Galaxy completes sweep of Rapids; advance to Western Conference Semis

While many in LA were celebrating a parade Friday, the LA Galaxy had their own celebration in the Rockies after defeating the Colorado Rapids, 4-1, advancing to the Western Conference Semi-Finals with a clean sweep in the opening round Best-of-3 series.

The Galaxy lead 2-1 for most of the second half, before two late goals by Riqui Puig put this match and the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs on ice.

"I thought the guys did a really good job of being resilient across the back and we know the quality and the capacity of our group if there's space to be running forward into, we've been great at that all season," Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said.

With their backs against the wall, the Rapids were looking to play methodically and avoid making any costly mistakes. Yet, in the eighth minute Colorado goalkeeper Zach Steffen made what seemed like a detrimental mistake within the opening 10 minutes.

Steffen attempted to clear a ball but deflected it off Gabriel Pec and watched it roll into his own net as the Galaxy went ahead 1-0.

The Rapids managed to respond later in the first half, after a bad clearance header by Emiro Garces, Colorado's Oliver Larraz had a shot from distance that soared into the net to even the score.

Just before the half, the Galaxy ended the half just how they started it, as Paintsil managed to break the stalemate as his shot from just inside the box bounced off the far post and into the net to put LA back ahead.

LA's defense kept Colorado at bay in the final 45 minutes, disrupting the passing lanes and keeping the hosts from getting any scoring opportunities in the area. 

With time running out and desperation setting in, Colorado began to make more runs towards goal, which left their backline vulnerable to counter-attacks and in stoppage time, Puig took advantage and doubled LA's lead in the final four minutes of action.

"When a team starts to push against us, spaces open up, transitions start to show themselves. They went out of a back five, into four then they put a wing around the right back to try to take up high positions. All of those are very aggressive, attacking sort of postures and I think we're just so good in transition that, if you open yourselves up...there could be a lot of penalty for that and we took advantage," Vanney said. 

The Galaxy will now have over three weeks off until their next scheduled match, due to the upcoming FIFA International Date this month, the next round of matches are scheduled for Nov. 23-24.

Vanney says his club was prepared for either scenario tonight and they will follow the plan, hoping to stay warm sometime during the break.

"We'll give the guys a little chance to recover because it's such a long break... We'll certainly play a couple of friendlies, whether their with teams from the outside or whether we just do it internally. At this part of the year, you'd kinda like to have guys who all know the importance of this time of year so we don't get into any silliness."

Vanney also asked for better scheduling in the future.

"It's tough in the playoffs when when you have three weeks between one game and the next, that planning needs to get figured out a bit better down the line."

Next, the Galaxy await the winner of Real Salt Lake and Minnesota FC, Minnesota leads the series 1-0 and Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday night at 6:00 p.m.