Hey all, this is Adam Sedie, the producer of Pitch Pulse, writing to share my experiences during the MLS West Final. Never in my life have I encountered such a sporting event. That being said, lets jump into it!

After parking in what felt like Algeria, my colleagues and I conducted a pilgrimage towards will call to get our tickets. Seriously folks, it was close to a 15-minute walk. Eventually the huge HOME DEPOT CENTER sign became legible as we slowly arrived.

You have no idea how far the paring was from this sign.

I thought surely we had missed a goal due to a loud uproar pouring out of the stadium. After nearly slipping in dim lit mud trails working our way through and around the stadium to reach the will call, we ran into another set back. There was a line around 200 people deep waiting to pick up their tickets from will call.

At this point the grim reality was beginning to set in that we might get tickets and find seats with only a slim chance of witnessing any goals, or with little to any time left in the match.

After handing my ID to a roving Home Depot Center security person, I held my breath, fearing that this could only get worse by never seeing her or my driver’s license again. We fortunately got the tickets as well as my ID (thank god!) and begin charging in.

As we were walking towards our seats, we heard rumblings and buzzing stadium-wide, and the confusion became clearer when a patron searching for the shortest beer line divulged to us that the lights had gone out and the game was still paused while they are fixing it.

All in all, our freaky Friday the 13^th luck had changed and we only missed the first 17 minutes of the match. No goals were scored, and the earlier roar was actually that of the fans screaming as the lights went out. YES!

We nested ourselves in the Houston Dynamo supporters’ section right as the match restarted.

The game was well fought by both sides, but the Dynamo seemed to be more aggressive in the second half. That was of course before the power died for the second time.

The Galaxy fans quickly decided to kill their boredom by taking it to the Dynamo fans.

Chants of “Houston sucks” surrounded and engulfed the Houston fans. That was until Dynamo supporters retaliated with a clever impromptu “We have Lights”song, immediately evolving into a rendition of “Pay-Your-Bills” that puzzled, eventually silencing Los Angeles fans.

Ultimately, it appeared the second power outage cooled the Dynamo’s momentum, and the game basically became a defensive quagmire. The regulation time whistle had blown.

In overtime we saw David Beckham whine to officials about what he thought was a incorrect throw in call awarded to Houston.  Although he swung his arms an almost hit the referee, Beckham was not warned or issued a yellow card. His unsportsmanlike conduct surely deserved one, but Beckham is the golden boy and could do no wrong this night.

Beckham was lucky to not get a yellow for his behavior.

Things got ugly for the Dynamo during overtime, and after Landon Donovan converted the penalty kick to put the Galaxy up 2-0, the writing was pretty much on the wall.

It was a hard fought battle between two teams, and I only wish that it would have been uninterrupted so that match would have been played by two teams playing at their natural rhythm without the distraction of power failure. Looks like Friday the 13th gave the Galaxy a home field advantage.

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I don’t often toot  my own horn but will somebody please pat me on the back for my predictions on the weekend.

The only one I missed was the Chivas USA-San Jose draw which I am pretty sure surprised every one except the a San Jose faithful.

0-0 draw after a hard fought game!

We finally sold out our stadium in Houston and didn’t totally entertain the fans.  In the past a sell out has meant great games and lots of goals down here but Sunday was a zero to zero draw.

I think we out played them but I do think the result was a fair one to both teams.  This week will bring tons of excitement for everyone and after I talk to a few more guys around the league I will get a podcast taped and out to you!  Talk to you all soon.

With Brian Ching serving his one game suspension, we were already missing our top scorer going into the match vs the Kansas City Wizards.

After Cam Weaver has assessed a red card in the 18^th minute, it was going to be a long night, having to play 72 more minutes with only 10.

Landin netted his first MLS goal in a playoff clinching match.

Luis angel Landin converted on a Brian Mullen cross to give him his first MLS goal, and with it, we took the lead in the 26^th minute. Kansas City equalized in the 73^rd minute, and the match finished a 1-1 draw.

With only 10 men and without our top scorer, we managed to clinch our 4^th consecutive playoff spot since moving from San Jose. Although we wanted the win,  we are now in, and with only 3 matches left, we plan to make the push to separate ourselves atop the West by season’s end.

Alright, I have finally calmed down enough to acknowledge the game yesterday.  While I can’t say that the USA deserved three points in Mexico City I am still bummed out that we didn’t get a point out of the game.

When the USA and Mexico play it is our only true chance to see a game that actually resembles the  level of competition, passion, and athleticism that will be on display in South Africa next summer.

With no disrespect to the other countries in our region I do think that the only two teams that are “expected” to  advance are the USA and Mexico.  So my congratulations to Mexico on a big win.

Check back tomorrow for a new installment of Pitch Pulse that will feature my three key games of the weekend, some answers to your emails, and another chance for me to rant  in my ”golden goal” portion of the show.

Waibs

Thursday was not the our night. FC Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham netted the eventual game-winner in the first 20 minutes as FCD prevailed 1-0 at Pizza Hut Park.

Dominic Kinnear said, “We gave them some confidence. I don’t know if it’s a penalty. It’s up for debate, a good save by Pat (Onstad). We just didn’t really create a ton going forward tonight. That just really puts an exclamation point on a frustrating night.”

We finished the night with just six shots on goal.

Brad Davis came off in for Julius James but was involved in a altercation in on the Dynamo bench causing him to be sent off.