LA Galaxy starts their first team in this match and what happens? Sounders crush them 4-0

By Money Mike


Back on May 2nd, following the Sounders 2-0 home win over the Los Angeles Galaxy, so many LA fans were making dumbass excuses. Saying a bunch of stupid bullshit like, "You beat us only because we played our reserves, if we had our first team out there things would've been different." I watched every single minute of that match last night and the LA Galaxy did play their starters. David Beckham was out there, so was Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Omar Gonzalez, Juninho, Josh Saunders, etc. and I got to tell you, all of them played like complete shit. The Seattle Sounders destroyed the Galaxy 4-0 in front of a crowd of 60,908 at CenturyLink Field.

In the fourth minute of the game, Brad Evans went long for Alex Caskey. Now at first the attack looked to have been broke down, but a mistake by defender Omar Gonzalez sent Caskey on a two on one break. Caskey looked to curl the ball into the far corner but Josh Saunders got his hands to it and Fredy Montero couldn't put away the rebound. I don't know how much Montero knew about it, but that would've been the start the Sounders were looking for.

A minute later, the Sounders were on the attack again and this time they got the opening goal. Ozzie Alonso sent Mauro Rosales streaking down the right hand side. Eddie Johnson made a brilliant run into the penalty area and Rosales found him with a terrific cross and EJ puts it away with a snap header from point blank range for his team leading 10th goal of the season which makes him the third player in MLS history to score at least 10 goals in a season for three different clubs. The other two players to do that were Jeff Cunningham and Dwayne De Rosario.

LA started to create some opportunities and they probably should've equalized in the 31st minute. David Beckham played in a good long ball into the box for Landon Donovan who got away from Jeff Parke. Just as Donovan was ready to put the ball away, it took an awkward bounce which forced Donovan to play it back to Robbie Keane whose first timed shot was deflected wide by Parke.

The Sounders doubled their lead in the 52nd minute. Eddie Johnson fed the ball to Fredy Montero who poked the ball through to Alex Caskey who may have been offside. Caskey tried to get to the ball before Josh Saunders but Saunders denied Caskey of his first MLS goal. The ball was still in the box however. Fredy Montero chased the ball down and he saw Saunders retreating to his goal, so Fredy decided to give it a go and found the back of the net. Saunders did get a touch to it, but the Sounders extended their lead to two goals with Montero's sixth league goal of the season and his ninth in all competitions.

Nine minutes later, added a third goal. David Beckham was looking to play in a cross to either Robbie Keane or Landon Donovan, but he got it all wrong and instead gave the ball away to Seattle who quickly poured down field in a counter attack. Eddie Johnson and Fredy Montero sprinted forward to put pressure on both center backs for LA. Johnson tried to get around David Lopes, but his final touch was too heavy and Josh Saunders broke up the play. However, Alex Caskey stepped in and gave it a go from a long way out because he saw that Saunders was well off his line and he found an empty net for his first MLS goal and more importantly to put the Sounders ahead 3-0.

With just over two minutes to go in the game, the Sounders would add one more to cap of LA's embarrasing night. Mauro Rosales played a good ball down the left side for Marc Burch who slowed the play down before squaring the ball across and there to finish it off was Andy Rose for his first MLS goal and to seal a 4-0 victory over the Galaxy.


Observations:

I'm pretty sure Andy Rose has had a difficult day yesterday leading up to this match with the loss of a friend. Yesterday morning, Rose got a call found out that Columbus Crew player Kirk Urso had passed away. Rose and Urso were close friends, going back to the early days when they were club teammates in Chicago. For Rose to score his first MLS goal in front of over 60,000 strong was a special moment for him and he recieved several messages on his phone from people around the nation who watched this match on ESPN2 last night. To hear that a close friend had died is something that's hard to believe and it's something nobody even wants to believe. You just have to wonder what's been going through his mind leading up to the match.

Christian Tiffert made his debut for the Sounders, coming on in the 64th minute of the match. Tiffert joined the Sounders back on July 28th as a Designated Player. I thought Tiffert did very well on his debut. He gave the ball away only once all match, he did a good job defensively and the partnership with Alonso in the midfield seems to be working to perfection. Sometimes you got to have more than one playmaker on your team, so I'm glad that Tiffert is here in the Emerald City and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season with our team getting back to full fitness.

