MLS fans fall into two categories – those who hate the Galaxy, and those who will hate the Galaxy. There's just something adorable about seeing Sigi and the entire Seattle bench cursing Kovalenko and Juninho from a height. That Schmid sent in Tyrone Marshall soon afterwards to restore order – the Jamaican Hatchet, the hard man from Sigi's olden days with the Galaxy – just shows how little room to complain MLS coaches have these days.
The Galaxy highlight DVD is going to be awesome, because there were so many highlights like Buddle's goal, Ricketts' saves, and that very pretty sequence that led to Juninho's near-miss. The Galaxy could be beautiful if they wanted to, but they'd rather…well, I'd say they'd rather win, but they'd win a lot more comfortably if they played more skillfully. I draw the jury's attention to the previous time the Galaxy played the Sounders in Qwest.
The Galaxy have two or three players capable of absolutely transcendent, breathtaking performances, but Bruce Arena focuses on the other eight. Whether you think that's good or bad is in the eye of the beholder…no, just kidding, it's bad.
Yes, the Galaxy's fearful cynicism did enough to beat Seattle – which probably had more to do with Sounder incompetence than anything. Matt had a fine breakdown of Seattle's, er, breakdown:
None of this should have been at all surprising to the Sounders, or to Sigi Schmid. The Galaxy employ this strategy in two very specific situations – home games and road games.
So why weren't the Sounders prepared? Bill was so appalled by Blaise Nkufo, he made his first post in five years or something.
Maybe I should also give credit to Eddie Lewis. Some Galaxy fans believe he should have retired at the end of last year, while others believe he should have retired two years ago. But pressed into duty, by golly if he didn't close down the Seattle right side. Of course, it helped that Donovan covered for him at every opportunity, but if that was Lewis' final start as a pro, it was a worthy sendoff.
In other words, please let that be Eddie Lewis' final start as a pro.
The 'Ders think they can overcome history as well as cycnicism, bless their hearts. The Galaxy did have the second-worst home record among playoff teams – amusingly, Seattle had the worst. However, the Galaxy's four home losses have all come in the second half of the season – in their last eight home games, the Galaxy are 3-4-1. Well, 4-4-1 if you count Chivas USA as another home game. Well, 4-5-1 if you count the Puerto Rico game.
But if Seattle's going to be put off and/or surprised by the same act the Galaxy have put on all year, we're all just better off watching the highlights of Buddle and Ricketts next Sunday, and waiting for either Salt Lake or Dallas to come up with some sort of actual strategy in two weeks or so.
I mean, I could watch that Buddle goal over and over, couldn't you? Yes, you hate the Galaxy, I know that. But if there's one thing we learned from Algeria, it's that one incredibly beautiful minute makes up for over ninety terrible ones.
Oh, my God…the Galaxy really are America's team.