The Galaxy, stumbling through the worst season in the franchise’s long history, has looked to the Leagues Cup, a tournament with little pedigree and no real history, to salvage the year.
And for much of the monthlong competition that worked, with the Galaxy cruising into the tournament semifinals unbeaten. But reality and the Seattle Sounders caught up with them Wednesday, when goals from Pedro de la Vega and Osaze De Rosario gave Seattle a 2-0 victory and a spot in Sunday’s Leagues Cup final against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.
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The Galaxy will play host to Orlando City, a 3-1 loser in the other semifinal, in Sunday’s third-place game, where a berth in next season’s CONCACAF Champions Cup will be on the line.
Qualifying for the confederation’s top club competition would be a considerable accomplishment for the Galaxy, who are last in the MLS table nine months after winning their sixth league title. But they’ve played like another team in the Leagues Cup, emerging unbeaten from group play, where they faced three Liga MX teams, then eliminating Mexico’s Pachuca in the quarterfinals. And through the quarterfinals, they were scoring three goals a game, more than double their average in MLS.
The Sounders wasted little time taking control, going in front on De la Vega’s goal in the seventh minute and never looking back.
The score came on the last of a flurry of shots inside the Galaxy penalty area. The first, from De Rosario, was saved in the center of the goal by Novak Micovic, who dove to push the rebound out to his right. As Micovic scrambled after the loose ball, Jesús Ferreira took a shot, which Micovic, still on his stomach, also saved. But that rebound fell to De la Vega, who would not be denied, putting his right-footed shot into the back of the net.
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That was the fifth consecutive goal Seattle has scored in two games at Dignity Health Sports Park since being shut out in last fall’s Western Conference final.
Both keepers made diving one-handed saves — Seattle’s Andrew Thomas on the Galaxy’s Diego Fagundez in the 28th minute and Micovic on Obed Vargas 12 minutes later — to keep the score 1-0 at the intermission.
But the physical De Rosario doubled the Sounders’ lead with a splendid goal 12 minutes into the second half, heading down a pass in the box, lifting it back over his head with his right foot, then bulling his way through Galaxy defenders John Nelson, Zanka and Maya Yoshida before beating Micovic cleanly from the edge of the six-yard box.
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Micovic deserved better on a night when he was forced into a season-high six saves and got little help from his defenders. Still his performance was better than that of Mexican referee Adonai Escobedo, who struggled to control the match. Escobedo did make good use of VAR to correct a missed call in the final 10 minutes of regulation, however, expelling Seattle defender Nouhou Tolo for a rough challenge and forcing the Sounders to see out the victory with 10 men.
On the other end, Thomas made four saves to shut the Galaxy out at home for the second time in 17 days.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
