Los Angeles Galaxy Confident Ahead Of Second Leg vs. Seattle
Nov 23, 2014; Carson, CA, USA; Los Angeles Galaxy forward Alan Gordon (9) and Seattle Sounders midfielder Andy Rose (5) battle for the ball during the second half of the Western Conference Championship at StubHub Center. The Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the Seattle Sounders 1-0. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Bruce Arena’s Los Angeles Galaxy carries a precarious 1-0 advantage heading into the second leg of the Western Conference Championship against Sigi Schmid’s Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash. on Nov. 30. Any win or draw will be enough for the Galaxy, as well as a one-goal loss that isn’t 1-0 to Seattle. Los Angeles are hopeful that history will not repeat itself, like it did last year against Real Salt Lake.
“I think we learned a lot last year with the Salt Lake series,” midfielder Landon Donovan told MLSSoccer.com’s Scott French. “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.”
“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.
“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.
“We know what it takes to get [to the MLS Cup final], you know? We’ve been there before. 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.”
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“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 of Seattle’s approach to the second leg. “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.”
The evolution of Los Angeles’s passing has been impressive. Many have considered the Galaxy to resemble FC Barcelona in terms of their style of play. Excellent ball movement and play on the flanks and superb decision making will be important in order for Los Angeles to get the result they need to host MLS Cup in December.
“You have to have the players to be able to possess then ball consistently and make chances that way and for a few years, we didn’t have that,” Donovan told French. “Now we’ve developed players that can do that, and we’ve brought in players that can help us do that.
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“The beauty of our team now is we like to have the ball a lot, we like to create chances, we like to put pressure on teams. But if we get into a situation where we need to defend for long stretches, we still have that in our DNA. And our ability to counterattack is never going to go away.”
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Galaxy assistant manager Dave Sarachan said. “There were times when we had David where we thought maybe he hit too many big balls. Beautiful soccer, everybody has a different picture of it, but I think our picture is utilizing the ball and having more of a possession-oriented game and having the movement, the freedom to interchange.
“I think when you have that picture and you can plug in the pieces to complete it, it sort of works. Pound for point, I don’t think I’ve seen as many quality goals with combination play and interchanging and multitude of passes [in MLS] as I’ve seen us score this year. It has been special this year.
“The quality of combination and interchange, I don’t think I’ve seen. Certainly in MLS. I don’t remember teams that have executed the way we have and created the kind of chances we’re creating.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 6:20 p.m. PT/9:20 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN.