MLS Finals Set as LA, Houston Cruise to Victory

The 2011 MLS Cup will truly be a David v. Goliath affair.  In this corner, you have the regular season’s best team with the most star power and biggest names who, by the way, will be playing at home.  In this corner, you have a team that fought all season for a playoff spot then beat some quality Eastern Conference sides while losing their MVP candidate to injury.  Such will be the storyline as the Los Angeles Galaxy face the Houston Dynamo on November 20 at 9 PM ET at the Home Depot Center.

With an international break providing a Super Bowl-esque week off for both teams, MLS Talk will have plenty of content breaking down the match and its players, as well as the implications for both sides.  All of this will culminate in the annual MLS Cup Live Chat on the site; hang with us as we break down the play, strategy, and peripherals for MLS’s biggest game.

As for the teams themselves, yesterday was fairly anticlimactic as both teams won their matches with fairly comfortable scorelines.  The Western Conference champion Galaxy were even with Real Salt Lake 1-1 at the half, but Mike Magee scored the go-ahead goal early in the second half before Robbie Keane put it away in the 68th minute.  For the Eastern Conference champs, the game was a bit more intense as they had to play in the cauldron that is Livestrong Park against the favored Sporting KC.  Even with Brad Davis going out with a right quad injury in the first half, Houston still kept up the pressure with Andre Hainault breaking through in the 53rd minute.

This will be the third MLS Cup played at one of the participants’ home field: DC United won the 1997 Cup at RFK while in 2002 New England watched Los Angeles celebrate at Gillette Field after their 1-0 victory.  Another statistic of note: Los Angeles are undefeated at Home Dept Center this year.

What did you think of yesterday’s games and the upcoming MLS Cup match-up?  Any early favorites or predictions?