The Match: LA Galaxy v New York Red Bulls
Even losing Riqui Puig can’t take the shine out of the Galaxy in MLS Cup 2024
The 29th MLS Cup was one of the most significant yet. With the eyes of the world on Major League Soccer more than at any time since David Beckham moved to the league in 2007, Golden Balls’ big pink upstarts have attracted global attention.
They didn’t make the grade when it really mattered. Instead, this year’s MLS Cup was the first to be played between two 1996 MLS originals since 2014, when LA beat New England Revolution courtesy of a goal in extra time from Robbie Keane.
That was the Galaxy’s fifth MLS Cup – a league record but also their most recent appearance in the final. They won the Western Conference, beating Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United and Seattle Sounders in the playoffs.
The Flamengos of Inter Miami were propelled through the Eastern Conference to the Supporters’ Shield by Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba but remained flightless in the playoffs.
New York Red Bulls found their wings from within. Emil Forsberg is no more Austrian than saltwater taffy but he has taurine in his blood. He played almost 250 league matches for RB Leipzig before moving to the Red Bulls a year ago to become their captain and lead them to Major League Soccer’s showpiece occasion.
Miami fell at the first obstacle, losing to Atlanta United over three legs. The Red Bulls powered through the fancied Columbus Crew before beating New York City in the first post-season Hudson River Derby and clinching the Eastern Conference championship against Orlando City.
If the Galaxy’s status as the higher seed stacked home advantage in their favour, an injury sustained in the Western Conference final went some way to balancing the odds against the Red Bulls: they would have to win it without Riqui Puig.
The 25-year-old Spaniard was the outstanding player in MLS this season. Messi was Messi. His numbers were exactly as you’d expect but he missed a number of games with injury. Christian Benteke’s scoring exploits alone made a case for MVP but it was Puig who caught the eye and the imagination.
He glided through the season, a deceptive assassin in a tucked-in shirt, inflicting damage on damage upon the Galaxy’s opponents.
He scythed through the Sounders in the Western Conference final to set up the winning goal. Only afterwards was it revealed that he’d already ruptured his ACL and would miss MLS Cup.
Instead of terrorising the Red Bulls without breaking a sweat, Puig watched on from the sidelines in a sharp suit and under constant attention from the cameras. 2024 was the season of Riqui Puig but his team-mates had to step up to win him a medal.
The fallen headline act was treated to an explosive start and an entertaining match. It was ripped asunder by early goals and both teams had chances while living on their wits defensively. The biggest surprise was that it ended 2-1.
The Galaxy were excellent. Their measured press forced the Red Bulls into profligacy in the first half while LA seemed always to have a pass available when they most needed it.
They missed Puig’s incision, his invention, his ability to carry the ball, but Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil are plenty capable of fulfilling the creative burden left behind by his absence and LA’s sixth title was ultimately won by an early blitzkrieg that earned them a 2-0 lead inside the first fifteen minutes.
They took the lead in the ninth minute and it had been coming. Paintsil caused all manner of problems on the Galaxy’s left flank and got on the end of a beautiful Gastón Brugman ball to put them in front. In truth, the finish didn’t match the pass. It squirmed through Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel and it really shouldn’t have.
Four minutes later, the home team scored again after the second ball after a long kick forward from goalkeeper John McCarthy was collected by centre forward Dejan Joveljić.
He strode towards goal and the Red Bulls backed off. It was a clever finish with the outside of his left boot, placement rather than venom foxing Coronel and bagging Joveljić’s 21st goal of the season. Like Paintsil, the Serbian striker held up Puig’s shirt in celebration.
The Galaxy should have wrapped the game up while they were emphatically on top in the first half-hour. Brugman’s free kick was headed over by a defender before a mix-up in the Red Bulls defence led to a clear chance for Marky Delgado. The midfielder got his shot away but sent it wide.
New York head coach Sandro Schwarz was forced into a late change in his back three. The loss of Andrés Reyes – since acquired by 2025 MLS expansion side San Diego – did the Red Bulls no favours even if getting replacement Noah Eile on the ball was key to their recovery in the game.
They eventually found their feet and were determined to have their say. Their goal came out of the blue to pull one back with 27 minutes played. LA failed to clear a corner from the Red Bulls’ left more than once and the ensuing loose end was tied up by central defender Sean Nealis. His snappy chest and volley finish set up an exciting last hour of the match.
It didn’t look at the time like the end of the scoring. New York had their chances to equalise, most notably late in the game as the pressure began to build. They never had the one killer idea, the one big moment, they needed.
The Galaxy handled their business perfectly. They took the sting out of the Red Bulls at the end of the first half, drawing fouls and gradually pushing their opponents back towards their own goal, and restored their dominance in the early part of the second half.
They too made chances. Pec should have ended the contest with quarter of an hour remaining. Substitute Marco Reus might have done better with a presentable chance and a tame shot two minutes later.
LA’s defending was sharp right to the end. Carlos Emiro Garcés was imperious, making a fabulous goal-saving tackle with half an hour left, making light work of every aerial duel and positioning himself so well out of possession that he seemed to have a finely tuned nose for danger.
Their celebrations were amusingly and thoroughly premature. With the six minutes of injury time played, the referee’s whistle was the starter pistol for pandemonium.
Substitutes and camera operators streamed onto the pitch with a legion of hangers-on. Puig was there, all smiles, caught mid-change as Red Bulls skipper Forsberg noticed that the whistle was in fact not the final one. It wasn’t far away.
The expectation around Inter Miami in the 2024 season was huge. They delivered, for the most part, at least on the pitch. It’s hard to know how much the immediate bump of Messi and Miami will help Major League Soccer in the long run but they attracted the gaze of the global game and topped the table at the end of the regular season.
But Gianni Infantino, football’s chief bastard, embodied an outburst of hype that failed to respect the fact that the champions of MLS win the playoffs, not the regular season. Such hubris was bound to spike Miami’s title hopes.
Instead, two of the league’s original powerhouses went nose to nose for the championship. At the dawning of the new, the old won out.
The Galaxy winning MLS Cup is no fairytale. There’s no good versus evil here, no triumph of tradition over spending power, but Major League Soccer and football in North America are entering a fascinating moment in their long histories.
The man regarded by many as the best player of all time is in the United States again. This time it coincides with such a focus on academy player development that Philadelphia Union are willing to trade away draft picks including the eighth pick overall for 2025.
In times of accelerated change, it’s reassuring to see the old guard coming along for the ride.