MLS Cup 2014

MLS Cup 2014
EventMLS Cup
After extra time
DateDecember 7, 2014
VenueStubHub Center, Carson, California, US
Most Valuable PlayerRobbie Keane
(LA Galaxy)
RefereeMark Geiger
Attendance27,000
WeatherCloudy, 73 °F (23 °C)
2013
2015

MLS Cup 2014 was the 19th edition of the MLS Cup, the match that determined the champion of Major League Soccer's 2014 season. The LA Galaxy of the Western Conference hosted the New England Revolution of the Eastern Conference. The soccer match was held at StubHub Center in Carson, California, as the Galaxy were awarded home advantage by finishing the regular season with more points than the Revolution. The Galaxy won 2–1 after extra time, winning their fifth MLS Cup title and also sending all-time U.S. national team goal scoring leader Landon Donovan into retirement with his sixth MLS Cup crown.[1]

It was a record sixth time that the MLS Cup was held at the StubHub Center, and the first time in two years that the venue has hosted the MLS Cup. The Galaxy returned to the MLS Cup for the first time since 2012, when they became the third club to win the championship in back-to-back seasons. It was the first time since 2007 that the Revolution reached the MLS Cup final. The two clubs had met twice before in the MLS Cup final: in 2002 and in 2005; the Galaxy defeated New England 1–0 after extra time in both finals. New England Revolution became the first club to lose five MLS Cups.

Going into the match, the Galaxy had earned a berth into the 2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League regardless of the result; New England could only do so by winning the Cup. Since the Seattle Sounders won both the U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters Shield, the Galaxy had secured a berth into the Champions League as the Supporters Shield runner-up. Had New England won the match, they would have entered as the MLS Cup champion representative. Instead, Real Salt Lake went to the Champions League.

Road to the final

[edit]

The MLS Cup is the post-season championship of Major League Soccer (MLS), a professional club soccer league in the United States and Canada. The 2014 season was the 19th in MLS history and was contested by 19 teams organized into the Eastern and Western conferences. Each club played 34 matches during the regular season from early March to late October, facing each team in their conference two or three times and those in the other conference once.[2][3] The playoffs, which ran from October to early December, were contested over four rounds by the top five clubs in each conference. The first round and final were both single-elimination matches; the other two rounds were decided through aggregate score over a two-legged tie with the away goals rule in effect.[4]

Both the Revolution and the Galaxy are original MLS clubs, beginning play in 1996.[5] The teams had faced off in MLS Cup 2002 and MLS Cup 2005, with the Galaxy winning both finals in overtime.[6] The Galaxy had also defeated the Revolution 2–1 in overtime in the final of the 2001 U.S. Open Cup.[7] The two teams had faced each other once before in the 2014 season, with the Galaxy hosting and defeating the Revolution in a 5–1 game that saw both teams reduced to 10 men.[8]

LA Galaxy

[edit]

The Galaxy convincingly defeated Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference semifinals by an aggregate score of 5–0. They then advanced past Seattle Sounders FC and to MLS Cup 2–2 on aggregate due to the away goals tiebreaker, as the Galaxy had 1 away goal to Seattle's 0.

New England Revolution

[edit]

The Revolution's last MLS cup final was in 2007, where they lost to the Houston Dynamo in their third MLS Cup loss in a row.[citation needed] Since then, the club had hired defender Jay Heaps to manage the club.[9] The team had missed playoffs in the 2012 season,[citation needed] and suffered a 4–3 defeat on aggregate to Sporting Kansas City in the conference semifinals of the 2013 MLS Cup Playoffs.[10] In advance of the 2014 season, the club acquired José Gonçalves on a permanent deal, after a loan deal which saw him win MLS Defender of the Year. Goalkeeper Matt Reis retired from the team after tearing his quad tendons in the 2013 playoffs.[11]

New England knocked out the Columbus Crew 7–3 on aggregate after dominating both legs of the Eastern Conference semifinals before narrowly besting the New York 4–3 over the two legs to reach MLS Cup.

Summary of results

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Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).
New England Revolution Round LA Galaxy
Eastern Conference
Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts.
D.C. United 34 17 9 8 52 37 +15 59
New England Revolution 34 17 13 4 51 46 +5 55
Columbus Crew 34 14 10 10 52 42 +10 52
New York Red Bulls 34 13 10 11 55 50 +5 50
Sporting Kansas City 34 14 13 7 48 41 +7 49
Regular season
Western Conference
Team GP W L T GF GA GD Pts.
Seattle Sounders FC 34 20 10 4 65 50 +15 64
LA Galaxy 34 17 7 10 69 37 +32 61
Real Salt Lake 34 15 8 11 54 39 +15 56
FC Dallas 34 15 12 7 42 42 0 54
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 34 14 11 9 45 38 +7 50
Opponent Result Legs Playoffs Opponent Result Legs
Columbus Crew 7–3 4–2 away; 3–1 home Conf. Semifinals Real Salt Lake 5–0 0–0 away; 5–0 home
New York Red Bulls 4–3 2–1 away; 2–2 home Conference Finals Seattle Sounders FC 2–2 (a) 1–0 home; 1–2 away

Tournament Bracket

[edit]
Knockout Conference semifinals Conference finals MLS Cup
E1 D.C. United 0 2 2
E4 New York Red Bulls 2 E4 New York Red Bulls 2 1 3
E5 Sporting Kansas City 1 Eastern ConferenceE4 New York Red Bulls 1 2 3
E2 New England Revolution 2 2 4
E2 New England Revolution 4 3 7
E3 Columbus Crew 2 1 3
E2 New England Revolution 1
W2 LA Galaxy (a.e.t.) 2
W1 Seattle Sounders FC (a) 1 0 1
W4 FC Dallas 2 W4 FC Dallas 1 0 1
W5 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 1 Western ConferenceW1 Seattle Sounders FC 0 2 2
W2 LA Galaxy (a) 1 1 2
W2 LA Galaxy 0 5 5
W3 Real Salt Lake 0 0 0


