LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo
November 20, 2011
Home Depot Center
Well after several years of my sports adventure I am finally able to go to a championship final. In the 2010/2011 NBA season I attempted to go to the game 7 finals between the Lakers and Celtics but I was on the east coast that same day, so I would have to fly home and immediately get into my car then hope for no traffic to get to the game ontime (not to mention the single game ticket was $700). The MLS cup on the other hand was much easier to come by. Once the tickets were available 4 months prior to the game I picked up some awesome seats only a couple rows from the field. Then the stars lined up and my home team LA Galaxy made it to the Cup playing against the Houston Dynamo.
The week of the game I was checking the weather forecast about 5 times a day. One day it was 90% chance of rain, then the next day it was suppose to be windy with no clouds. When game day finally arrived I woke up in Malibu with a huge storm on top of us, wind howling and it was pouring...this was not going to be fun. As game time approached it the faucet in the sky was still going strong so Keli and I decided to get some extra poncho's, along with every other person going to the game. Needless to say the local Target had no supplies. But we were inventful and decided to buy a couple shower curtains we could cover up with...worked perfectly!
Now onto the game, the crew with me today are Keli, one of my best friends DI and his newly ringed up fiance Amanda. As game time approached the heavily pro Galaxy fans were becoming rabid. Everyone feels that this is our year. Back in 2009 we lost to Real Salt Lake in shootouts and now it is time for redemption. It is hard to imagine that the Galaxy wouldn't win with the current star power on the field. Landon Donovan, newly acquired Robbie Keane and David Beckham backed by the best goalie in the league Josh Saunders. On Houston the biggest name and former US national team member Brian Ching was ready to bring down the best team in the league (Galaxy won the Supporters Shield for most regular season points). The game started fairly sloppy which I assume was because of the soaking wet field. The ball was slipping and skipping all over the pitch which lead to very sloppy play on both sides. In the first half LA completely dominated the field and ball possesion. Not only did they have the majority of corner kicks but also had a couple near misses on the goal. In the second half it was more of the same, hard shots, many more corners and several direct kicks just outside of the goalie box. Then at the 72nd minute Beckham lobbed a perfect pass to Keane who fed the ball to Donovan and he made no mistakes on this one by placing the ball in the net for a 1-0 lead. Houston really had no reponse and the time clicked away for a Galaxy championship! The Home Depot center went wild, "We Are The Champions" blasted over the speakers, and the players jumped for joy. Seeing the cup in "our" hands was fantastic. Most players went around the stadium and thanked the fans for a great year (Juninho ran over to the LA Brigade and took the huge Galaxy flag and waved it back an forth on the field bringing the fans to a frenzy).
What a great game, not to be topped anytime soon...
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