Following their 1-0 victory of the Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference Final, the LA Galaxy locker room was full of tears and silence. What was supposed to be a celebration instead turned somber after the news that star player Riqui Puig had suffered a torn ACL in his left knee and would not be able to play in the final.
Saturday night, they honored their teammate by etching another chapter into the history books, defeating the New York Red Bulls 2-1 in the 2024 MLS Cup Final at Dignity Health Sports Park in Southern California.
Los Angeles, start the party again — there will be another parade for the City of Champions. For a record-setting sixth time in their 29-year history, the LA Galaxy are champions of Major League Soccer.
Playing in their 10th final, in front of 26,812 chanting, singing, drumming and cheering fans, the high-voltage atmosphere electrified the Galaxy in the early minutes.
Most wanted to know how the Galaxy’s high-octane, possession-minded attack would look without the maestro in the middle in Puig.
It didn’t take long to find out.
Gaston Brugman, starting in place of Puig, did his best impression of the MLS Starting XI midfielder when he sent a through ball into the box in the ninth minute that found the foot of forward Joseph Paintsil. The Ghanaian was able to put just enough power on it to get past Red Bulls keeper Carlos Coronel, who got an arm on the ball but was unable to make the save, giving the Galaxy the game’s first goal.
Dejan Jovelic doubled the lead a few minutes later when he froze Coronel with a fake to his left, baiting the Red Bulls goalkeeper before slotting a shot to the far-right post that gave the Galaxy a 2-0 lead in less than 15 minutes.
It didn’t take long for New York to cut into the Galaxy’s lead.
Red Bulls defender Sean Nealis cut the deficit in half with a beautiful volley inside the box in the 28th minute. Emil Forsberg sent a corner kick into the box, and the ball pin-balled off several players before landing on the chest of Nealis, who volleyed it into the net.
For the third consecutive year, the MLS Cup Final featured a Los Angeles-based team. After LAFC lifted the trophy in 2022, they lost the final to the Columbus Crew in 2023.
Saturday’s final was the first appearance for the Galaxy since they defeated the New England Revolution 2-1 in extra time in 2014.
Many wondered if LA Galaxy manager Greg Vanney would ditch his aggressive offensive style of play that puts tremendous pressure on the opposing team’s defense without Puig on the pitch. But he did not compromise his 4-3-3 attacking formation that got the Galaxy to the game’s biggest stage.
All season long, the Galaxy dominated possession, drew opposing defenders to dribblers and passed the ball with ease as they attacked the net in an offensive onslaught that saw them score a conference-high 69 goals this year.
Against the team that had won three consecutive games on the road during the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs, all of which were clean sheets, the Galaxy tallied two more goals, extending their record for a playoff run with 18 total.
They out-shot the Red Bulls 13-11 and had more shots on goal, 7-to-5.
At halftime, the players inside the Galaxy locker room stayed largely quiet. Unlike last week, when they entered the break of the Western Conference Final deadlocked in a scoreless draw with the Seattle Sounders, they remained confident that if they just stayed the course for another 45 minutes, they would be crowned champions.
They made no substitutions at halftime.
Trailing by a goal, New York was much more aggressive in the second half. The Red Bulls had rallied from a one-goal deficit in the playoffs before. They trailed the Columbus Crew 1-0 in the second half of their second game of the best-of-three first-round series. They scored two goals in a span of 16 minutes in that game to take the lead.
However, in all their other MLS Cup Playoff matches, the Red Bulls scored first and relied on their durable defense to hold steady. This time it was the Galaxy’s experienced and veteran-laden defense that held on to the lead.
Borussia Dortmund legend Marco Reus entered the match in the 75th minutes, and unlike his loss in the Champions League Final earlier this year, helped the LA Galaxy lift another trophy.
There were several nail-biting moments, as well as missed opportunities on offense, but when the final whistle blew, the stadium erupted like an explosion ripping through the eardrums.
The victory was the second championship for the city of Los Angeles over the city of New York in just over a month’s span out of the five major men’s professional sports leagues. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games on October 30th.
It also marks the sixth championship for Los Angeles since 2020 overall.
As the champagne popped and was sprayed all over the Galaxy players, this time they celebrated in the postgame locker room. As the music blared, there was laughter, screams of exultation and once again tears.
This time, however, they were tears of joy.
