About 55 minutes into the second leg of the Western Conference Championship, I was really starting to believe that the Seattle Sounders were destined to become the first team in MLS history to win the treble (or "trip", as the office's resident Seattle fan dubbed it).
By the width of a post, that dream is now dead. But I'd be remiss not to start this column - which will explain a bit about how the LA Galaxy are on the way to their ninth MLS Cup thanks to the fickle god that is the away goals rule after a 2-1 loss and 2-2 aggregate draw across 180 minutes - without some praise for the Supporters' Shield & US Open Cup winners.
Seattle were good, and smart defensively, and tough. They took the league's best possession team and strangled them through the middle; they took the league's best defensive team and for 25 remarkable minutes at the end of the first half, carved 'em up. They got chances for their best finisher, and got big saves from their goalkeeper, and looked every bit good enough to go through.
Given the changes afoot this offseason in Carson, that'll change in 2015.
Cold comfort, to be sure. Here's how the Galaxy advanced:
1. Lock it down in 2nd half
Seattle got their 2-0 lead in the first half, but conventional wisdom and past precedent both said "Not enough." This was made official by Juninho's 54th-minute blast which would, of course, stand as the series-winner.
So the hosts needed another. Problem is, the Galaxy weren't just the league's best attacking team in 2014; they doubled as the league's best defensive team (when Jaime Penedo's not handing out gifts like he's Santa Claus).
LA didn't precisely pack it in after Juninho's goal, but they certainly adjusted the way they played, pulling both wide midfielders all the way out to the touchlines and having their central midfield pair sit central. Usually Juninho and Marcelo Sarvas will flip out of their zone to chase potential turnovers while Landon Donovan cheats up the field, a tactic that leads to consistent counterattack opportunities.
Not so in the second half of this one. Donovan dropped back to make sure any crosses from the Seattle right side were at the very least slowed down so that the Galaxy central defense could be given room to attack the ball in the air.
Purple triangles are clearances, while blue are interceptions. LA wanted Seattle to cross the ball a million times, betting that Omar Gonzalez and Leonardo could do the job, and that the Sounders wouldn't quite figure out how to deal with them.
It wasn't pretty, but it was damn effective.
2. Oba everywhere
Obafemi Martins finished the playoffs with zero goals and zero assists, and that's why stats are big fat liars. For the most part of the last four games he was asked - along with Clint Dempsey - to attack 2-vs-4 over the course of 90 minutes, and still created bagfulls of danger. He could have done better with a couple of looks himself, certainly, but he's value isn't measured in just his counting stats.
He was all over the first Seattle goal:
His movement got Leonardo moving around, and when you force defenders to scramble like that in their own 18, good things sometimes happen. LA had a couple of chances to deal with this situation - including a "Where are you going, Jaime?" moment - and on most days, would have.
But the great thing about Martins is that he plays every day not like it's "most days," but like it's the last day. He puts pressure on the defense every second he's out there, and so Sigi Schmid's big gambit in this one was to make sure he got his MVP candidate as much of the ball as possible.
Oba had 49 passes in this one, about 40 percent above his season average, and you can see that he wasn't exactly tethered to one area of the field. Partially this happened because it was Seattle's design, and partially it's because against a packed-in defense - which is what LA were in the second half, remember - it's not a great idea to waste your best passer in the 18 trying to win headers against Omar.
3. A moment for Juninho
Bruce Arena's stock answer to "how do you win playoff games?" is "Your best players have to be your best players."
Donovan and Robbie Keane are LA's best players, even though neither was particularly good in this one. Keane's showing was even worthy of "bad", and it's pretty clearly he's carrying an injury that's robbed him of much of his agility.
The secret weapon for this team, however, is that when he's locked in, Juninho can be the best player on the field for entire games. He didn't quite reach that level in this one, but for the first 15 minutes of the second half there was no one else out there in his stratosphere. He didn't just score the goal; he earned it with his box-to-box, touchline-to-touchline quality, all of which made the goal itself feel something close to "inevitable."
"Finally" is appropriate. If there's one fatal flaw to the Galaxy offense, it's that they squander their looks from range waaaaaay too often. The teams that have had success against them this season are the teams that have played compact and deep, forcing the LA attackers to play one-twos through forests of legs, requiring tight passing and close control that's hard to dial up game after game.
Juninho, if he's rediscovered his range, is a floor-spacer in the same way that a great 3-point shooter is in basketball. If he's hot, you simply have to come out quickly and close him down - and that's the exact kind of desperation defense that provides cracks for the rest of the attack.
It's a credit to Seattle (especially Stefan Frei and Chad Marshall) that they were able to prevent those cracks from becoming chasms. They were smart, they were tough, and they were game for it.
The Galaxy just did it all a little bit better over the course of 180 minutes.
