ESPN

CARSON -- Landon Donovan finished a feed from Robbie Keane in the 71st minute, and the Galaxy completed arguably its best campaign, claiming its third MLS Cup championship with a 1-0 victory Sunday night over the Houston Dynamo.

Donovan, who had last scored in early September, slipped Keane's pass inside the far post as the Galaxy, dominant from the opening whistle, thrilled a crowd of 30,281, the largest to see a soccer game at Home Depot Center.

The Galaxy added the trophy, named after its owner, Philip Anschutz, to those won in 2002 and 2005 -- and to the Supporters' Shield they captured as Major League Soccer's regular-season champion.

Todd Dunivant's throw-in from the left wing led to the goal. David Beckham got his head to it, nodding it onto Keane's path heading toward Houston's goal. Keane stepped past Dynamo center back Bobby Boswell, then split Boswell and Geoff Cameron with a little ball for the streaking Donovan.

Donovan, who moved up front when Chris Birchall came on for Adam Cristman in the 57th minute, redirected the ball past goalkeeper Tally Hall and inside the the right post.

The goal was Donovan's record 20th in MLS postseason play and his fourth in an MLS Cup final -- to go with three scored in San Jose's 2001 and 2003 title-game wins.

(Read full post)

CARSON -- The lineups for MLS Cup are out, and kickoff is a little less than a half-hour away. Absolutely nothing unexpected -- the Galaxy has slotted in Adam Cristman for Chad Barrett up top, and Houston has stuck with Corey Ashe in Brad Davis' spot on the left wing and Jermaine Taylor in Ashe's usual left-back post.

The lineups:

Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant; Landon Donovan, David Beckham, Juninho, Mike Magee; Adam Cristman, Robbie Keane. Bench: Gregg Berhalter, Chris Birchall, Paolo Cardozo, Frankie Hejduk, Jovan Kirovski, Michael Stephens, Donovan Ricketts.

Houston Dynamo: Tally Hall; Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Geoff Cameron, Jermaine Taylor; Danny Cruz, Adam Moffat, Luiz Camargo, Corey Ashe; Calen Carr, Brian Ching. Bench: Will Bruin, Colin Clark, Carlos Costly, Tyler Deric, Hunter Freeman, Eddie Robinson, Je-Vaughn Watson.

LOS ANGELES -- Bruce Arena calls Home Depot Center a “neutral” ground, at least for Sunday's MLS Cup final, but nobody's buying that -- even if the Galaxy, as their coach says, will be seated on the north "visitors" bench rather than their usual digs on the other side of the midfield stripe.

The Galaxy haven't lost at home this year. They haven't lost any match at HDC, going 17-0-6, including the road game against Chivas USA, three CONCACAF Champions League victories, and the friendly with Manchester City.

Think that's intimidating? Not for the Dynamo.

Houston went 15 road games without a victory this season, finally winning at FC Dallas on Sept. 24. They've been perfect away since, winning at Portland in mid-October then claiming playoff victories at Philadelphia and, in the Eastern Conference title game, at Sporting Kansas City.

“Before the playoffs started, we were pretty [poor] on the road,” Dynamo head coach Dominic Kinnear noted during the MLS Cup news conference Thursday afternoon at the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A. “It took us 16 games to get our first road win this year. It wasn't due to lack of playing well -- sometimes we didn't, and sometimes we did, but results didn't go our way.”

The victory at Dallas “gave us a lot of confidence” and the victory in Portland “was crucial for us,” Kinnear said.

And it all paid off in the postseason.

(Read full post)