Joseph Paintsil and Dejan Joveljic each scored early to lift the LA Galaxy to their record sixth MLS Cup title and first since 2014 in a 2-1 victory over the visiting New York Red Bulls in Saturday’s final in Carson, Calif.
Paintsil’s fourth goal of the playoffs and Joveljic’s sixth helped the Galaxy prevail despite missing attacking midfield star Riqui Puig, who suffered a torn ACL helping LA to a Western Conference final victory over Seattle last Saturday.
Puig’s healthy central midfield colleagues Gaston Brugman and Mark Delgado each provided an assist in the victory, one that made Greg Vanney the seventh manager to win multiple MLS Cups and only the fourth to do it with multiple teams.
John McCarthy made four saves for LA.
Defender Sean Nealis scored the Red Bulls’ lone goal later in the first half in what was only the club’s second appearance in the final, having lost 3-1 to Columbus in 2008.
New York improved after halftime but not enough to force extra time. Galaxy captain Miki Yamane struck the right crossbar in the 65th minute and Emil Forsberg did the same for New York in the 72nd. The Red Bulls also had a promising goalmouth scramble early in second-half stoppage time that did not result in a shot attempt.
New York remains one of three active MLS founding members not to win the league’s top honor, along with Dallas and New England.
The Galaxy were off to a dream start in the ninth minute on an attack that began when Brugman — who started in place of the injured Puig — played a give-and-go with Edwin Cerrillo to advance through midfield.
Brugman followed that with a nearly perfect through ball into Paintsil’s run through the Red Bull back line. Paintsil strided onto it and drove a low finish that snuck beneath lunging goalkeeper Carlos Coronel and had enough momentum to continue across the goal line. Coronel tallied four saves in defeat.
It was 2-0 only four minutes later with a direct attack that began with a long goal kick. Nealis won the first header, but the ball then fell to Delgado, who played an excellent first-touch pass to Joveljic in space.
The striker then surged into the penalty area, and with an option to pass to his left, instead dispatched a sublime low finish into the bottom right corner.
Nealis restored some tension with an excellent volleyed goal in the 28th minute that came after the Galaxy failed to clear the danger from a corner kick. But the Red Bulls weren’t able to find an equalizer despite superiority in possession and chances after halftime.
–Field Level Media