"Pete Carroll @PeteCarroll
Huge 4-0 win for @SoundersFC! And a crowd of 60,000+ too... Seattle fans are unbelievable!"

Pete Carroll, the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, was at the game last night. There's his picture that he posted on Twitter. Just goes to show that Seattle truely is America's Soccer City. The entire stadium will be open again for the Sounders next home match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on August 18th and on October 7th when the Portland Timbers come to town. Unlike RFK Stadium, the Rose Bowl, Gillette Stadium or Soldier Field, CenturyLink Field is a great venue for soccer. It was built remember in 2002 to bring in an MLS team and it's great to have one here in Seattle.

So how about we take a look at the highlights from this match.....



This win will really boost the confidence of this team with a couple more tough games ahead of them. Of course on Wednesday, the Sounders will go for their fourth straight U.S. Open Cup title against Sporting Kansas City and then a big road match on Saturday against the first place San Jose Earthquakes. So to get a win like this is a real confidence booster for sure.


Scoring summary:

Seattle Sounders FC - Eddie Johnson 10 (Mauro Rosales 8, Osvaldo Alonso 1) 6'

Seattle Sounders FC - Fredy Montero 6 (unassisted) 52'

Seattle Sounders FC - Alex Caskey 1 (unassisted) 61'

Seattle Sounders FC - Andy Rose 1 (Marc Burch 3, Mauro Rosales 9) 88'


Misconduct summary:

Los Angeles Galaxy - A.J. DeLaGarza (caution; foul) 24'

Seattle Sounders FC - Brad Evans (caution; time wasting) 60'


Lineups:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Josh Saunders; A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, David Lopes (Jose Villarreal 80'), Bryan Gaul; Sean Franklin (Mike Magee 57'), David Beckham, Juninho (Hector Jimenez 70'), Marcelo Sarvas; Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan

Seattle Sounders FC - Michael Gspurning; Adam Johansson, Jeff Parke, Patrick Ianni, Leonardo Gonzalez; Mauro Rosales, Osvaldo Alonso, Brad Evans (Christian Tiffert 64'), Alex Caskey (Marc Burch 81'); Eddie Johnson, Fredy Montero (Andy Rose 73')

LA Galaxy win 1-0 to claim their third MLS Cup title

By Money Mike

After choking in the MLS Cup playoffs the last two years, the Los Angeles Galaxy have finally won an MLS Cup title in the Beckham era. The Galaxy defeated the Houston Dynamo 1-0 in what could be David Beckham's final game with the LA Galaxy. 30,281 filled up the Home Depot Center. Most of which were hoping that Beckham would end his LA Galaxy career with an MLS Championship (if this were to be his last game with LA), and a couple weeks ago, I said that if this were to be his final match and the Galaxy didn't win the Cup, this would've been an epic fail following the Cup final defeat here in Seattle against Real Salt Lake in 2009 and a 3-0 beating they got from FC Dallas in the 2010 Western Conference final. But after the final was all said and done, the Galaxy came out on top and lift the Trophy for the third time in their history.

LA nearly opened the scoring in the 12th minute. Adam Cristman, who made 11 appearances and scored only one goal, was found unmarked off a David Beckham corner kick, but he couldn't get his header on target, missing wide of the right post. Cristman was getting the start in place of Chad Barrett after Barrett dislocated his ankle earlier this week during practice.

Cristman had another chance in minute 27. David Beckham sent another dangerous ball into the penalty area. Cristman got up and again headed the ball off the mark before colliding with goalkeeper Tally Hall.

Houston struggled to test LA goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who had been filling in for Donovan Ricketts in the 2nd half of the season since Ricketts suffered a broken hand back on July 2nd against the San Jose Earthquakes. The best chance they had came in the 43rd minute. Calen Carr sent a very good ball out wide to the right for Danny Cruz. Cruz then cut to his left foot and ripped a low drive, but it was right at Saunders. Again, that was just about the best chance the Dynamo had in this match.

A minute later, the Galaxy had another chance to break the tie. Robbie Keane found Mike Magee in the box, but the opportunity came to waste as Magee's left footed shot flew well over the bar.

In the 49th minute, Robbie Keane had a golden opportunity to put LA on top. Keane ran onto a loose ball that caromed off Luiz Camargo's head, but he trickled a shot wide of the far post.

