Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljic scored in the first half, and LA Galaxy won their record sixth MLS Cup championship with a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.
After scoring twice in the first thirteen minutes of the final with goals from their star strikers, the Galaxy held their lead through a scoreless second half to lift their league’s biggest trophy for the first time since 2014.
MLS’s most successful franchise struggled for much of the next decade, even finishing as high as 26th in the 29-team league last year. But the Galaxy turned everything around this season with a high-scoring new lineup that finished second in the Western Conference and then rocketed through the playoffs with an impressive 18 goals in five games to win another crown.
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Sean Nealis scored for the seventh-placed Red Bulls, whose improbable play-off win moved them within one point of their first Cup championship. With the youngest roster in the league, New York fell just short of becoming the lowest-seeded team to win the MLS playoff tournament under first-year German coach Sandro Schwarz.
Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy made four saves and won his second MLS title in three seasons. He was the MVP of the 2022 MLS Cup Final for the Galaxy’s crosstown rival, Los Angeles FC.
The Galaxy won this title without perhaps their most important player. Riqui Puig, the playmaking Barcelona midfielder who has led his attack impressively all season, tore a ligament in his knee in the Western Conference final last week.
Puig watched the match in a suit, but his teammates had not forgotten him: after his replacement, Gastón Brugman, scored LA’s opening goal with a beautiful pass, Paintsil held Puig’s jersey to their fans during the celebration.
Etienne Laurent / AP
Paintsil put the Galaxy ahead in the ninth minute when he met Brugman’s sublime pass to score his fourteenth MLS goal – including four in the play-offs – in the Ghanaian forward’s excellent first season.
Just four minutes later, Joveljic sprinted past four New York defenders to score the 21st goal of his stellar year as the Galaxy’s forward.
Nealis put New York on the scoreboard in the 28th minute when he whipped in a ball that came loose in LA’s penalty area after a corner kick. The Galaxy’s usually shaky defense conceded a handful of good chances before reaching halftime with a tenuous lead.
The second half was lively, but goalless. Red Bulls captain Emil Forsberg hit the outside of the post in the 72nd minute, while Gabriel Pec and Galaxy substitute Marco Reus almost converted chances moments later.
In the third minute of extra time, the ball was released again in the Galaxy’s penalty area, but two Red Bulls could not finish. The Galaxy bench rushed onto the pitch and prematurely celebrated a win in the seventh minute of stoppage time, only to be driven back for another 30 seconds of play.
The Galaxy finished 17-0-3 this season at their oft-renamed suburban stadium, where the sold-out crowd of 26,812 for the final included some robust cheering sections of traveling Red Bulls supporters hoping to mark their breakthrough in New Jersey-based club featured on the biggest MLS stage.
The Galaxy’s Greg Vanney became the fourth coach to win an MLS title with two clubs. The former Galaxy player also won it all with Toronto in 2017.
The club known for employing global stars from David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Robbie Keane and Javier “Chicharito” Hernández has rebuilt itself this season with lesser-known young talents from around the world.
The Galaxy signed Pec from Brazil and Ghanaian Paintsil from Belgium, and the duo combined with incumbent Serbian striker Joveljic to form a potent attack that could outscore almost any MLS opponent.
But the Galaxy also leaned heavily on Puig, their Catalan catalyst and one of MLS’s best players. Puig stayed in last week’s match after suffering a knee injury, and even made the decisive pass to Joveljic for the only goal of the match.
