![\"Juan](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/Juan-Carlos-Salas.jpg\" "\\"Juan")
Juan Carlos Salas<\/p><\/div>\n
By Juan Carlos Salas<\/p>\n
(Carson) \u2013 The Los Angeles Galaxy\u2019s 73rd<\/sup> minute goal was enough to eliminate rivals Chivas USA, 1-0, Sunday evening at the Home Depot Center and advance to the MLS Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n Mike Magee drew a penalty kick after being brought down by Yamith Cuesta just outside the 6-yard box. Referee Ricardo Salazar had no choice but to point to the penalty spot and Donovan executed the finish for the lone goal of the match.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a game like most playoff games. It was going to come down to one or two plays, and certainly the referee showed a lot of courage,\u201d said LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena. \u201cIt was clearly a foul on Magee, and Donovan had to set up under pressure and convert a penalty kick.\u201d<\/p>\n David Beckham started the play, switching the point of attack with a soaring pass from the midfield line onto Landon Donovan\u2019s run. Donovan drove inside the 18-yard box and sent a hanging cross to Magee, who sensed Cuesta\u2019s challenge and tried to cut inside, but was caught by Cuesta\u2019s flying tackle.<\/p>\n \u201cLandon played me a perfect ball, and I had anything but a perfect touch,\u201d said Magee \u201cMy second touch was good, I got hit where no man wants to get hit.\u201d<\/p>\n With the victory the Galaxy go through to the Conference Finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory in the home-and-home series. The first leg resulted in a 2-2 draw.<\/p>\n Los Angeles will host the Houston Dynamo at the Home Depot Center Friday at 8pm. The two squads have only battled twice this season with LA holding a 1-0-1 record, a victory at home and a draw at Robertson\u2019s Stadium in Houston.<\/p>\n \u201cHouston is a team that has a lot of experience. Both of the games that we played during the regular season were really close,\u201d said Donovan. \u201cSo I expect this game to be close as well. One play should define the course of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the first time that LA has reached the playoffs since 2005 \u2013 where they won the MLS Cup. This is also the first playoff run for David Beckham who has won hardware for every team he has played in and looks to do the same for the Galaxy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Juan Carlos Salas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fanview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4098,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions\/4098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}