The next champion of Major League Soccer will come from the league's Western Conference, as four teams will face off in conference championship games next weekend (with two of them playing for the Eastern Conference title...that's right, the Eastern Conference title).
But the one Western Conference team that is the defending conference and league champion -- Real Salt Lake -- will be sitting home and watching a new champion be crowned.
RSL fell at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, UT to FC Dallas Saturday by an aggregate goal score of 3-2 Saturday after both teams played to a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their Western Conference semifinal series. Dallas won the first leg last Saturday 2-1 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX and advances to their first conference championship game since 1999 next Sunday, where they will play the winner of the Los Angeles Galaxy-Seattle Sounders series, which LA leads 1-0 and hosts Game 2 Sunday.
Should the Galaxy win, Dallas will travel to The Home Depot Center for the game; if the Sounders win, Dallas plays host to the game.
Dax McCarty scored Dallas' lone goal of the second leg Saturday in the 38th minute, giving them a 3-1 series lead.
Robbie Findley tried to rally RSL with a goal in the 79th minute, cutting the series lead to 3-2, but it wasn't enough and the draw in the game gave Dallas the overall victory.
On the Eastern Conference side, the Colorado Rapids upset the Columbus Crew, the lone true remaining Eastern Conference team in the playoffs, by winning a penalty kick shootout 5-4 after playing to a 2-2 draw in the second leg of the series, which the Rapids led 1-0.
Guillermo Barros Schelotto fed a pass to Eddie Gaven in the 22nd minute to tie the total goal series at 1-1 and Robbie Findley scored a goal off an Emmanuel Ekpo assist in the 70th minute to take a 2-1 series lead, but Omar Cummings' pass to Conor Casey knotted the series at 2-2 in the 84th minute, and two 15-minute overtime periods were not enough to break the draw.
After four rounds of the shootout failed to change things, Jamie Smith scored for Colorado and the Crew's Brian Carroll missed his shot, giving the Rapids home field for the Eastern Conference Championship against the San Jose Earthquakes next Saturday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, CO.
The Rapids and the Earthquakes were moved into the Eastern Conference playoff bracket as the two lowest seede to balance the eight team who made the playoffs, with six of them coming from the Western Conference.
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