2006 US Open Cup Final

Since it's that time again, I wanted to bring attention to this post post I made last year. It contains some interesting info/stats on the goalscorers previous Open Cup finals. That's all I was going to post, but I might as well give you my thoughts on the game while I'm at it. It's the Chicago Fire vs the Los Angeles Galaxy. MLSnet has some good background information. This is a classic Open Cup rivalry (if there is such a thing). Josh Wolff and Alexi Lalas both had golden goals in their 2000 and 2001 semifinal matchups. Don't forget Luis Hernandez's stomp on Peter Nowak. Going by previous Open Cup finals and taking into account the dominance of home teams, the lack of scoring in Open Cup finals, and the lack of American goalscorers, 1-0 Fire by an Andy Herron goal sounds about right. Plus, Chicago is 12-0-0 all time in the US Open Cup at home. The forms of the two teams would suggest a Fire win as well. Chris Armas will be out due to his red card against DC, which could be a problem. Odds are Logan Pause will fill in for him. But they still should have enough to get the win over a lackluster Galaxy squad. Landon Donovan will have to be at his very best. Doesn't stop Dave Sarachan from worrying though. I'll leave you with this awesome picture: