The Houston Dynamo are on a mission to win the first-ever Pan-Pacific Championship in Saturday's final at Aloha Stadium.
The reigning MLS Cup champion was in outstanding form in Wednesday's 3-0 semifinal victory against Sydney FC and confidence is high going into the title game.
"It was good to start the tournament in the way we did," said midfielder Dwayne De Rosario. "We produced some good soccer and now it would be nice to finish off our trip to Hawaii by winning the competition."
Many observers now consider Dominic Kinnear's Dynamo the favorite to become PPC champion.
However, opponents Gamba Osaka is in no mood to make things easy for Houston and the Japanese J.League side is hoping to follow up their impressive semifinal victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy with another win.
Captain Satoshi Yamaguchi said: "We were happy with our performance in our first game and we hope for another one in the final. It would be a great honor to win this championship."
The final is due to kick off at 8.30 p.m. Hawaii time, following the third-place playoff between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Sydney FC.