Broadcasting

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Commentary

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Broadcaster Language Commentators[12] Other staff
Play-by-play Color
Television
United States ESPN, WatchESPN (online) English Adrian Healey Taylor Twellman Monica Gonzalez, Max Bretos,Alexi Lalas, Kasey Keller
United States UniMás Spanish
Canada TSN English
Canada RDS French Claudine Douville Jean Gounelle François-Etienne Corbin, Patrick Leduc, Patrice Bernier
Radio
United States Sirius XM English Joe Tolleson John Harkes Tony Meola
United States ESPN Deportes Radio Spanish Kenneth Garay Elmer Polanco Diego Cora

Match

[edit]
LA Galaxy2–1 (a.e.t.)New England Revolution
  • Zardes 52'
  • Keane 111'
Report
StubHub Center, Carson, California
Attendance: 27,000
LA Galaxy
New England Revolution
GK 18 Panama Jaime Penedo
RB 20 Guam A. J. DeLaGarza
CB 4 United States Omar Gonzalez
CB 22 Brazil Leonardo
LB 14 United States Robbie Rogers Yellow card 82' downward-facing red arrow 91'
RM 24 Sweden Stefan Ishizaki downward-facing red arrow 91'
CM 8 Brazil Marcelo Sarvas Yellow card 113'
CM 19 Brazil Juninho downward-facing red arrow 96'
LM 10 United States Landon Donovan  Yellow card 45+1'
CF 7 Republic of Ireland Robbie Keane (c Yellow card 92'
CF 11 United States Gyasi Zardes
Substitutes:
GK 12 United States Brian Rowe
DF 2 United States Todd Dunivant
DF 21 United States Tommy Meyer
DF 33 United States Dan Gargan upward-facing green arrow 91'
MF 6 Bosnia and Herzegovina Baggio Husidić upward-facing green arrow 96'
MF 34 United States Kenney Walker
FW 9 United States Alan Gordon Yellow card 113' upward-facing green arrow 91'
Manager:
United States Bruce Arena

GK 22 United States Bobby Shuttleworth
RB 2 United States Andrew Farrell Yellow card 62'
CB 5 United States A. J. Soares
CB 23 Portugal José Gonçalves (c)
LB 8 United States Chris Tierney
CM 6 United States Scott Caldwell downward-facing red arrow 58'
CM 13 United States Jermaine Jones Yellow card 113'
RW 10 United States Teal Bunbury
AM 24 United States Lee Nguyen downward-facing red arrow 90+1'
LW 11 United States Kelyn Rowe
CF 9 United States Charlie Davies downward-facing red arrow 72'
Substitutes:
GK 18 United States Brad Knighton
DF 25 United States Darrius Barnes
DF 30 United States Kevin Alston
MF 12 Wales Andy Dorman upward-facing green arrow 90+1'
MF 16 Japan Daigo Kobayashi upward-facing green arrow 58'
FW 7 United States Patrick Mullins upward-facing green arrow 72'
FW 14 Uruguay Diego Fagúndez
Manager:
United States Jay Heaps

MLS Cup MVP:
Republic of Ireland Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy)

Assistant referees:
Peter Manikowski (United States)
Joe Fletcher (Canada)
Fourth official:
Armando Villarreal (United States)

Match rules

  • 90 minutes.
  • 30 minutes of extra time if necessary.
  • Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.
  • Seven named substitutes.
  • Maximum of three substitutions.

Statistics

[edit]
Overall[13]
LA Galaxy New England Revolution
Goals scored 2 1
Total shots 16 16
Shots on target 6 6
Saves 6 4
Corner kicks 3 3
Fouls committed 20 14
Offsides 4 1
Yellow cards 5 2
Red cards 0 0

References

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  1. ^ Carlisle, Jeff (December 7, 2014). "Three Points: Los Angeles vs. New England". ESPN FC. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  2. ^ Bell, Jack (November 25, 2013). "M.L.S. and Red Bulls Release 2014 Schedule". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  3. ^ O'Bannon, Whitney (November 26, 2013). "Real Salt Lake: RSL to start 2014 season with back-to-back LA Galaxy games". Deseret News. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  4. ^ Ames, Nick (November 29, 2014). "Breathless in Seattle: the Sounders in full cry for first MLS Cup final". The Guardian. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
  5. ^ Gorostieta, Diego (May 18, 2023). "Every expansion team in MLS history: LAFC, Inter Miami, Seattle Sounders, NYCFC, San Diego..." as. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  6. ^ Powers, John (December 8, 2014). "Not this time". The Boston Globe. p. C1. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  7. ^ "Galaxy claims US Open Cup". The Signal. October 28, 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  8. ^ Powers, John (December 5, 2014). "Revolution not the same". The Boston Globe. p. D4. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  9. ^ CBS Boston (November 16, 2011). "Revolution Introduce Jay Heaps As Head Coach". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 7, 2024. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
  10. ^ "It's an abrupt ending for the Revolution". The Boston Globe. November 7, 2013. p. C2. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
  11. ^ Ironside, Nick (January 25, 2014). "Revolution set to kick off training". The Boston Globe. p. C3. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
  12. ^ MLSsoccer staff (December 7, 2014). "Watch MLS Cup 2014 from most anywhere in the world: Here are the global TV listings for the big game". MLS. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  13. ^ "Boxscore – Player statistics". Major League Soccer. Retrieved December 8, 2014.