This weekend, it’ll read L.A. Galaxy vs Seattle Sounders. Six days later, it’ll read Seattle Sounders vs L.A. Galaxy. Either way you read into it, the season-ending doubleheader between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders will be a stunning addition to the already large history book between these two clubs.
Both clubs are winners. The Galaxy have been around since MLS began in 1996 and have a combined total of 10 U.S. Open Cups, Supporters’ Shields, and MLS Cups. That’s second only to D.C. United (11). In just six years, the Sounders have been impressive in their own right. They’ve never missed the MLS Cup playoffs (though never getting to the MLS Cup Final), they’ve won four U.S. Open Cups, and they are closing in on their first ever Supporters’ Shield this season.
Both clubs are trailblazers. The Home Depot Center in Los Angeles may not have been the first soccer-specific stadium in MLS, but it was one of the early ones and continues to stand as one of the finest. The Galaxy’s signing of David Beckham ushered in the now ever-present Designated Player Rule. The Sounders have almost always had three DPs on the books, continually smash their own gaudy attendance records, and have shown that spending big doesn’t mean losing money.
Both clubs are disgustingly good on paper. Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan are nearly perfectly mirrored by Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey. The Galaxy also have Gyasi Zardes and Alan Gordon up front, while the Sounders boast Lamar Neagle, Chad Barrett, and Kenny Cooper.
“We have Juninho!” cries a Galaxy supporter on my left shoulder.
“Alonso, (expletive)!” replies a Sounders fan on my right shoulder.
“Gargan!”
“Yedlin!”
“Gonzalez!”
“Marshall!”
“Penedo!”
“Frei!”
And I’m just sitting here, questioning if the salary cap really is $3.1 million. The math stopped working after each side’s front two. On paper, these are probably the two best sides I have seen in MLS since I became a fan back in 2007. And they’ve lived up to the billing on the field too.
The Galaxy and the Sounders may only be a few points ahead of the next tier of teams, but the numbers are misleading. Ask any expert and they will tell you that these two sides have been at another level this year. Ask those same experts for their dream MLS Cup matchup, and they would all start off by asking you “does L.A./Seattle count?”
It doesn’t. At least not since 2012, when the possibility of teams crossing over to the opposite conference as wildcards was removed. Gone are the days of MLS Cup 2010, where the Eastern Conference Champion Colorado Rapids defeated their foes to the East, Western Conference Champions FC Dallas.
It makes sense. But in 2014 it doesn’t. Seeing New England or Sporting KC in MLS Cup would be fine, but neither club could give the Western Conference champion as good a match as the Western Conference runner-up. D.C. United could go from worst to first in the span of a year, but how true can we take that statement to be if they are currently MLS’ third-best team and have a far easier road to MLS Cup than their friends out West?
But nothing will change the fact that the Sounders and the Galaxy won’t be playing for MLS Cup like we all want them too. We therefore need to embrace the fact that what we see over these next two weekends may be as close as we can get to that dream becoming reality. The Sounders need only one win to clinch the Shield and keep the dream of a treble intact, but the Galaxy know that a Shield steal would better their argument as the best dynasty on MLS history.
And the drive doesn’t just stop there. The Galaxy are still riding Donovan’s retirement wave. DeAndre Yedlin will quite likely get summoned to Tottenham in January. The cores of both sides are in the form of their lives, and fans know that now is the time to capitalize.
To put it simply, the two best teams in MLS, armed with two bona fide MVP candidates each, are lining up against one another twice in the final week of the season with a major trophy and so much more on the line. This has the potential to be the best soccer we see this side of the border for a long time.
If you wait until they play in the Western Conference Final, you may end up waiting for nothing. As good as the Galaxy and Sounders have been, Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas, and Vancouver/Portland have all been just as good at various points this season.
Matches like these don’t come very often. And yet, we’re getting two of them in the span of a week. Whoever thought of these two teams closing out the season against one another should get a big raise.
So regardless of who you’re rooting for (Seattle for me), whether you are rooting for anybody at all, tune in. Pray for everyone to be healthy. Pray for the matches to be special. Pray for the officials not to do anything stupid. Pray for the play-by-play guys to say something brilliant.
These are the matches we wait for all year. Let’s make them worthwhile.
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