At some point in time, the two best teams in the league should get together and paint a masterpiece. Identifying that point in time, however, has proven difficult.
For the second straight meeting, the LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders produced a dour and defensive 90 minutes. Unlike the last two times they met, however, LA managed to protect their result, taking a 1-0 win at StubHub Center.
Both teams now turn their eyes 1,100 miles north, up the I-5 to CenturyLink.
But first, here's what happened on Sunday:
1. Replacing the Honey Badger
I thought the lack of Osvaldo Alonso - he missed this one with a hamstring injury - would be the decisive issue in this game. There is simply no like-for-like replacement for MLS's busiest, and arguably best, defensive midfielder.
Sigi Schmid turned to veteran journeyman Micheal Azira to fill the hole, and Azira did the job. He was especially good in the first half:
Azira didn't try to cover as much ground as Alonso; instead he was more focused on protecting the central defensive pair of Chad Marshall (more on him in a minute) and Zach Scott. He played more of a pure d-mid role, just breaking up everything he could and making sure LA never established any rhythm and weren't able to play east-west across the field at the top of the box.
How defensive was Azira? He attempted only four passes in the attacking half of the field the entire game, which is unheard of for a midfielder. He was basically an old-fashioned stopper, a role he played well. Positionally, about the only foot he put wrong all day was on LA's goal, a sequence in which not a single Sounder covered himself in glory.
Given the fact that the final was 1-0 - a result that gives Seattle more than just a puncher's chance in leg 2 - Schmid will probably feel like the gameplan was justified. But while Azira held the fort, he was also culpable for Seattle's sluggish ball movement, and painfully slow transition from recovery to attack.
Is now a good time to mention that, in 270 minutes of playoff action, the Sounders have yet to score a run-of-play goal? I have no intention of typing the names "Clint Dempsey" or "Obafemi Martins in this analysis, and that's the reason why.
2. Forcing the Galaxy wide
With LA's attack unable to gain any purchase in the central channel, they were forced out wide. And truth be told, they should have found more than one goal from those areas, particularly in the first half when Robbie Rogers was overlapping almost constantly down DeAndre Yedlin's side. Rogers had one early chance that he should have buried, another that Stefan Frei (huge in this one) saved nicely, and several open crosses that created some pretty decent danger.
Oh, did I say crosses?
That's the book on this LA team, which has been so devastating in possession when building through the middle, but only middling when playing in the style of an old-fashioned 4-4-2. Stefan Ishizaki was particularly trigger-happy:
Both aspects of Seattle's gameplan, then, were leading up to one thing: Marshall had to have a huge game.
3. Marshall had a huge game
First off, let's give some dap to Brad Evans and Gonzalo Pineda, who did just as much as Azira in making sure the Seattle midfield kept its shape. Evans had a claim on man of the match from where I was sitting.
That said, "shape" can only do so much. At some point, the guys you're facing are going to get the ball into the mixer, and when that happens, the central defense has to make plays.
So if you watched the game, you probably saw all the clearances and headers he won - as expected. There are two other plays I want to focus on, however, that illustrate why Marshall is probably going to win Defender of the Year.
Here's the first:
As soon as Yedlin lost possession there, I said out loud "goal." But Marshall kills the angle on the pass Landon Donovan wants to hit, jumping just slightly into the lane where Gyasi Zardes is heading. It's subtle, but it's beautiful - the type of defensive read that's been missing from the USMNT lately (hint, hint).
Then once the pass is made, he stays focused enough to get back and throw Robbie Keane off just enough. If it's any other defender in the league, that's probably a goal for LA.
Here's the second:
That's Marshall, in transition, reading the pass about five steps before it's hit. He's so much more than just a tower.
And now is a good time for me to mention that Marcelo Sarvas' goal was the first open-play goal Seattle allowed in over 300 minutes. They're arugably the league's best attacking team, but they've gotten this far in the playoffs on defense.
Next week, however, things will have to change. The attack will have to start pulling its own weight, or else Seattle's dream of the first MLS treble will die a premature death, no matter how well Marshall does.
