Alan Gordon, Landon Donovan and Santino Quaranta each scored for the Los Angeles Galaxy outdoing Dwayne De Rosario's lone tally for Houston Dynamo in a 3-1 victory in the semifinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday night at The Home Depot Center.
The Galaxy will head to Bridgeview, Ill., on Sept. 27 to face the Chicago Fire in the U.S. Open Cup Final at Toyota Park. The Fire defeated D.C. United 3-0 earlier in the night.
Most of the action came in what was a wide open first half that could have very easily seen three more goals scored. Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made a save on a penalty kick to keep the home side in the lead heading into the locker room, and both teams missed point-blank chances in the opening 45 minutes.</p>
Again, it was fatigue from a very packed schedule that Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop credited to the slow second-half performance.</p>
"The first half, from a spectator's point of view, was great," said Yallop. "The second half both teams struggled. I guess I put it down to tiredness, and I guess I put it down to not having practiced that much."</p>
Fatigue nearly cost the Galaxy on the night. Los Angeles had to withstand a barrage of pressure by Houston in the second half to the tune of 10 corner kicks. During one stretch, the Green-and-Gold had to defend four consecutive corners before clearing the ball up the field. According to Yallop, there are both positives and negatives to take away from the rabid defending the Galaxy had to do.</p>
"When a team throws a lot of men forward we should be breaking better than we did tonight. We're not picking the right pass and we're sloppy with our play," said Yallop. "Having said that, I like the way we stepped up when they had chances, especially corner kicks. That is a lot to be said because (Houston) is very good on corner kicks. Any time you can stop a team like that from scoring on set pieces I'm very happy."</p>
When the Galaxy finally did break the pressure, they got numbers up on the offensive end of the field and tallied their third goal of the night. Quaranta was the final recipient following a Galaxy counterattack, and he took advantage of a backtracking Houston defense to double Los Angeles' lead in the closing moments of the game. It's a sign of good things to come according the Galaxy players.</p>
"We need to find a way to get that goal that puts us up two a little earlier, because there were opportunities," said defender Chris Albright, who made a handful of good plays to help keep his team in front when they were clinging to a one-goal lead. "But I told Frank, if we score goals we're going to win a lot of games, because we defend really well. We scored three tonight and two on Saturday. We're improving, and I think it's only going to get better."</p>
The Galaxy did defend well for most of the match. The one goal they conceded was a classic De Rosario. Only the Canadian international would even dream up the scoring opportunity let alone finish it.</p>
De Rosario unleashed a shot from the touchline, only six yards off of the end line and beat Hartman to the near post. Yallop and Hartman both had to take their hats off to De Rosario on the night.</p>
"That goal, you have to look at Dwayne. That was a fantastic shot to be honest with you," said Yallop. "He was sizing up the cross and disguised it very well and hits it very well."</p>
Hartman gave a first person perspective on De Rosario's goal.</p>
"As soon as he lined it up, I took a look to see if we were numbers up (in the box) and we weren't. I was trying to figure out how we could get someone to help us out on the back post," said Hartman. "He hit a good shot. Unfortunately, I was able to get a hand to it, but pushed it against the post and in."</p>
Hartman and the rest of the Galaxy will have the displeasure of facing the unpredictable nature of De Rosario in just four days time when the two teams play again in league action Sunday at The Home Depot Center. Wednesday's result might build a bit more confidence for the Galaxy heading into that match-up as they continue their playoff push.</p>
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
