LA Galaxy partied like it was 2014 but prepared for 2024 in MLS Cup victory

You can tell that MLS has been around for a while, as a nostalgic tribute was organized on Saturday with two classic clubs.

The Los Angeles Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls? What is this, 2014? It seemed that way when Dejan Joveljić scored what turned out to be the MLS Cup-winning goal and celebrated with a wobbly Robbie: a shaky tribute to cartwheeling Galaxy legend Robbie Keane. The Irish striker scored the decisive goal against the New England Revolution ten years ago, the last time the Galaxy reached the final.

The 2010s were the decade when Keane, David Beckham and Landon Donovan led the Galaxy to back-to-back championships, while New York won the Eastern Conference five times and the Supporters’ Shield three times, but never reached the MLS Cup. Not with Thierry Henry. Or Bradley Wright-Phillips. Not even with Tim Cahill or Juan Pablo Ángel. Rafael Marquez? There was some fuss about it.

And yet here they were, propelled by the lesser-known Emil Forsberg and Lewis Morgan: another original MLS franchise, but appearing in only their second final, having lost to the Columbus Crew in the same stadium in 2008. When MLS was born in 1996, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, the league had 10 teams, ties meant 35-yard shootouts and only two clubs failed to qualify for the playoffs.

In 2025, the competition will expand to 30 clubs in its 30th season, but some problems are eternal: the unusual summer schedule, low TV ratings and the biggest names likely to be at the end of their careers.

In any case, the broader context is very different today. A rearrangement of the calendar could come in 2026 if the U.S. co-hosts the World Cup, the league worries about audience size while enjoying an innovative 10-year streaming deal worth $2.5 billion, and if attracting dwindling veterans means signing Lionel Messi, bring it on.

The playoffs are still ridiculous, though: the regular season is made virtually irrelevant by qualifying 18 teams for a 47-day marathon with different formats in different rounds and a momentum-killing two-week break in the middle. Back in the day, before hugely popular clubs like Atlanta United and the Seattle Sounders joined in and redefined the league’s power bases, MLS executives would have welcomed a climax between clubs in the country’s two biggest media markets.

This time they were victims of the inherently unpredictable nature of knockout football, with Messi’s brilliant Inter Miami shockingly ousted in the first round by Atlanta, who qualified despite finishing ninth in the Eastern Conference during the regular season . Terrible news for the story. New York, meanwhile, took advantage of the bloated format. Seventh in the East, they won three of their last 18 regular-season games but regrouped to dispose of reigning champion Columbus in the first round.

However, a game plan focused on set pieces and stubbornness, opportunism and organization was ultimately not enough to beat the free-scoring Galaxy in their home stadium. LA were more secure in possession and more dynamic in attack and were two goals ahead after 13 minutes. The Red Bulls regrouped bravely to avoid defeat and after pulling one back through Sean Nealis, despite their manifest inferiority, they had chances to equalize in the second half.

But the final whistle confirmed a stunning turnaround under head coach Greg Vanney, a former Galaxy player at the start of the league who guided Toronto FC to the MLS Cup in 2017. Last year the Galaxy finished 26th in the overall standings, amid boycotts from supporters. . Like the Red Bulls – overshadowed by New York City FC, who started in the MLS in 2015 and won the MLS Cup six years later – they weren’t even the loudest noise in their home city.

Los Angeles FC – MLS newcomer in 2018, champions in 2022 and runners-up in 2023, and with famous owners – became a trendy option for fading Euro stars looking for the Hollywood lifestyle. Before Saturday, the Galaxy had not returned to the finals in a decade and had made the play-offs just four times. They resembled an increasingly irrelevant old brand, marginalized by their own shortcomings and the rise of more agile competitors. This was the first final between two founding members of the MLS since 2014.

A disillusioned fan base wanted wins more than celebrities. Vanney and general manager Will Kuntz – notably hired from LAFC – rebuilt the squad in the offseason, moving away from the old strategy of acquiring highly paid big names like Steven Gerrard, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Javier Hernández and attempting to build a more functional team forms. unit with astute signings such as Ghanaian winger Joseph Paintsil and Brazilian winger Gabriel Pec: lesser-known players in their mid-20s with plenty of upside who are making crucial contributions this season. (Yet they did not miss the opportunity in August to sign 35-year-old former German midfielder Marco Reus, who came off the bench against the Red Bulls.)

New York is also operating in a more strategic and less flashy manner rather than pursuing the galácticos approach. They reached the postseason for the 15th straight year, while only one player in the starting lineup at Dignity Health Sports Park was over 30 and five were local youth products.

There was little to fault beyond the choreography of the celebrations as the Galaxy won their sixth MLS championship, two ahead of DC United. Before Joveljić made the messy moves, opening goal scorer Paintsil frantically gestured to a replica shirt with Riqui Puig’s name and number as the delivery took longer than planned. Still, it was a moving tribute: the effervescent Spanish playmaker was doomed to watch from the stands in a smart suit after tearing his ACL in the Western Conference final against Seattle, though he somehow soldiered on and provided the winning assist.

That Puig’s replacement on Saturday, Gastón Brugman, played a perfect pass to set up Paintsil’s goal and was named man of the match underlined the value of Vanney’s emphasis on team depth.

In terms of talent, Puig is a worthy heir to Keane and Donovan, who were both present as special guests on Saturday, which further enhances the retro feeling. Another VIP was 84-year-old Philip Anschutz, the conservative Republican support billionaire who co-founded the MLS, kept it afloat during its troubled youth and, through his AEG giant, managed six teams at the same time, including New York. Now he only owns one: the Galaxy. At the post-match ceremony, he thanked “all the fans who continued to have faith in the Galaxy” as the players hoisted a large piece of silverware into the air called the Philip F Anschutz Trophy.

“This is kind of a stamp that we’re back,” Vanney told reporters. The season, he said, indicated “that we are back as an organization… the quality is there”. Saturday’s victory was “to prove that we are back as champions and back at the top,” he added. “The Galaxy is about winning championships.”

Party like it’s 2014, prepare like it’s 2024. And perhaps thrive in 2025 and beyond with a smarter, more sustainable strategy.