Todd Dunivant patrolled the left side of the Los Angeles Galaxy defense all season long. Ever-present throughout the long league campaign, he missed just one competitive match this year for the Green and Gold -- not playing in the U.S. Open Cup semifinal after he was sent off for two bookings in the quarterfinal match against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Getting two yellow cards in one game is very uncharacteristic of the third year player out of Stanford, but is indicative of the tense rivalry between San Jose and Los Angeles. The clubs meet for the third weekend in a row in the second leg of their Western Conference Semifinal Series on Saturday in San Jose, and in the first two, yellow cards were handed out like free samples.
Nothing should be any different this weekend -- not only will both teams be playing for bragging rights in the rivalry, but also playing for their playoff lives.
Two of the yellow cards that were handed out last weekend went to both Dunivant and his counterpart on the right side of the Galaxy back four, Chris Albright. Los Angeles holds a two-goal lead going into San Jose, and the defense expects to be under a lot of pressure. Accumulation of caution points seems to be an inevitability this weekend, but it's not something that the Galaxy are worried about.
"I don't think the caution points play a big factor because Chris (Albright) and I can each afford one and not have to worry about missing the next game," said Dunivant. "We try not think about the cards, we still have to do what we have to do to keep the ball out of the back of the net. If that means taking a yellow, so be it."
The problem of racking up too many yellow cards won't become an issue until potentially the MLS Cup Final, should the Galaxy advance that far. All the Galaxy can worry about, though, is this weekend. The back four thinks it knows how to keep some of the pressure off as well.
"We (the back line) are going to have to weather the storm. The Quakes are going to try and take risks," Dunivant said. "We need to be able to capitalize on that and not just sit back. We need to attack and put them on their heels and keep them honest."
The Galaxy employed that strategy in the first leg of the semifinal series, and it worked. The task gets much tougher at Spartan Stadium. San Jose lost just one game at home all season long, but the Galaxy have the advantage of knowing that they're the one team that knocked off the Quakes on their own ground.
"Beating them there in the U.S. Open Cup was very important. We took it to them in that game and we were the aggressors. We have to be just as aggressive this game," said Dunivant. "We can't just sit back and relax, we can't let them dictate to us how the game is going to be played. We have to stay aggressive. If we do things the way they did in the (season finale), they won't be able to break us."
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
