Galaxy players offer predictions on MLS Cup
Instead of playing on Sunday, the Galaxy players will be packing.
Instead of taking on the Colorado Rapids in the MLS Cup final in Toronto, they will be taking off on Tuesday on a one-game trip to Australia.
Landon Donovan and Co. would rather be in Canada this weekend, but a 3-0 loss to FC Dallas in the Western Conference final last Sunday has left them watching the title game on television (5:30 p.m. PST, ESPN and Galavision).
That doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions on which team will win Major League Soccer’s 2010 championship, however.
“It’s going to be a good game,” Donovan said. “There are no two players playing better this season than [Colorado’s] Conor [Casey] and Omar [Cummings] together, but in my opinion there’s no one player who’s more important to a team than [Dallas midfielder and 2010 league most valuable player David] Ferreira. It’s going to be interesting.
“My guess is whoever scores first is going to win because they’re both good counterattacking teams and if you have to come at them and open yourselves up, Conor and Omar can make you pay and Ferreira can make you pay going the other way.”
So which team prevails?
“I’ve got to say Dallas,” Donovan said, “because we lost to them.”
Colorado and Dallas played each other twice during the regular season, with both games ending in a tie, 1-1 in Commerce City, Colo., in July, and 2-2 in Frisco, Texas, in October.
Where Dallas seems to have an edge, according to Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant, is in what Dallas Coach Schellas Hyndman — dipping into his box of cliches — calls the players’ “refuse to lose” mentality.
“They’ve kind of done so [reached the final] under the radar,” Dunivant said. “They had a lot of ties, but not a lot of people were talking about Dallas. They only lost four games in, what, 33 now? That’s pretty incredible. That’s an unbelievable record. They have a good team, so they’re obviously the favorites.”
Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein, who along with defender Eddie Lewis will end his playing career after the exhibition game against the Newcastle Jets in Australia, agreed.
“It’s a tough one,” Klein said. “I think I would pick Dallas because they’re very difficult to beat. … When you have the attacking weapons they have, I think maybe they have a little bit of an advantage.
“But you look at Colorado and their two forwards and who they have in the center of the park and it will be a big challenge [for Dallas].”
The Galaxy, meanwhile, is left to consider what might have been. The team reached the MLS final in 2009 but lost on penalty kicks to Real Salt Lake. It finished with the best record in MLS in 2010, but again came up short.
“It hurts,” said Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez. “At the end of the year there’s only one team that’s happy. It was a tough ending for us. We had every intention of getting back to the Cup and then winning it this year.”
As far as veteran 37-year-old defender Gregg Berhalter is concerned, Sunday’s game means little.
“We proved over a 30-game series that we’re the best in the league,” he said.
But on Sunday it will be Colorado or Dallas that walks off with the title.
