The goal of Dejan Jveljic beats the Sounders, sends Galaxy to the MLS Cup final

What happens when an unstoppable strength encounters an irremovable object?

Wait long enough and the real estate object will eventually bend.

This is at least what happened on Saturday when Dejan Jveljic's goal in the 86th minute gave the Galaxy A 1-0 victory in the final of the Western MLS conference Before a closed shopping crowds of 26,327 at Dignity Health Sports Park. With the victory, the Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls, a 1-0 winner against Orlando City in the final of the Eastern Conference, during the MLS Cup final next Saturday which will start at 1 p.m. PST.

“Tonight was a bit of resilience,” said Galaxy coach Greg Vanney. “It was patience. It was when things are not perfect, how do you continue to control the game? We were playing the best defensive team in the League who does not give up goals, right? They don't make mistakes.

“The fact that we had to work until the very end of the match to get the goal is a difference.”

The result also crowned one of the most remarkable reversals in the history of the league. The Galaxy, which has lost more matches than they have won since 2017, won only eight victories last season, finishing 13th in a conference of 14 teams. This season, they have equaled a franchise record with 19 regular season wins, sharing the conference league in victories and points.

The last team to go from the two lower levels of the conference table to the MLS Cup was the Houston Dynamo in 2011, while the last team to go from a season of eight winners to the league championship match was the Galaxy in 2009. Neither the 2011 Dynamo nor the Galaxy 2009 were used at the MLS Cup.

This team will have its chance for that in a week. During the final whistle, the players and the bench coaches sang on the field as if he was trying to ahead of 10 seasons of mediocrity.

The Galaxy has only won two eliminatory series victories since 2016; They already have four this fall. And they celebrated this by accumulating on a hastily scene on the turf of Dignity Health Sports Park, where the president and chief executive officer of the AEG, Dan Beckerman, received congratulations and the trophy of the Western Conference, which was quickly given to the captain of the Maya Yoshida Galaxy.

Little in the closed shopping crowds have left their seats until the celebration – largely because the victory was not sure to occur in a match that offered one of the most intriguing playoffs in the League for years.

The Galaxy, which equaled a franchise record with 69 goals in the regular season, then scored 15 more in three playoffs, were the unstoppable force. The Sounders, who abandoned 35 goals in the championship in 34 regular season games and only two others in three games in playoffs, were the irremovable object.

Seattle won a top of eight road victories this season while the Galaxy had not lost at home, winning a franchise record 13 games there. It is clear that something had to give – and he finally made four minutes before the end of the regulation when a turnover in Seattle near the midfielder launched the galaxy on a fast counterattack.

The second half replacing the second half Mark Delgado recovered the ball and sent him to the playmaker Riqui Puig, who slipped between two defenders and delivered a low ball to Jveljic. The striker of the galaxy, with another defender dragging in his wake, then at a shot at a straight foot from the top of the hand of the hand of the diving of the goalkeeper of Seattle Stefan Frei for the only goal that the Galaxy should return to the final of the MLS Cup for the first time in a decade.

“It may be the most important goal of my professional career,” said Jveljic. “I saw the space open. I knew that the goalkeeper was going to take a step towards his left side, so I just pulled him with 60% power. I mean, we have prepared for that. I am happy, but I am not surprised. ”

The objective may have reached a high price, Puig lodging the locker room thereafter. Puig was in tears before his departure and at one point, a towel rolled around his head while Vanney seemed to try to console him.

The Galaxy striker, Dejan Jveljic, celebrates his objective with his teammates in the Western MLS conference against the Spenders of Seattle on Saturday in Carson.

(Etienne Laurent / Associated Press)

“I don't know exactly what happened,” said Vanney. “It was just at the end of the match and the next thing I know, he was sort of out of the field. I don't know exactly what is the situation and what happened. ”

Puig was not made available to the media.

The well -traveled goalkeeper John McCarthy has allowed the goal of standing, making four pitching stops just his second bleaching since August 24.

“We have a lot of special players in this team,” said McCarthy. “No player will win this match. It's a real team effort.”

McCarthy, who has spent the last two seasons with Lafc, is the only player in the league to adapt to the last two MLS Cup finals, which left the bench to win the MVP honors in the match in 2022, when Lafc won, and watching last year's defeat. But this game will be different. Not only will he start, but he will do it after welcoming a girl, born late Thursday evening.

Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy stops a shot during the Western Conference final against the Spenders of Seattle on Saturday in Carson.

(Etienne Laurent / Associated Press)

“My wife was an absolute champion and crushed her,” he said. “You must thank the woman. I am happy to have a part of the family, and we are all really blessed for it and to be part of the MLS CUP. ”

The best chances of Seattle arrived late in the first half without goal, with Jordan Morris escaping the defender Emiro Grques in the penalty zone and then turning to put a right shot to the goal that McCarthy saved in the 35th minute. Four minutes before McCarthy made a free kick from Albert Rusnak from the edge of the box above the transverse bar.

On the other side, Stefan Frei de Seattle became the first goalkeeper to hold the galaxy aimlessly for up to 45 minutes in the playoffs, extending this sequence at 85 before a period of time creates the only opportunity that the galaxy would need.

“I'm super excited for these guys to be able to raise a trophy tonight, but the goal is still in a week,” said Vanney.

“There are not two roads towards this point is never exactly the same. And this group has created their own path and does what they had to do to get there. Now, it will be a question of refocusing our attention and our energy on the Red Bulls.”