November 13, 2009 EXTRA TIME AND MORE Galaxy win provides long night, some celebrating
By Scott French LA Soccer News Correspondent
Landon Donovan scored his record setting 17th post season goal on a penalty kick. Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images
CARSON, Calif. – It was no surprise to see the Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo go extra time to determine the Western Division’s representative in next weekend’s MLS Cup, but Friday night’s showdown at Home Depot Center was a marathon in ways that defied imagination.
It took 120 minutes for the Galaxy to claim its sixth appearance in Major League Soccer’s championship game, but its 2-0 triumph – on overtime goals by Gregg Berhalter and Landon Donovan – lasted almost 40 minutes longer than that.
The game was halted twice, for about 19 minutes each time, when the stadium lights shut off after “power dips” in the area.
It made for a long, long night, with the Galaxy getting to the champagne in its locker room just a few minutes before midnight.
“I don’t want it to end here. We have to win another game,” said Galaxy coach Bruce Arena, who won the first two MLS Cups, in 1996 and 1997, with D.C. United. “I think we have to be able to celebrate the next 12 hours or so, the next 24 hours, and then we got to get back to the business of trying to win MLS Cup.”
The Galaxy, which won titles in 2002 and 2005, head to Seattle for the Nov. 22 final against the Chicago Fire or Real Salt Lake, which meet tonight in the Eastern Division championship game.
It was the Galaxy’s third shutout in as many meetings with the Dynamo this season and its ninth shutout in its past 12 matches, so it was perhaps fitting that the decisive goal was scored by a defender.
Berhalter, who joined the Galaxy this season following 15 years in Holland, England and Germany, pounced on a loose ball following a David Beckham free kick 13 minutes into overtime. Donovan sealed the win with a penalty kick six minutes later.
“It’s great, it’s a great feeling,” said Berhalter, whose goal was his first with the Galaxy. “It’s overtime, and everyone’s thinking in the back of their head penalty kicks and all that. And you just want to win it.”
MLS Rookie of the Year Omar Gonzalez got his head to Beckham’s free kick from 38 yards, and when Eddie Robinson’s clearance was poor under pressure from Jovan Kirovski, Berhalter, about 12 yards from the goal, knocked the ball home as he was falling to the turf.
“Omar did well to win the header, and Jovan battled for the second ball, and it popped free,” Berhalter said. “I just went to the ball and finished it.”
Donovan doubled the lead with a 109th-minute penalty kick, his 15th goal this season and his record-setting 17th in MLS postseason action. Alan Gordon earned the spot kick – he was tripped by Ricardo Clark in the Dynamo box, and referee Terry Vaughn didn’t hesitate in blowing his whistle.
He also whistled a foul in the Galaxy box that cost Houston a goal in the 79th minute.
It followed the Dynamo’s best chance of the game, with Brian Ching rising above Gonzalez to powerfully head Brian Mullan’s cross from the right wing. Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts parried the ball off and over his crossbar.
Canadian international Andrew Hainault headed home the ensuing corner kick, but Vaughn ruled that Luis Angel Landin fouled A.J. DeLaGarza as the ball arrived in the goalmouth.
“I’d like to see a replay of our goal,” Kinnear said, “because if he’s going to call a foul on that, you can pretty much call a foul on every set piece that’s been in Major League Soccer this year. Because there’s (always) a fair amount of contact.”
L.A. might have had two in regulation but for Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad’s
heroics. He made spectacular first-half saves on Mike Magee and Beckham. On the first, in the fourth minute, he knocked aside Magee’s blast after Donovan beat Geoff Cameron on the left flank. Onstad leapt to his left to turn away a bending, 30-yard free kick from Beckham in the 30th minute.
The Dynamo almost scored on an own goal in the final minute of overtime, when the ball hit the crossbar off Gonzalez’s head.
Houston’s early strategy was to exploit DeLaGarza, a rookie who stepped in at left back when Todd Dunivant, so good the past two months, was sidelined with an undisclosed illness. DeLaGarza saw plenty of time on the right side this season, during Sean Franklin’s injury rehab, but not so much on the left.
The plan was working, and the Dynamo’s outstanding midfield – Mullan, Clark, Brad Davis and Stuart Holden – were starting to take control of the match.
Twice just before the first stoppage, Mullan played short passes past DeLaGarza and into a seam for Stuart Holden. On the first, in the 13th minute, Holden took the ball into the box and fired wide when presented a decent target. Four minutes later, Holden fed Ching, then fired wide again when Ching’s mishit shot fell toward him.
Then the lights went out, and the Dynamo was never the same.
“I think we were doing OK until the lights went out, and the momentum kind of swing a little bit after that …,” Kinnear said. “We never really got into our rhythm again. We started to play a little too direct. I think we were a little bit rushed in our play going forward, and we weren’t taking our time. … We were off going forward tonight.”
“That first stoppage probably came at a good time for us,” Beckham said. “It gave us time to sort a few things out that weren’t going right and we weren’t dealing with. They (had) started to play some good soccer and create chances, so it was good breaking that up.
“I was joking on the sidelines, just saying, ‘You Americans have been dying to get it to four quarters. And you got it.’ I’m sure there were plenty of adverts going on(the broadcast) during those breaks.”
The second stoppage occurred six minutes into the second half. And the remainder of the game was played at a frantic pace.
“One time, you can deal with it a little bit,” Arena said. “The second time, it’s difficult. I feel for the players. I think the players on both teams were fabulous during those … what do you call that? Intermissions? I don’t know what it is.”
Said Donovan: “It’s weird to just stop 15 minutes into a game or into a half and just sit there. We didn’t have control over what happened, but we had control on how we reacted, and that’s been a strong point of ours all year.”
The light failures occurred “due to two significant power dips in Southern California Edison Industrial Grid in which (Home Depot Center) sits,” according to a stadium release provided to media.
