subject: Mls Cup Tickets - Los Angeles Headed To 2009 Mls Cup [print this page] Gregg Berhalter and Landon Donovan scored in overtime to put the Los Angeles Galaxy into the MLS Cup final with a 2-0 triumph over the Houston Dynamo. Get MLS Cup tickets and see Berhalter score a goal. L.A. will play in their first MLS Cup since 2005. The club has made five MLS appearances since the league began in 1996. They won championships in 2002 and 2005.
After 2005, L.A. missed the playoffs for three consecutive seasons and had to endure the media frenzy surrounding David Beckham's arrival. Donovan said, "It's been a lot of hard work. But the reality is that this is a real team. You don't win games with only two, three players. You win with 11, 14, 18, 22 players throughout the year."
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena admitted that the game could have gone either way. The coach continued to say that his club's concentration was greater than their opponent's, and that L.A.'s center backs (Omar Gonzalez and Berhalter) were terrific against Houston's forwards. Beckham's free kick set up Berhalter's goal in the 102nd minute.
Houston's Eddie Robinson tried to clear Gonzalez's header off the free kick, but Berhalter got hold of the ball and fired it from seven yards for the score. Berhalter said he saw Gonzalez go up and he waited for the ball. The defender got his wish and the ball "just popped" to him before he registered L.A.'s first goal of the game.
Donovan scored the second goal for the Galaxy in the 109th minute when he converted a penalty kick. The forward set the MLS record for career playoff scoring with 17 goals. Donovan received the penalty kick after Dynamo's Ricardo Clark brought down Alan Gordon in the penalty area. Houston goalkeeper Pat Onstad dove to his left but couldn't make the save. It was Donovan's third goal of the 2009 playoffs.
Houston missed their best chance to get on the scoreboard when Brian Ching headed a seven-yard line drive. Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts kept Ching's shot out of the net by deflecting the ball off the crossbar. Dynamo's Andrew Hainault had a goal in the 80th minute, but Luis Angel Landin's foul before Hainault's shot nullified the goal.
Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear was irate over the official's call. The coach said, "I'd like to see a replay of our goal. If you can 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." Houston's Wade Barrett made his first appearance since Aug. 30, when he started for Mike Chabala. The latter was suspended for receiving yellow cards in each of the two conference semifinal games against the Seattle Sounders.
Since the game was played on Friday the 13th, it was only appropriate for the stadium's lights to go out twice because of power dips. Officials at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles reported that the game "was stopped for a 18 minutes in each half." While play was suspended, players on both sides were trying to stay loose by passing the ball to each other.
