Nov 30, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Los Angeles Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes (11) holds the trophy after winning the Western Conference Championship against the Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
In Major League Soccer, when you follow any match involving Bruce Arena’s Los Angeles Galaxy Football Club, picture a Hollywood drama composed of two acts and an intermission. In each act, every tackle, every pass, every shot, every save and every goal elicits the inner silver screen spirit of a professional athlete donning the colors of the blue, gold and white. Or, if you are feeling nostalgic, the colors of black, gold, red and green.
It’s the power of Hollywood-style resilience, a trademark trait embedded in the heroes of many action films, that is in the lifeblood of the Galaxy, who fell to Sigi Schmid’s Seattle Sounders 2-1 but escaped the concrete jungle of CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Wash. with a critical away goal. On Dec. 7, they have a chance to send the greatest hero ever to don their club’s strip, Landon Donovan, off in fairytale fashion when they host Jay Heaps’s New England Revolution, in MLS Cup 2014 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN.
When asked of the turnaround by the Galaxy, Arena was all smiles.
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“We played pretty well in the first half then a turn of events with a sloppy 10 minutes,” said Arena. “I thought they came out fairly passive. We had control of the game, made a couple mistakes and they burned us for it.
“We told our guys at halftime that we just have to get a goal to advance. Juninho finally hit the goal this year. It was a great goal and we had to hang on for our lives at the end there. The field was difficult to play on tonight.
“The surface is really slick and challenging for both teams. It was just a matter of grinding it out and having the right mentality, and we accomplished that. This was not going to be easy, by no means, and it wasn’t, but we knew the rules.”
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“We haven’t won anything yet so this is just another step along the way,” said Donovan. “The first part was the Salt Lake series, and now Seattle. Nobody has had to do it harder than we have. Those are two very good teams.
“To beat the best team during the season in a series like this is very difficult. Now we get one game at home to win a championship. If anybody had said at the beginning of the year that was the opportunity, we would take it in a heartbeat and we are going to go with everything to win it.”
Galaxy captain Robbie Keane was indeed disappointed that LA’s backline conceded a couple of goals, one being a poor clearance by Omar Gonzalez, the other a sheer howler from goalkeeper Jaime Penedo.
“The first part was the Salt Lake series, and now Seattle. Nobody has had to do it harder than we have. Those are two very good teams.” – Landon Donovan
“We lacked concentration,” Keane said. “You’re most vulnerable when you just scored a goal and that was the case. The 10 to 15 minutes after you just concede a goal is the most important and we weren’t focused and they killed us a little bit. Halftime came at a good time for us and we regrouped. I knew we only needed to score a goal anyway and that was the case.”
Every good Hollywood drama needs a solid script with unscripted adlibbing, and Donovan believed that the Galaxy followed theirs, even if it didn’t come out the way they were hoping for it to go.
“We started the game the way we wanted,” said Donovan. “We put a lot of pressure on them. We played in their half of the field. They really had nothing going on until the goal. The goal gave them some energy then the second goal came.
“We were under a little pressure there but it didn’t change anything from our perspective. We still needed the goal and we wanted to come out in the second half and apply pressure. We knew that the way they played the last month and a half has been very conservative both home and away so we knew they would revert back in that shell and we can put pressure on them so we put a lot of pressure on them.”
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As for Arena, it was a case of deja vu. Los Angeles lost to Seattle two years ago by exactly the same scoreline.
“I don’t really care,” said Arena smugly. “We lost here two years ago, too, didn’t we? I didn’t make the rules, you know? The whole objective is to advance and get to the MLS Cup Final. We’ve accomplished that and we’re going to have a real battle on our hands.
“To get this result and be in the Final at home, we’re proud of that. Again, we have a long week ahead of us to try to get our team recovered and ready to play a tough New England team.”
“I’m sort of just in this moment right now,” said Donovan. “I just want to prepare myself for one last week and do everything I can to help this team win. I want to go out a champion. It seems perfect, but we are playing a team that I think is the best team in the league over the last 12 games.”
And if that trademark Hollywood resilience can show up one final time, as it has done many times before, expect the Galaxy to return to the top of Major League Soccer and win one for the thumb.