The Los Angeles Galaxy clinched Major League
Soccer's Western Conference regular season crown with a 2-0 victory over the
San Jose Earthquakes at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night.
A Bobby Burling own goal in the first half, and a Landon Donovan goal in he
second half were all the Galaxy needed to earn their 12th victory of the
season and pull ahead of Houston and Chivas USA, which were tied with L.A.
heading into the weekend. Houston and Chivas actually close out their regular
season on Sunday against each other. The Galaxy own the first tiebreaker
against both teams.
The Galaxy (12-6-12) went up 1-0 in the 24th minute when Burling deflected a
Donovan cross into his own net for the own goal.
In the 77th minute Donovan ran onto a Chris Klein pass and touched the ball
between the legs of an onrushing Joe Cannon at the top of the penalty area for
his 12th goal of the season to close out the scoring.
San Jose (7-14-9) finished at the bottom of the Western table.
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