The Major League Soccer playoffs are back on Thursday night and the first game on the schedule will be the Los Angeles Galaxy taking on Real Salt Lake and the game will be live on ESPN2 starting up at 9:00 pm and will be streaming online on the Watch ESPN website for the western conference semifinals.
The first leg saw the Galaxy win with a 1-0 victory as the number three seed over the number two in Real Salt Lake and now the two teams will play in Utah and the Galaxy has the advantage and they are looking to defend their MLS Cup title after winning it last year. Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan will be looked at as the primary players on offense and the team not lost a match since back in October, as they had a draw with the Seattle Sounders to finish the season and then they got the 1-0 win against Real Salt Lake. The score came from Sean Franklin after the half and now the team is in position to make it to its third straight finals and that could mean another championship and the team was solid in the first leg and now they will have the lead in aggregate and while the match is at Rio Tinto Stadium.
Check here for the MLS Playoffs live coverage from ESPN.com for the Galaxy and RSL.
The Galaxy have been one of the most consistent teams in the MLS this season and goalie Jaime Penedo has been excellent and the last match was the fifth time he has been able to put up a shutout and the team will be looking to play fast and smart for the same results on Thursday night. The team is looking to win the title for the fifth time and they got a timely goal from Franklin, who hadn't put one in for months and now players like Donovan and Keane will be looking to rebound as they get things together for the second leg.
The Galaxy defense was excellent and they almost added a goal later on and they totally dominated, although the score didn't exactly show that and now they must be on the top of their game, as RSL knows they need to score and score fast and that will be the plan on Thursday. David Beckham is no longer with the team and that has been tough to overcome and Keane will be looking to add some more scoring, as he had over 15 goals to lead the team this season. RSL was coming into the match after not losing in four games and between the two teams are four total titles and this season the winner of this playoff matchup could have it again.
The other western conference semis is the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers and that match will be in Oregon and should be very entertaining after the Timbers were able to get a win with two goals to one against Seattle and now they will need to try and bounce back with Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey. The Eastern conference championship is already set with the Houston Dynamo taking on Sporting Kansas City and that comes after Houston knocked off the Red Bulls and the Western conference championship will start on Sunday. Los Angeles and Real Salt Lake play on Thursday night and the game will start at 9 pm on ESPN.