Marquez, Juninho set to miss second leg

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The rivalry between the New York Red Bulls and Los Angeles Galaxy has gotten even more intense.

A postgame skirmish between arguably the two most popular teams in MLS broke out following the first leg of their Western Conference semifinal aggregate scoring series, and neither team is holding back words heading into the second leg Thursday night in Los Angeles.

The Galaxy can advance to the conference championship game with a win or draw after their 1-0 victory Sunday.

Los Angeles captain Landon Donovan was involved in the postgame drama, which resulted in the suspensions of Galaxy midfielder Juninho and Red Bulls midfielder Rafael Marquez, who threw the ball at Donovan during the scrum.

Juninho was issued a red card for throwing a punch.

Donovan later referred to New York as the cheapest team Los Angeles has played, and New York forward Luke Rodgers responded.

"In my eyes, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," Rodgers, who has had run-ins with Donovan in the past, told the league's official website. "A lot of their players were doing the same thing. One of our players (Roy Miller) has a big gash in his leg from (David) Beckham's tackle, but no one's complaining about it on our side.

"We're not a cheap team. If calling a team cheap is the will to win, and tackling and putting everything into winning the game, then I don't call it a cheap team. I call it a winning team."

The Red Bulls, though, have some work to do in order to earn that distinction following this series.

The Galaxy are 12-0-5 at home and hold the advantage due to Mike Magee's goal in the 15th minute of the first leg. A victory Thursday would put Los Angeles a win away from reaching the MLS Cup, though Magee said the team isn't focused on that quite yet.

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"We're not looking forward to MLS Cup," Magee said. "We're looking towards (Thursday) and New York. We believe if we do that, play one game at a time and don't let our guards down, then this will be the year."

A Los Angeles loss could mean the end of Beckham's MLS career. He's having one of his best seasons since signing with the Galaxy nearly five years ago, but he's said he isn't sure where he plans to play next season.

"These are the same questions that come up every year, regardless of his contract status," coach Bruce Arena said. "I'm sure if David wanted to be here next year, he would be here."

Still, the focus remains on New York, which Arena said is going to be a tough team to beat again after Sunday's battle.

"I give them credit - they came at us hard," Arena said. "(Thierry) Henry was a force all day. They have become a pretty direct team. And they are dangerous with Henry and Rodgers up top - they just put us on our heels."

No matter the outcome, the hard-fought playoff series has lived up to its hype.

"We're both big teams and we want to win," Rodgers said. "There's a lot of pride there and no one wants to lose. People were upset that we lost, and I thought we were the better team."