Galaxy Looking to Hit Double in Title Games
The Galaxy has known since Sept. 10 that its opponent in the U.S. Open Cup final on Oct. 24 would be the Columbus Crew and that it would have to travel to Ohio to defend its title.
The Galaxy has also known since closing out its Major League Soccer semifinal playoff series Wednesday night that it would be playing in the MLS Cup title match on Oct. 20 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
Saturday afternoon, though, the Galaxy found out that its opponent in the league championship game would be the New England Revolution, courtesy of its 2-2 semifinal series-clinching tie with the Crew.
As such, the Western Conference champion and No. 1-seeded Galaxy will travel to play for two championships in five days and attempt to “do the double,” win the two American domestic titles, in each team’s raucous home stadium.
“I think from the standpoint of the league it’s the ideal matchup,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said of the MLS Cup pairing from Foxboro, Mass., where he watched the Revolution-Crew game. “I think with [New England] playing at home it’s going to generate a huge crowd.
“And from our standpoint, it’s nice not to play the same team back to back like that. We’ll see fresh teams.”
But what about being the visiting team on what are supposed to be neutral fields?
“That’s our lot this year,” Schmid said. “When you look at what we’ve accomplished as a club in the last two years, we’ve played in five tournaments and we’ve now qualified for five finals. Last year we won two out of three and this year we’d like to win a couple again.” Schmid was referring to victories last year in the Champions Cup and U.S. Open Cup and a loss in the MLS Cup.
First up for the Galaxy is the Eastern Conference champion and No. 2-seeded Revolution, which has thrived under interim Coach Steve Nicol, who replaced the fired Fernando Clavijo on May 23. New England won its first-round playoff series against the Chicago Fire, six points to three, with two 2-0 wins and a 2-1 loss.
The Revolution then beat the Crew, five points to two, with a 1-0 victory and two ties, 0-0 and 2-2.
New England, which finished 12-14-2 this season after missing the playoffs with a 7-14-6 record in 2001, split its season series with the Galaxy with each team victorious at home.
The Revolution won, 3-2, in Nicol’s first game on May 25 and the Galaxy pulled out a 2-1 victory on Aug. 10.
Revolution forward Taylor Twellman and Galaxy striker Carlos Ruiz had a stirring battle for the league scoring race that ended with Twellman edging Ruiz, 52-49. Ruiz, though, led the MLS with 24 goals.
The two first-year MLS players are front-runners for the league’s most-valuable-player award, though Ruiz has set single postseason records with seven goals and 16 points while Twellman, who sat out Saturday’s decisive match because of a knee injury, has two goals and four points in the playoffs.
Still, Schmid expects to see Twellman play next week.
