MLS glamour clubs LA Galaxy and New York will lock horns on Sunday in the first leg of their much-hyped Western Conference semi-final.
The Red Bulls play host to the Galaxy in New York, with former England midfielder David Beckham potentially lining up for his last hurrah with LA.
The 36-year-old is in the last year of his contract at Galaxy and with overtures from the likes of PSG and a number of English clubs it is widely tipped Beckham will call time on his stint in America and move back to Europe.
Having lost out in the 2009 playoff final to Real Salt Lake, success in the US has eluded Beckham something he is looking to rectify.
Obviously with the Galaxy, we want a championship. We ve done well in the last three years, reaching the final and then winning two Supporters Shields (for best regular season record), but we want to win the big one, Beckham said.
And Beckham was optimistic about the league s future given its considerable growth in the past five years.
The game s grown in the last five years, the coverage of the sport in this country has grown. I think there s more coverage of soccer games on the TV than there is in England, he said.
I think on that side of things, you look at the teams that have come into the league, you look at the players that have come into the league, the stadiums that have been built this sport has grown.
New York are the competition s form side despite having scraped into the playoffs with the 10th-best record in the MLS.
After a mixed season, the Red Bulls finished strongly with a 5-3-2 record from their last 10 matches, including their 2-0 win over Dallas in the MLS wildcard playoff match on Wednesday.
Galaxy captain Landon Donovan knows the Galaxy have their work cut out against one of the most talented rosters in the league, with the likes of Thierry Henry, Rafael Marquez and Teemu Tainio at Hans Backe s disposal.
I don t think there s any question that they re (one of) the most talented teams in the league and they re playing better than anybody in the league is right now, so going in there is going to be a real challenge, Donovan said.
I think they ve done a good job of figuring out their weaknesses and addressing them. I think in the middle part of the year, defensively, they were all over the place and now they seem to have really done a good job defending and they re really hard to break down.
And when you have talented players that they have going forward, (it) makes it really difficult.
The clubs meet in the first leg at the Red Bull Arena on Sunday, with the return fixture at the The Home Depot Center the following Thursday.
