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Real Salt Lake defeated the L.A. Galaxy 5-4 in penalty kicks to win the 2009 MLS Cup in front of over 46,000 fans.  Real Salt Lake became just the second 8 seed to win the MLS Cup. The shootout win came in the 7th round of kicks when Robbie Russell found the back of the net after Nick Rimando saved a weak shot by Edson Buddle.

Rimando was named the MVP of the game after saving two penalties to win the shootout.  The Galaxy would miss three of their penalties with Landon Donovan’s attempt sailing over the crossbar and Rimando saving attempts from Buddle and Jovan Kirovski.

L.A. dominated the first half and finally went up in the match 1-0 after Donovan found Mike Magee open on the back post  four minutes before halftime.  Magee would hit the cross first time with a fantastic finish.

The second half proved to be a different story.  Real Salt Lake would tie the match in the 64th minute when Robbie Findlay found the back of the net against his old squad.  Findlay was lucky to get on the end of a deflection and found himself with a wide open goal.

The match was slowed due to the number of players collecting injuries.  The MLS season is a long and strenuous amount of time due to its scheduling and the amount of World Cup qualifiers the players participated in this past summer. The first injury of the match was in the 22nd minute when Real Salt Lake had to put Clint Mathis in for the injured Javier Morales.

The Galaxy soon found themselves in injury trouble also when star goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was forced out of the game due to a wrist injury. Backup Josh Saunders came in the match and immediately was tested by Real Salt Lake. Saunders would be the MVP for the Galaxy with great saves throughout the rest of the match and in penalties.

Real Salt Lake finished the regular season with a losing record and sneaked into the playoffs with an eight seed. This is why the MLS is great in many ways but also makes the regular season seem not as important. This just shows us that you need to be in good form come playoff time and Real Salt Lake IS the best team in MLS at the moment!

This past weekend the L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake punched their ticket into the 2009 MLS Cup Final with exciting matches that were both decided in extra time. L.A. defeated the Houston Dynamo in extra time to win the Western Conference, while the Real Salt lake and Chicago Fire  game was decided with penalty kicks.

Quest Field in Seattle, Wa. will host the championship match this Sunday, November 22 at 8:30 p.m. Seattle is a great environment for this match. With the expansion Seattle Sounders setting the attendance record for the MLS,  it should definitely be a sellout on Sunday.

The Eastern Conference Final went scoreless for 120 minutes before Real Salt Lake defeated Chicago 5-4 in a penalty shootout.

In the West, L.A. got the only two goals of the match in overtime to defeat Houston. Landon Donovan and Gregg Berhalter both found the back of the net to send L.A. to the final.

There is a lot of excitement for this match with some of the biggest stars in the league on the pitch. Donovan and David Beckham lead the way for L.A. and Kyle Beckerman and Clint Mathis set the tone for Real Salt Lake.

Good Luck to both squads!