The Los Angeles Galaxy have a date in the Major League Soccer final with the Houston Dynamo despite a 2-1 loss to the Seattle Sounders on Sunday in Seattle.
Eddie Johnson and Zach Scott scored to give Seattle a 2-0 lead, but Robbie Keane was awarded and kicked a penalty in the 68th minute to clinch the Galaxy's 4-2 aggregate victory over the Sounders in the Western Conference final.
The victory gives the Galaxy a spot in the MLS Cup final for the second straight year. Los Angeles will host the final on Dec.
1 against Houston in a rematch of last year's final won by the Galaxy.
Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said the damage was ultimately done in the first leg, a three-goal road loss at the Home Depot Center.
Seattle staged a rally trying to come back from a 3-0 deficit after getting overwhelmed in the first leg of the Western Conference finals last week.
And they were on the verge after Johnson's early goal and Scott's header in the 58th minute pulled Seattle within one on aggregate.
The comeback was nearly complete as excitement built within a home crowd of 44,575 - a franchise-record turnout for the playoffs and the largest in MLS post-season history for a nonfinal.
But referee Mark Geiger, who was the subject of complaints all night from both sides, called Seattle defender Adam Johansson for a hand ball in the box and Keane converted his fifth goal of the playoffs.
"We've got to eliminate those 3-0 losses because we're showing that we can win playoffs," Schmid said. "We did make progress this year and we went one step further, but obviously at this stage we're all disappointed. We need to make sure the energy with which we played tonight is the energy we play with all the time."
Boniek Garcia scored in the 33rd minute for Houston at Washington to give the Dynamo a 1-1 draw with D.C. United earlier Sunday for a 4-2 aggregate win in the Eastern Conference final.
Branko Boskovic scored in the 83rd minute for D.C., which has not won the MLS Cup since 2004.
