CARSON — As the time quietly ticked toward 90 minutes, nervous energy settled throughout Dignity Health Sports Park Saturday in the MLS Western Conference final.
The Galaxy, who had scored 15 goals in the first three playoff games, were scoreless at halftime and into the late stages of the game.
Then Dejan Joveljić happened.
In the 85th minute, after searching and plodding for the breakthrough, the Galaxy found as Joveljić calmly deposited his chance from just inside the 18-yard box, by a sprawling Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei.
The goal was enough to lift the Galaxy to a 1-0 win in front of a sellout crowd of 26,327 and more importantly into their first MLS Cup final since 2014, also the last year that the club hoisted the league’s top prize.
The Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls in next Saturday’s MLS Cup final.
The Red Bulls defeated Orlando City SC 1-0 earlier Saturday in the Eastern Conference final. The Galaxy had the host priority after the top seeds (Inter Miami in the East, LAFC in the West and Columbus, the No. 2 seed in the East) were all eliminated.
The Galaxy had scored at least three goals in six of their last seven games entering Saturday. However, the Sounders had the stingiest defense in the regular season allowing just 35 goals, carrying over into the playoffs.
The Sounders took the long route to the Saturday. They defeated the Houston Dynamo in a two-game series, with both games going to penalty shootouts and they defeated LAFC 2-1 in the conference semifinal after 120 minutes.
So it probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the game went into halftime scoreless. The Sounders went into halftime with the better chances as the Galaxy’s attack seemed to sputter at times.
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Mark Delagdo, who came on as a substitute at halftime, started the goal-scoring sequence by playing the ball to Riqui Puig, who then played it into space where Joveljić was able to get to it and eventually score.
Joveljić is just one of the reasons why the Galaxy jumped from 13th in the Western Conference last season to Western Conference champions this season. The goal was his 20th of the season across all competitions.
The Galaxy and Sounders clashed three times during the regular season. One game ended scoreless, another ended with a 1-0 Galaxy win and the third meeting came in the Leagues Cup, with the Sounders winning 3-1.