MLS Cup Final: LA Galaxy beat the New York Red Bulls 2-1

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Without Puig 

©TM/IMAGO

The wait is over for the Los Angeles Galaxy. After a ten-year wait, Major League Soccer’s most historical club has finally added MLS Cup number six to the trophy cabinet. The LA Galaxy beat Eastern Conference champions New York Red Bulls 2-1 thanks to goals by Joseph Paintsil (10’) and Dejan Joveljic (13’) in front of 27,000 fans at a sold-out Dignity Health Sport Park in Carson, California. Sean Nealis (28’) scored for the New York Red Bulls. 

Remarkably, the Galaxy did this without perhaps the best player in MLS, not named Lionel Messi: Riqui Puig. The Spaniard had been the most outstanding player in the MLS Cup Playoffs this season, scoring four goals and three assists in four games. Puig, in fact, provided the game-winning assist in the MLS Cup Western Conference final against the Seattle Sounders (1-0). As we would later learn, Puig played that assist and the last 20 minutes of the game with a torn ACL. 

“We’re going to miss Riqui,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said before the match to MLSSoccer.com. “There’s not another player in the league, honestly, that’s like him. He’s special and unique, and he does special things for us. He can turn a game on a dime in one quick play – he’s extraordinary.” And for the first 13 minutes, it appeared that the Galaxy wouldn’t miss Puig at all as first Paintsil and Joveljic scored. But then Nealis pulled one back to make it a tight affair in which the Galaxy would eventually prevail.

It is Vanney’s second MLS Cup title. The veteran head coach had previously reached the MLS Cup final three times with Toronto FC and won the trophy in 2017. When Vanney joined the Galaxy in 2021, the club struggled in MLS on and off the pitch. Over the next three years, the 50-year-old would turn things around. In charge in 155 games across all competitions, Vanney has averaged 1.53 points per match with the Galaxy, the sixth-best record in club history. 

How did the Galaxy build a winner? Patience. Vanney needed two full seasons to put together the right squad. Ahead of this season, the Galaxy said goodbye to Chicharito and Douglas Costa. In their stead, the club signed Pec and Paintsil—the two rank first and second among record transfers in club history. The two wingers instantly clicked with Spanish playmaker Puig; the Spanish playmaker managed 13 goals and ten assists in 29 regular season games. But the Galaxy weren’t done there as they also added free agent signing Marco Reus from Borussia Dortmund last summer—after finishing seven times runners-up with Dortmund, the German has now won his first-ever national championship. 

The attack’s depth and wealth of talent would be crucial for the Galaxy on their playoff run. With a market value of €63.08m, only Inter Miami CF (€94.08m) had a more valuable squad than the Galaxy in the MLS Cup (overview). In comparison, the New York Red Bulls entered the playoffs with a squad value of €41.3m. In other words, the Galaxy had the depth to compensate for Puig’s injury, even if it was a relatively close affair in the final against the underdogs from New York.