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Earthquakes-Galaxy Preview

Oct 23, 2009 - 8:37 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

San Jose (7-13-9) at Los Angeles (11-6-12), 10:30 p.m. EDT

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan opened this week by winning a record-setting honor. He'll try to close it out by helping the Galaxy to a milestone victory.

To finish atop the Western Conference, the Galaxy need a win in Saturday night's season finale against the visiting San Jose Earthquakes.

Donovan became the first six-time winner of the U.S. Player of the Year award Tuesday in Los Angeles and was named Player of the Decade after earning those honors over the past nine years.

Donovan, who has a team-leading 11 goals, will try to add to his accomplishments by helping Los Angeles clinch home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

After last week's scoreless draw in Houston, the Galaxy (11-6-12) are tied for the West lead with the Dynamo and Chivas USA, but own tiebreakers over both clubs. A win would clinch their first West title since 2002, but a loss could push them as low as fourth with Seattle just one point further back.

If Los Angeles draws, it would need a Seattle to lose or draw against FC Dallas on Saturday night and a draw in Sunday's Houston-Chivas match to stay in first.

"Any time we play San Jose, it's a big game," said Donovan, who played his first four MLS seasons in San Jose. "But for us, this weekend is huge. This is our chance, and we don't take that lightly."

The Galaxy have the fortune of playing at the Home Depot Center, where they have won consecutive matches and three of four. Donovan scored the only goal in the team's previous win there, 1-0 against Chicago on Oct. 2.

That win was also part of Donovan Ricketts' current 211-minute shutout streak. Ricketts has six of his eight shutouts in the last eight games and back-to-back clean sheets at home.

He's allowed eight goals in the last two months, but six came in a Sept. 12 home loss to FC Dallas. Ricketts has not beaten the Earthquakes in two matches this year, allowing three goals in a loss and a draw.

"There's a lot of incentive for them to come in and be spoilers," defender Todd Dunivant said. "It's going to be a tough game for us. To be honest, we haven't played well against them. We owe them at this point."

Pablo Campos scored in both matches for the Earthquakes (7-13-9), who will finish last in the West for a second straight year. San Jose and Los Angeles were tied for a league-worst 33 points in 2008.

The Earthquakes, however, have gone 1-0-3 in their last four straight road games. The Earthquakes held on for a 2-all draw last week at Chivas USA as Ryan Johnson tallied his team-leading 11th goal and Brandon McDonald scored his first.

"It's shown the growth in our team - we went to DC and won, went to Toronto and got a result, went to Colorado and tied so were getting some good results on the road," said coach Frank Yallop, who led the Galaxy from 2006-07.

Since San Jose rejoined MLS last season, the teams are 2-2-1 against each other.