CARSON, Calif. – When the LA Galaxy walked off the field a couple of weeks ago in Seattle after missing out on the Supporters' Shield, they figured they'd be seeing the Sounders again soon.
They were right.
With Seattle's scoreless draw Monday night with FC Dallas in their Western Conference semifinal series of the MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T, setting up a No. 1-vs.-No. 2 showdown for the conference title and a spot in the Dec. 7 title game, the Galaxy couldn't be more excited.
“We were kind of hoping for this,” forward Alan Gordon said after LA's training session Tuesday morning at StubHub Center. “It's going to be a good series, similar to what we saw a couple weeks back, and may the better team win.”
There's still some residue left over from the Shield-deciding end-of-season, home-and-home series between the Western powers, especially after the Galaxy blew a two-goal lead for a 2-2 draw in their home leg, then dominated the following game in Seattle before surrendering two late goals in a 2-0 loss in the regular-season finale.
That last game, decided on Marco Pappa goals in the 85th minute and deep into stoppage, still weighs on LA, at least a little bit.
“I think we all feel like there's a little unfinished business there,” right back Dan Gargan said. “It was tough to walk out of there at the end of the season, but I think we were walking out of there expecting we'd be seeing them again.”
The Galaxy reached their fifth Conference Championship in six years – they lost just one of the first four, in 2010 to FC Dallas – with a 5-0 blowout Sunday over Real Salt Lake, a return to their superior form after a four-game winless stretch that included the two games with the Sounders.
LA dominated their first meeting with Seattle, romping to a 3-0 triumph at Seattle in late July, and have won the two previous playoff series against the Sounders, a conference semifinal in 2010 and the Conference Championship en route to their second straight MLS Cup championship two years ago.
None of that means much now.
“You can argue that [we're the two best teams in MLS], and we're both playing well,” said left back Todd Dunivant, who returned to full training after more than two months out with a groin tear. “At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who the best teams were during the year, it's who wins their series and who advances.”
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The games in October served as something of a preview, but LA believes this matchup will favor them.
“We didn't really do a good enough job last time,” midfielder Stefan Ishizaki said. “We had them here at home, 2-0, and then we have a couple minutes that weren't good enough, and they score twice on us. We can't let that happen this time around.
“I think we know what to expect, and we know what we need to do: Work as hard as we did against Salt Lake [on Sunday] and just try to make it really tough for them to play, try to spread their team, keep width on the field, stretch their team and try to keep possession because they're not really good when they have to defend a whole lot. They're better on attack.”
