The LA Galaxy knew on Wednesday evening that they'll be making their fourth straight Western Conference Championship appearance in 2012, and now they know who their opponent is.
LA will take on Seattle Sounders FC, who are making their first ever appearance in the West Conference Championship. The Sounders advanced by defeating Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference Semifinal match up as Honduran midfielder Mario Martinez scored a stunning goal in the 81st minute to give the Sounders the victory at Rio Tinto Stadium as well as the aggregate lead.
The first leg will take place on Sunday, Nov. 11 at The Home Depot Center before traveling to CenturyLink Field for the second leg on Nov. 18.
The Sounders won the season series with the Galaxy going 2-1-0, earning both of their wins at CenturyLink, defeating LA 2-0 on May 2 and 4-0 on Aug. 5. The Galaxy won the final game of the season against the Sounders 1-0 at The HDC. While Seattle have the series lead this regular season, the Galaxy have had success against the Sounders in the postseason, defeating the Sounders in the 2010 Western Conference Semifinal.
Regardless of the match up, Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant is proud of LA's four consecutive West Final appearances.
"It's a testament to keeping this group together. Successful teams in this league are successful teams, consistent teams and teams that have stability. We've had the same core group for four seasons and the results have spoken for themselves. This is what happens when you get a good group together and you keep them together," Dunivant told LA Galaxy Insider on Thursday. "It's a testament to our club and everybody for doing that because it could have been easy to push the panic button at 3-8-2 and start to blow this thing up but they didn't do that. I think we rewarded them with the best second half of the season of any team in the league and now we're pushing through the playoffs. It's great for the whole organization."