In the 72nd minute, the LA Galaxy finally got their goal. Robbie Keane picked out Landon Donovan with a beautiful through ball in the box. Donovan lifted the ball over Tally Hall and into the far corner. Geoff Cameron tried to clear the ball of the line, but he wasn't fast enough and you knew that there was no way back for the Dynamo with the lack of chances they had in the game. The Galaxy were knocking on the door and with over 18 minutes to go, they get the goal that turned out to be the winner.

For Landon Donovan, that was his 20th career postseason goal and his forth all-time in the MLS Cup as he continues to add to his amazing career. Donovan is the all-time leading goalscorer in LA Galaxy history, he's the all time greatest goalscorer in U.S. national team history and he has now won four MLS Cup titles in his career and there is still more milestones to reach in years to come for the 29-year old.

Scoring summary:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Landon Donovan (Robbie Keane, David Beckham)

Misconduct summary:

Houston Dynamo - Bobby Boswell (caution; Handball)

Los Angeles Galaxy - Adam Cristman (caution; Reckless tackle)

Houston Dynamo - Andre Hainault (caution; Reckless foul)

Los Angeles Galaxy - David Beckham (caution; Tactical foul)

Los Angeles Galaxy - Landon Donovan (caution; Delaying a restart)

Lineups:

Houston Dynamo - Tally Hall; Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Geoff Cameron, Jermaine Taylor; Danny Cruz (Colin Clark 78'), Luiz Camargo, Adam Moffat, Corey Ashe (Je-Vaughn Watson 84'); Brian Ching, Calen Carr (Carlo Costly 66')

Los Angeles Galaxy - Josh Saunders; Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant; Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Juninho, Mike Magee; Adam Cristman (Chris Birchall 57'), Robbie Keane

MLS Cup semifinal recap

By Money Mike

Well the Sounders may be out, but that doesn't keep me from recapping the MLS Cup playoffs. Today we found out who will be playing for the MLS Cup title two weeks from now and who will be packing their bags and heading home one game away from the MLS Cup final. The playoff system has turned into a land of confusion because of the wild card positions where an Eastern Conference team would end up in the western conference bracket or a Western Conference team possibly ending up in the eastern bracket. The fact that Seattle was knocked out the playoffs was because the Quarterfinal was a two game home-and-home series where whoever scores the most goals in the series moves on and if the series ended all square after 90 minutes in the 2nd leg, there would be two 15-minute overtime periods and if still tied, the series would be decided by penalties (There's no Golden Goal). After that, the semifinals and the championship is single elimination. This round was the semifinal where the winner heads to the final.

Sporting Kansas City vs Houston Dynamo (Houston wins 2-0):

Well after missing out on the playoffs last season, the Houston Dynamo are moving on to the MLS Cup for the third time in franchise history. The previous two times they were in the final in 2006 and 2007, they won the MLS Cup. They move on to the Championship after defeating Sporting Kansas City 2-0. Andre Hainault opened the scoring in the 53rd minute after Adam Moffat whipped a cross to the back post. The ball bounced around and fell to Hainault who tapped it in to make it 1-0 Dynamo. In the 87th minute, Sporting Kansas City were caught on a counter and beat on a counter. Luiz Camargo split a through ball which sent Carlo Costly behind the defense and through on goal, and the Honduran international made no mistake, banging a shot off the post and in to put the Eastern Conference final beyond reach.

I got to tell you, keeping track of the MLS teams all season long and tracking what Sporting Kansas City has accomplished since moving to their new home ground back in June after all they went through in their first eight games of the season, all on the road of course, winning the Eastern Conference regular season title and then getting knocked out of the playoffs one game away from a trip to LA is just a major disappointment and Teal Bunbury knows it. It's been an up and down year for Bunbury, struggling through injury which left him off the U.S. squad for the Gold Cup. Despite his struggles, the 21-year old did manage to finish the year with 9 goals and 5 assists in 29 matches and will start to get better in years to come. But that picture says it all, a missed opportunity at reaching the final and qualifying for the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League is just tough to swallow and Teal Bunbury and the rest of the Sporting Kansas City players will be feeling the pain for a few days.

