CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy were sitting pretty after the opening leg of their Western Conference semifinal last year against Real Salt Lake.
They took a 1-0 lead to Rio Tinto Stadium but gave up one goal in regulation, another in overtime and were done – short of their MLS Cup championship three-peat goal.
That's in the back of their minds as they head to Seattle for Sunday's decisive leg of the Western Conference Championship (9:20 pm ET; ESPN, buy tickets here) holding onto a 1-0 advantage, just 90 minutes, at the least, from their fourth MLS Cup title-game appearance in six years.
They're not about to make the same mistakes they made last year in Sandy, Utah, where Real Salt Lake overcame a deficit en route to their second MLS final. Defense is mandatory, of course, but so is attacking the Sounders.
“I think we learned a lot last year with the Salt Lake series,” Landon Donovan said following LA's training session Friday morning at StubHub Center. “We went there with a 1-0 lead, and I think we were a little too tentative and a little too defensive, and we didn't have many chances. We didn't create many chances.
“Our mentality is to go with the same attitude that we had the first two times we went there this year. We were very successful in playing that way, and there's no need to change that now.”
The Galaxy were the protagonists in both of their games at CenturyLink this season, dominating the meeting in late July for a 3-0 victory, then dictating terms until the final 10 minutes before conceding a pair of goals in the regular-season finale, a 2-0 defeat that enabled the Sounders to snare the Supporters' Shield.
LA, who led the league in goals this season, went on the attack in last weekend's first leg and might have scored three or four goals had they been sharper in the Sounders' box. They're looking for something similar on Sunday.
“I think we're going to play the same way as we have done for most of the season,” captain Robbie Keane said. “We're going to try to win the game. But at the same time we have to be clever, have to defend well but still have to approach the game in the manner that we have been all season.”
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The Sounders need a goal to pull even, two to win the series without penalty kicks and three if the Galaxy hit the net just once, owing to the away-goals rule. LA is ready for that.
“They have to be a bit more attack minded because they have to score a goal,” Keane said. “The first 20 minutes have to be very, very crucial. We have to be very clever in the way that we play for the first 20 minutes.”
The Galaxy aren't certain Seattle will press the issue from the start.
“I think they realize that if they come out and put too many numbers forward, we're a very dangerous team going the other way,” Donovan said. “They will, I'm sure, be coached on that. Sigi [Schmid, Sounders head coach] knows very well that we can counter, are probably the best counterattacking team in the league. So they could come out with a lot of energy and press us, they could be a little more conservative and take the approach that it's going to take 90 minutes to get the goals they need. We'll see.”
Whatever the Sounders do, LA are going to stick to their game plan.
“We know what it takes to get [to the MLS Cup final], you know? We've been there before,” Keane said. “We know how difficult a place [Seattle] is to go and win a game; we've done that before. We know what's at stake, but it's important that we go and try to win the game.
“We can't be sitting back and defending for 90 minutes because we know they'll get their opportunities. We have to try to get opportunities ourselves and try to get a goal.”
