The Los Angeles Galaxy were victorious in the first leg of the MLS Western Conference Finals on Sunday, 1-0 over the Seattle Sounders. Ozzie Alonso was not available for Seattle, and was not even in the 18. Tommy Meyer started at CB for the injured Leonardo. AJ DeLaGarza and Stefan Ishizaki started in the same positions as the previous game, RB and RM respectively. Journeyman Michael Azira filled on for the injured Alonso, with Brad Evans and Marco Pappa as the outside midfielders.
Sigi Schmidt had a relatively defensive game plan for the visitors, while Bruce Arena had his team possess the ball, spread the field, and throw numbers forward. LA out shot Seattle 20-10 (both teams recorded three on goal), and won possession 60.5% to 39.5%. The Seattle defense held, allowing the only goal to Marcelo Sarvas in the 52nd minute off of a cross from DeLaGarza.
Both coaches were content with the result and understand the second leg is going to be an all-out war. Commenting on the result, Arena said “of course it was important. There were some chances to get a second. Obviously, they had some good chances. Not conceding a goal is important, so that’s a plus. We know it’s going to be a battle there.”
“We wanted to come out and put ourselves in a position where we could do some damage at home. Obviously we would have rather preferred a tie or a win, but only losing one-nothing, we don’t feel horrible about that. We’re disappointed for sure, but we don’t feel horrible. But overall, I was pleased with what we did out there. We gave away maybe a little too much possession, but I was happy,” said Schmidt.
Several role players stepped up in this match. On Azira, Schmidt said “I thought Micheal did well, the reason I subbed him out at the end is because I thought he was running out of gas a little bit and we also want to get Andy Rose in to help us a little bit.” Gonzalo Pineda added “I think you always miss Osvaldo, but Mike did a good job. He was very good support for me, so I think we need to move on and be okay for the next game.”
Ishizaki and Meyer stepped up for the Galaxy. “Tommy hasn’t played in a long time. He was very good again tonight. There were a couple of plays that were a little dicey, but you expect that from a guy that hasn’t played in a long time. I thought he was terrific. I thought that him and Omar [Gonzalez] did a great job shutting down [Dempsey and Martins]. Those two are very, very difficult to play against,” said Donovan. Keane added that Ishizaki “had a lot of drive on his side. We said at the start of the game we have to switch and play quickly on Ishi’s side.”
Four yellow cards were handed out, all in the first half. No player who partook in the first leg will be ineligible for the second leg due to suspension. The officiating came under much criticism, with much emphasis on the second half physical play by Zach Scott, who was sitting on a yellow (37′) and some towards Omar Gonzalez who was sitting on yellow card warning from a caution in the series against RSL.
Keane felt that the officials did “okay” on the game. Schmidt said “I think one time Omar [Gonzalez] was screening the ball and he just waited for a little touch and then he fell over like who knows what and all of a sudden it’s a foul. I thought, ‘are you kidding me?’. So a couple plays there, but we were fortunate that Zach [Scott] stayed on the field.”
There are still some questions about the line ups for Sunday. Arena would not give any specifics. Schmidt gave no update on Ozzie Alonso’s availability for Sunday.
Both teams expect a similar level of physicality in the second leg. Seattle will look to open up and go forward more needing a goal. LA will look to make a few adjustments as well. They continued to play well out wide, but were not able to open up Seattle as much. LA will also look to continue their stingy defense protecting their 1-0 aggregate advantage.
The Sounders and Galaxy meet up in Seattle this Sunday, November 30th, at 6:00 pm PST. The broadcast will be live on ESPN, Watch ESPN, and ESPN Deportes.
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