Scoring summary:

Houston Dynamo - Andre Hainault (unassisted) 53'

Houston Dynamo - Carlo Costly (Luiz Camargo) 87'

Misconduct summary:

Houston Dynamo - Calen Carr (caution; Reckless tackle) 17'

Sporting Kansas City - Julio Cesar (caution; Reckless foul) 30'

Houston Dynamo - Luiz Camargo (caution; Reckless tackle) 55'

Sporting Kansas City - Roger Espinoza (caution; Dissent) 74'

Houston Dynamo - Carlo Costly (caution; Shirt removal) 87'

Lineups:

Houston Dynamo - Tally Hall; Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Geoff Cameron, Corey Ashe; Danny Cruz, Adam Moffat, Luiz Camargo, Brad Davis (Jermaine Taylor 39'); Brian Ching (Carlo Costly 78'), Calen Carr (Will Bruin 68')

Sporting Kansas City - Jimmy Nielsen; Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, Julio Cesar (Jeferson 82'), Seth Sinovic (Omar Bravo 85'); Chance Myers, Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza (Davy Arnaud 75'); C.J. Sapong, Kei Kamara, Teal Bunbury

Los Angeles Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake (Los Angeles wins 3-1):

With the Los Angeles Galaxy advancing to the MLS Cup final and the fact that Los Angeles was chosen to host the 2011 MLS Cup final, you would expect LA to win the final. The Galaxy earned a spot in the final after defeating Real Salt Lake by a score of 3-1. LA got on the board first in the 23rd minute. Omar Gonzalez was pushed to the ground from behind in the RSL penalty area and referee Jorge Gonzalez pointed to the penalty spot. Landon Donovan stepped up for the LA Galaxy and put the spot kick away with ease. RSL answered back two minutes later. Off a Javier Morales corner, Jamison Olave headed the ball back across goal for Alvaro Saborio who flicked it in to the goal to level things up. In the 58th minute, LA re-took the lead. David Beckham again doing what he does best. Curling in a trademark cross to the far post for Mike Magee who headed it goalwards from point blank range and in off the hands of Nick Rimando to put LA up 2-1. 10 minutes later, LA puts the icing on the cake in the Western Conference. RSL started to push numbers forward and LA made them pay on a counter attack when Landon Donovan fed Robbie Keane who started to slow down as he was approaching the penalty area, the Irish international made a nice cut to full Jamison Olave and ripped a shot low and into the far corner to seal the win and a place in the MLS Cup final.

Ever since David Beckham has arrived to MLS in 2007, the league has started to become one of the top leagues in the world and that American soccer is starting to grow. Now remember, I listed him at no. 1 when I gave you guys my Top 5 worst Designated Players in MLS history, but I may over look that if LA were to win the MLS Cup on November 20th. It's just disappointing to have guys like David Beckham and Landon Donovan on your team and not win a league title with both of them on your team. In 09' the LA Galaxy reached the final as we all know, this one was in Seattle. The match went to penalties and the Galaxy ended up losing to Real Salt Lake. Last season, the Galaxy were knocked out of the playoffs in the semifinals, losing 3-0 at home to FC Dallas. Now this year, in what could be David Beckham's final season in Major League Soccer, will Beckham finally win an MLS Cup title?

Scoring summary:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Landon Donovan (penalty kick) 23'

Real Salt Lake - Alvaro Saborio (Jamison Olave, Javier Morales) 25'

Los Angeles Galaxy - Mike Magee (David Beckham, Robbie Keane) 58'

Los Angeles Galaxy - Robbie Keane (Landon Donovan) 68'

Misconduct summary:

Los Angeles Galaxy - Juninho (caution; Reckless foul) 56'

Real Salt Lake - Javier Morales (caution; Reckless tackle) 70'

Los Angeles Galaxy - Sean Franklin (caution; Delaying a restart) 93'+

Lineups:

Real Salt Lake - Nick Rimando; Robbie Russell (Ned Grabavoy 70'), Jamison Olave (Tony Beltran 82'), Chris Schuler, Chris Wingert; Andy Williams (Luis Gil 75'), Kyle Beckerman, Javier Morales, Will Johnson; Fabian Espindola, Alvaro Saborio

Los Angeles Galaxy - Josh Saunders; Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant; Landon Donovan, David Beckham (Michael Stephens 89'), Juninho, Mike Magee; Chad Barrett (Chris Birchall 63'), Robbie Keane