Galaxy-Sounders Preview
SEATTLE (AP) This is not where the Sounders wanted to be.
''We talked about three scenarios: winning the game, tying the game and worst case is getting out of there with a 1-0 loss against us,'' Seattle midfielder Brad Evans said.
Worst case it was. The Sounders lost the first leg of the MLS Cup Western Conference finals 1-0 in Los Angeles a week ago. The second leg is Sunday in Seattle.
''It could have gone both ways,'' Evans said. ''We had a number of chances to score. They had better of the possession and counter attacks that were dangerous but that always happens against them and I thought we held firm defensively.''
Seattle's only other appearance in the Western Conference finals came in 2012 when it came home for the second leg against Los Angeles facing a 3-0 deficit.
The Galaxy are trying to extend the professional career of Landon Donovan for one more week and erase the memory of last year's Western Conference final when they let a 1-0 lead against Real Salt Lake slip away.
If the Galaxy play as well as they did in the first leg last Sunday, they likely will be playing for a fifth league championship at home.
''It just creates an environment around our club where we're focused on winning championships, and we're a couple of games away from doing that,'' Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena said during a conference call this week. ''We're on the same page. We believe that that's a charge of our club: to win championships, and our focus each and every year is on the MLS Cup.''
Seattle - trying to become the first team to win the MLS Cup, Supporters' Shield and U.S. Open Cup in the same season - could force extra time with a 1-0 win in regulation. But any goal by the Galaxy would make a Seattle comeback even more difficult thanks to the implementation of road goals as a tiebreaker in the MLS playoffs this season.
Seattle certainly didn't have problems scoring in the regular season. The Sounders scored the second-most goals in the league (65), but in the playoffs their only goal came on a header by Osvaldo Alonso in the first leg of the conference semifinals against Dallas.
Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins have been silenced in the postseason, although the pair created a number of opportunities - in the semifinals against Dallas and last weekend against the Galaxy.
The Sounders need to ''make sure that when Oba and Clint push forward, we're supporting them,'' Evans said. ''We tend to sit back, work really hard defensively and watch these guys take off because we know that they're going to get something out of it.''
Seattle will try to match what it did against Los Angeles in the regular-season finale, a result that clinched the Supporters' Shield. Two goals by Marco Pappa in the final 15 minutes brought a 2-0 home victory. That same score Sunday would put Seattle in the league championship game for the first time.