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Time to exhale.

Over 48 hours after the regular season came to a close, it was announced Tuesday night that the second leg of the Western Conference semifinal between Real Salt Lake and the L.A. Galaxy will be played Thursday, Nov. 7, at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.

The second leg comes three days after the first, which is slated to be played Sunday, Nov. 3, at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., at 7 p.m. MDT and be shown nationally on ESPN.

RSL, fresh off its second-place finish in the Western Conference, will be on the road in the first leg of the two-leg series against the No. 3-seeded Galaxy, which clinched the third spot with a 1-1 draw at Seattle Sunday evening.

In three meetings this season, RSL was 1-2-0 against L.A. The Galaxy beat RSL 2-0 at Rio Tinto on April 27, while RSL responded in the next meeting, topping the Galaxy 3-1 at home on June 8. The Galaxy dominated the last meeting between the two teams in a 4-2 win at the StubHub Center on Aug. 17.

This will be the third time the two franchises have met in postseason play, the first-ever two-leg series between RSL and the Galaxy.

RSL head coach Jason Kreis said Monday that he doesn't know if having the second leg at home is much of an advantage. Last year, RSL were bounced in the semis by Seattle after being the higher seed, as was the case in 2010 when FC Dallas ended RSL's hopes of defending their 2009 MLS Cup crown.

"Hasn't proven to be an advantage for us in the past," Kreis said. "I hope that that changes this year."

RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando said he prefers a home match in the first leg of a home-and-away series.

"It is what it is," Rimando said. "We were drawn to go [L.A.] first and we're happy that we came in second — we would have liked the first seed — but we've got to play [the Galaxy] home-and-away either way, so we've got to go in there and handle our business."

-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani