With spot secured, Galaxy await foe
The Galaxy head into Sunday’s finale with FC Dallas at StubHub Center having finished most of their heavy lifting for the regular season: No matter what happens on the field Sunday, the Galaxy will finish third in the Western Conference and open the postseason at home later this week.
Still to be determined, however, is when they’ll play and against whom.
Four teams go into the final day battling for the conference’s final three playoff berths. And Major League Soccer will wait until the postseason matchups are finalized Sunday before announcing which teams will play their playoff openers Wednesday and which ones will play Thursday.
“It does make a difference,” Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena said of the schedule. “It’s not going to end our world because we know where we’re going on Wednesday or Thursday. That makes it a little easier.”
Trying to figure out whom the Galaxy might play is far more complicated.
Dallas and Colorado, the conference’s top two teams, get first-round playoff byes, which gives the Galaxy the top seed for the one-game elimination round. That means they’ll play the sixthplace finisher, which will emerge from the quartet of Portland, Real Salt Lake, Sporting Kansas City and Seattle, who enter Sunday separated by just two points.
Seattle will play host to Real Salt Lake, which needs just a draw to ensure itself a postseason berth, something the Sounders could also clinch with a win. Either of the two could be eliminated with a loss.
Defending MLS champion Portland and Kansas City, meanwhile, enter the final day tied for sixth in the standings, with Kansas City holding a narrow lead in the goal-differential tiebreaker. That means Kansas City could advance with a loss against San Jose, provided Portland also loses on the road in Vancouver. A onesided Portland win, on the other hand, could move the Timbers to fourth, giving them a home playoff date.
Last year it was the Galaxy who went into the final weekend needing a win to play at home. They lost, opened the playoffs in Seattle and lost again, resulting in their earliest playoff exit since 2008.
Absent that pressure this year, Arena will empty his bench Sunday. Neither Robbie Keane (hip injury) nor Steven Gerrard (hamstring) trained with the first team this week, leaving them unlikely to play. Gio dos Santos, who appeared in two games with the Mexican national team earlier this month, may also be rested. That figures to create playing time for the likes of Ari Lassiter, Rafael Garcia and Dave Romney.
“It’s nice to know we’ve secured the third spot. It’s nice to give some guys some minutes with the playoffs coming up,” said goalkeeper Brian Rowe, who may also get a break after appearing in 30 of the Galaxy’s first 33 games.
While there’s little at stake for the Galaxy on Sunday, Dallas has a lot to play for. Leading Colorado by two points in the standings, Dallas needs at least a draw to win the Supporters’ Shield, which goes to the team with the best regular-season record and brings homefield advantage throughout the playoffs with it.
But Dallas, which has beaten the Galaxy twice this season, comes into Sunday’s rematch wounded, having lost playmaking midfielder Mauro Diaz to season-ending Achilles’ surgery last week.