is probably not great for the league in America. Sorry to fans of the winners, but true.
Omar Gonzalez just booting it up field to an area close to somebody on his own team. Other players doing the same. Galaxy kept too much separation between the D line, MF line, and F. Too much of a gap on both ends of the field and because of this the passing turned into long 20 and 30 yard passes and were intercepted way too much. Galaxy looked desperate for a way to play english soccer. That Galaxy player who came out of the closet was probably more productive in the closet. He needs to go. I like a lot of the Galaxy players. They are a good mix of young and veteran, but the guy who operates the blender, Arena, has maybe seen his time there come to an end. The Galaxy are not stale, but Areana ball is getting stale. Play more compact, short passing, one touch, and pressure the ball on defense and get near the open man on defense. Simple solutions. Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Dortmund, Real Madrid, Roma, for example can and do it. It requires incredible running on both sides of the ball without the ball…just ask Dortmud and Subotic. http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/174/uefa-champions-league/2013/11/05/4386906/subotic-dortmund-cannot-run-like-robots
No way Sigi keeps his job after this, changes coming in Seattle. The owners cant afford to look complacent when fans can be very fickle about their support. Also please make it new blood, don’t recycle used and tired MLS coaches anymore.
Damn that was worth staying up for! All of these playoff games have been intense but I need some ice after that game.