MLS Playoff rewind

Galaxy defense looks impenetrable

The LA Galaxy are led by Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan. They're MLS's highest scoring team. They are an attacking juggernaut.

They are also the league's best defensive team, and it's showing in the postseason.

LA tied DC United for the fewest goals allowed in the league, surrendering just 37 in 34 matches during the regular season. Now three matches into the postseason, they've allowed 37 goals in 37 matches.

The Galaxy haven't allowed a single goal this postseason, and this despite playing their three contests against very good teams. They shut out Real Salt Lake over two legs, then put a goose egg on the board this Sunday against the Seattle Sounders, who were the league's second-highest scoring team in the regular season.

For all the talk about the stars, led by Keane and Donovan, and the goals that the Galaxy score, Bruce Arena's best teams matched it with one of the league's best defenses and that's the case again this season.

Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza are the constants. The pair have anchored the LA defense ever since they were drafted in 2009, with Gonzalez the dominant centerback that earned a DP contract, and DeLaGarza the perfect partner, versatile and in tune with Gonzalez ever since their days together at Maryland.

Everyone knew that Gonzalez and DeLaGarza would be in the Galaxy defense this season, though. Nobody thought that Robbie Rogers would be the left back, let alone turn himself into one of the best in MLS, but that's what he has done and against the Sounders he may have been the Galaxy's best player. Dan Gargan has taken his turn at right back, giving LA dependable play, and Arena has even put DeLaGarza out wide in the last two matches to bring Tommy Meyer and Leonardo in at centerback.

The Galaxy have quality, depth and versatility at the back. They also have phenomenal understanding and discipline, plus the quality to give the team a jolt in the attack. Rogers is a great attacking fullback, DeLaGarza had the assist on LA's goal against Seattle and Gonzalez is a force on set pieces.

Toss in Jaime Penedo, whose goalkeeping has bailed the Galaxy out on more than one occasion and you have MLS's best defense. They proved it over 34 matches in the regular season and are using the postseason to take it to a whole other level. No one has breached them yet, and with the way they are playing, it doesn't look like that is going to change.

Pressure is building on Sounders

There's a temptation to look at the Seattle Sounders' season and say they've already accomplished plenty. Only one other team in the 19-year history of Major League Soccer has managed to win the U.S. Open Cup and Supporters' Shield in the same year and that was more than a decade ago. In that sense, the Sounders could fail to advance past the LA Galaxy, look back on their season and consider it a success.

And in a sense, they'd be right. This has been a successful season by any reasonable metric.

But the Sounders are not a franchise that tends to use reasonable metrics as the way to measure themselves. Whether it's the way attendance numbers, bringing in high-profile players or the way they've concurrently chased multiple titles in the same year, there's always been a sense about the franchise that it holds itself to a higher standard.

And in that sense, nothing short of a MLS Cup appearance is going to suffice.

The situation facing the Sounders is not impossible by any stretch. They are trailing the Galaxy 1-0 on aggregate meaning they'd need a 1-0 victory to get their Western Conference final to overtime or a two-goal victory to win it outright. They are perfectly capable of achieving either of those things. It's also a position they've never found themselves in before.

We've gone over their postseason struggles many times before, but the fact that they are now in position to advance with a relatively straightforward results speaks to the immediacy of taking advantage of that opportunity. If the Sounders really want to secure a place in the MLS history books, they must do it now.

The reason no other MLS team has achieved the treble is not simply because no other team was good enough to accomplish it. The 2002 LA Galaxy made it to the Open Cup final after winning the Shield and MLS Cup and the 2003 Chicago Fire made it to the MLS Cup final after winning the Open Cup and Shield.

This Sounders team isn't the most talented MLS team ever -- at least in relative terms to its competition -- and might not even be the most talented team this year. But winning the Open Cup, Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup in the same year requires a bit of luck and good fortune. The Sounders needed overtime to win the Open Cup and took the Shield down to the final day of the regular season. The chances of them -- or anyone -- being in this position again anytime soon are slim.

The pressure on the Sounders isn't just about winning MLS Cup, it's about securing a place in the history books, a place that can never be taken away. That's a different kind of pressure, to be sure, now we get to see how they handle it.

Revolution continue to make their case as MLS's best

The New England Revolution were not MLS's best team in the regular season. They weren't even the Eastern Conference's best. While the Seattle Sounders and LA Galaxy were battling for the Supporters' Shield, D.C. United was cruising to the East crown, but all the while, the Revs were putting together a team that looks like the league's best in the postseason.

New England's dominance was back on full display in the first leg of the Eastern Conference final, which the Revs won 2-1 in New York. Now they're heading home with not just a one-goal lead, but two away goals.

The scoreline is almost irrelevant at this point, though. The Revolution have been so good, and so impressive, that it almost feels like it's a foregone conclusion that they will make MLS Cup. It felt that way before the first leg. It felt that way before the playoffs started.

No team in the league boasts a better midfield than the Revs. With Scott Caldwell growing into a capable defensive midfielder, Jermaine Jones is free to roam wherever he wants and create havoc. Kelyn Rowe is one of the league's more creative players and Teal Bunbury is in the best form of his life, having taken to playing on the wing. And in the middle of it all is MVP finalist Lee Nguyen, who has been MLS's best attacking midfielder for months.

The Revolution don't get phenomenal striker play; Charlie Davies is just okay. Their defense isn't among the league's best; they get the job done and nothing more. All of that doesn't matter for large stretches of matches though. Their midfield is so good that they completely overwhelm opponents and dictate play so that there is no extraordinary pressure on the rest of the team.

That midfield saw them thrash the red hot Columbus Crew, 7-3 in the previous round. It saw them beat the New York Red Bulls, 2-1, away on Sunday. It saw them finish the season on a longer winning streak than any other in MLS.

New England's season turned when they signed Jones and ever since he made his debut on August 30, the Revs have lost just one match -- Jones didn't start that match. Would you bet against that team? The team that is 7-0-1 in their last eight matches? The team that is the clear-cut best in MLS right now?