iHooligan

Say what? The MLS Cup is on ESPN1 and not 2 or 3 or Classic? There was a time when ESPN would not have interrupted a log cutting Championship to show a World Cup match. You could have easily lived through the 80s and 90s and never seen a group of people gathered around a television watching a soccer match in North America. But the worm has turned. Tonight the MLS Cup was on ESPN1 and during prime time no less.

The Galaxy have won the championship twice but this was Real Salt Lake’s first appearance here. The huge crowd was chanting “Seattle Sounders” before the match who, obviously, were not appearing in this movie. Certainly the Sounders have the most rabid MLS fan base.

This was the first MLS Cup to be played on artificial turf the venue being Seattle’s Quest field. Both teams had outstanding goal keepers who had every bit as much to do with the teams making it to the final as the midfield and attacking elements.

The slickness of the artificial turf was immediately apparent as players appeared to be having a tougher time with ball control and staying on their feet.

Will Johnson picked up a yellow card by shuttling Landon Donovan off the field without really being near the ball. Beckham caught Morales just moments after and after 2 minutes Morales was signaling for the medical team. Eventually he got back in the game but struggled more and waved to be taken off again and was replaced by Clint Mathis. Poor Morales sat in the sidelines with his head in his hands and apparently in tears for ultimately missing out on the Cup final.

Real were not taking their underdog status lightly and kept pushing the ball over to the Galaxy’s half – giving as good as they got. I kept thinking I would love to get a time machine and be able to send both teams back to play on a natural turf just to see how differently the match would be played.

First strike on goal came at 24 minutes by Galaxy’s Jovan Kirovski. And closing in on 40 minutes the Galaxy started to look a lot more threatening making repeated runs on the Real goal. Finally Beckham fed Landon Donovan the ball who passed forward to Mike Magee who then popped it nicely into the Real goal. This was a big step up for Magee who last year sat on the sidelines while his old team the Red Bulls got seen off by Columbus Crew 3-1.

In the second half Jamaican international Donovan Ricketts collided with both Real’s Robbie Findley and Galaxy’s Omar Gonzalez as Rickett’s made a painful and potentially disastrous save. After some time on the turf he got up nursing his right hand and continued play.

At 63 minutes some frantic, Tex Avery like play in the Galaxy box resulted in a goal by Findley who exulted in scoring against the team that had traded him away in 2007. Ricketts turned out to have a contusion on his right hand and left the field right after this goal and thus the Galaxy lost one of its most crucial players.

At this point Real only had the option of becoming even more offensive minded than they already had been while the Galaxy strangely sputtered for a time.

Despite some authoritative and hungry play by both sides in each set of overtime the game went into penalty kicks. And now, I thought, Galaxy might feel the pain of losing their star goal keep even though Josh Saunders had put in a confident performance since he had replaced Ricketts.

Ah, the cheap drama of the penalty shoot out. Mano-a-mano combat. Team mates with their arms over each other shoulders looking on tensely as their lone kickers duke it out with the goal keeps. Ultimately it didn’t come down to Saunders being a rookie since he made some heroic saves but perhaps Landon Donovan putting his penalty kick over the cross bar.

And so the Underdogs took it, Real Salt Lake beating the Beckham experiment in the penalty shoot out 5-4. Nick Rimando took the MVP.

A lively game. Pat yourselves on the back MLS.

Category: US Soccer

Tags: LA Galaxy, MLS Cup 2009, Real Salt Lake