LA looking forward to second chance
Despite tie, Galaxy satisfied with performance in first leg
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It didn't have so much to do with their comeback from an early 1-0 deficit as it did the fact that the Galaxy get another chance.
"If you told us before the year," Landon Donovan said, "that we would have one game, a real home game against Chivas USA to advance to the conference finals, we'd take that in a heartbeat."
Considering where the Galaxy were a year ago -- tied for the worst record in MLS -- no one could blame him. The Galaxy and Chivas USA meet in the second game of the highly anticipated semifinal series on Sunday at The Home Depot Center with the winner moving on to the Western Conference Championship.
Mike Magee was one of a number of Galaxy players who found a number of positives in what also might have been construed as a less-than-satisfactory result.
"Anytime you don't win it's disappointing," said Magee, who scored the Galaxy's first goal. It also marked his first goal since mid-August. "First and foremost, you've got to find a way to look at the big picture.
"That was a home game for them, and next week we're at home in front of our fans. It's just one game for us at home ... we've got to be somewhat pleased."
"Knowing we just have to win one game to advance," Chris Klein said, "we should feel pretty good about that."
David Beckham said he was especially happy with the Galaxy's resolve, especially after Chivas' Maicon Santos scored just four minutes into the match. Beckham also was pleased to see the Galaxy bounce back from watching Maykel Galindo score the equalizer in the 50th minute after an horrendous error by rookie defender Omar Gonzalez.
The Galaxy persevered and almost had a chance to win it with 15 minutes to go on a mini-breakaway featuring Donovan and Alan Gordon, but Gordon's shot was stopped by Chivas goalkeeper Zach Thornton and the tie was secure.
"The fact when we were 1-nil down we came back, we showed character," Beckham said. "The first half we started really bad and they scored. Then we came back and regained our composure. The second half we did the same thing and they got back in the game.
"We'll look at that, work on that this week and hopefully get it right."
The players say they can't wait.
"We're going to have all the fans in our favor instead of theirs," Magee said. "You can probably double the anticipation. It was a two-game series, now it's one."
"Two L.A. teams going at in the playoffs for the first time, everyone wants to claim this as their home field," Sean Franklin said. "This is for bragging rights."
"We just start over," Donovan said. "This game means nothing ... no away-goals rule. We like our odds, we like our chances and we're going to go for it."
Dema Kovalenko put it even more succinctly.
"This is it," he said. "What else can it be? You win or you go home."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
