With a postseason spot locked up on Sunday night, Sounders FC learned it would need to beat the LA Galaxy to advance in the MLS Cup Playoffs. It's do or die and Sounders FC captain Brad Evans breaks down the match in his latest edition of Captain's Notes.
It's a massive game. This is our seventh time in the playoffs. It's a quick turnaround for us since we played just two days ago. More than anything, this is more of a mental battle than a physical battle.
These are two teams that played 48 hours ago. LA had to travel to Kansas City, fly back to Los Angeles, then travel here. That's a difficult task. At the end of the day, these are two very good teams, two experienced teams and ones that know how to travel and get results when need be.
In one-off games, just like the Open Cup, everything goes out the window. You know both sides will come out firing on all cylinders. At the end of the day, the focus is on us. We got the result we needed at home against Real Salt Lake in front of a record-breaking crowd. That was something we need to carry over into this week. That's the bottom line: we have to keep the energy up. We need to get out on our front foot and get Clint and Oba involved. Oba needs to stay up top and exploit his speed. That's been very good the last few games.
If we can continue that, we'll be on the right end of the result. It's going to be a battle and the guys are up for it. I know you guys will be out and will fill the stadium up. We're going to do what we do best. We want to find ourselves in the Western Conference Semifinals. First, we've got a big one on Wednesday night.
Let's go, Sounders!
