Posted by James Cranford

The Los Angeles Galaxy enjoyed the friendly confines of their home stadium as the Home Depot Center hosted the 2011 MLS Cup Final.

On a rainy day in southern California, the leagues' top team got a second half strike from Landon Donovan to defeat the surging Houston Dynamo 1-0.

The loss for Houston leaves the franchise with two championships (in '06 and '07).

The Galaxy came in as favorites but it was Houston who were on the attack first. Adam Moffat sent in a free kick (set pieces were the main concern for the Galaxy pre-game) that was cleared by Juninho.

Just two minutes later, the Galaxy came with a five minute flurry of chances. First, Dunivant had a dangerous cross blocked, then Donovan and Sean Franklin worked the right side, and did so for the entire first half, to have Donovan get a shot away that was blocked.

Adam Cristman became the story in the first half, but not for the right reasons. He missed a free header wide from a David Beckham corner kick, then a few minutes later, missed another header and a shot on goal.

As the half wound down, Cristman missed his best opportunity of the game as he was through on goal with a good sight at the goal to score but fluffed his shot.

The half ended with the majority of the chances to the Galaxy but one might have felt Houston had an opportunity to sneak in a goal if the Galaxy continued to miss chances.

The second half started much the same the first ended. The Galaxy had chances with Houston getting a spare shot here or there, most notably Corey Ashe from the left who's shot his the side netting.

Controversy came about in the 57th minute as Robbie Keane slotted a ball home and it looked the Galaxy had taken the lead. However, the assistant referee flagged the Irishman offside negating the goal. The replays showed Keane was level and should have been called onside.

The missed chances the Galaxy had all game almost came back to haunt them as Adam Moffat rose above the LA defense and headed just wide.

But the goal finally came. Landon Donovan, the MLS Cup final MVP, scored the lone goal of the match and it came from his other two DP counter parts. Beckham headed a ball to Keane on the left and he sent in a beautiful through ball to Donovan who toe poked the ball past Hall, who got a hand to it, and into the net.





"We had a lot of chances, and we just didn't hit the target and if you don't hit the target you're not going to score," said Donovan of his 20th career playoff goal.

It was Donovan's third goal in an MLS Cup final match and was awarded MLS Cup MVP for his efforts, "Earlier in my career the MVP would've mattered. Tonight the win matters; and I'm just so happy for these guys," said Donovan.

Galaxy missed a couple other chances and were able to comfortably see out the victory and claim the trophy for the third time. It was a trophy five years in the making and Beckham was finally able to life the trophy he came to LA for.

Congratulations to the Los Angeles Galaxy on winning the 2011 MLS Cup from all of us here at World Football Daily!