 | |||||||
| Event | MLS Cup | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Afterextra time | |||||||
| Date | December 7, 2014 | ||||||
| Venue | StubHub Center,Carson,California, US | ||||||
| Most Valuable Player | Robbie Keane (LA Galaxy) | ||||||
| Referee | Mark Geiger | ||||||
| Attendance | 27,000 | ||||||
| Weather | Cloudy, 73 °F (23 °C)[1] | ||||||
←2013 2015 → | |||||||
MLS Cup 2014 was the 19th edition of theMLS Cup, the match that determined the champion ofMajor League Soccer's2014 season. TheLA Galaxy of theWestern Conference hosted theNew England Revolution of theEastern Conference. Thesoccer match was held atStubHub Center inCarson, California, as the Galaxy were awarded home advantage by finishing the regular season with more points than the Revolution. The Galaxy won 2–1 afterextra time, winning their fifth MLS Cup title and also sending all-timeU.S. national team goal scoring leaderLandon Donovan into retirement with his sixth MLS Cup crown.[2]
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: in2002 and in2005; 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 the2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League as the Supporters Shield runner-up since theSeattle Sounders won both theU.S. Open Cup and theSupporters Shield while New England could only do so by winning the Cup. 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.
TheMLS Cup is the post-season championship ofMajor League Soccer (MLS), a professional clubsoccer league in the United States and Canada. The2014 season was the 19th in MLS history and was contested by 19 teams organized into theEastern andWestern 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.[3][4] 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 bothsingle-elimination matches; the other two rounds were decided throughaggregate score over atwo-legged tie with theaway goals rule in effect.[5]
Both the Revolution and the Galaxy are original MLS clubs, beginning play in 1996.[6] The teams had faced off inMLS Cup 2002 andMLS Cup 2005, with the Galaxy winning both finals in overtime.[7] The Galaxy had also defeated the Revolution 2–1 in overtime in the final of the2001 U.S. Open Cup.[8] 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.[9]
The Galaxy convincingly defeatedReal Salt Lake in the Western Conference semifinals by an aggregate score of 5–0. They then advanced pastSeattle Sounders FC and to MLS Cup 2–2 on aggregate due to theaway goals tiebreaker, as the Galaxy had 1 away goal to Seattle's 0.
The Revolution's last MLS cup final was in 2007, where they lost to theHouston Dynamo in their third MLS Cup loss in a row.[citation needed] Since then, the club had hired defenderJay Heaps to manage the club.[10] The team had missed playoffs in the2012 season,[citation needed] and suffered a 4–3 defeat on aggregate toSporting Kansas City in the conference semifinals of the2013 MLS Cup Playoffs.[11] In advance of the 2014 season, the club acquiredJosé Gonçalves on a permanent deal, after a loan deal which saw him win MLS Defender of the Year. GoalkeeperMatt Reis retired from the team after tearing hisquad tendons in the 2013 playoffs.[12]
New England knocked out theColumbus Crew 7–3 on aggregate after dominating both legs of the Eastern Conference semifinals before narrowly besting theNew York 4–3 over the two legs to reach MLS Cup.
| New England Revolution | Round | LA Galaxy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Regular season |
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| 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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 Conference | E4 | 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 Conference | W1 | 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 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Broadcaster | Language | Commentators[13] | Other staff | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play-by-play | Color | |||
| Television | ||||
 ESPN,WatchESPN (online) | English | Adrian Healey | Taylor Twellman | Monica Gonzalez,Max Bretos,Alexi Lalas,Kasey Keller |
| UniMás | Spanish | |||
 TSN | English | |||
| RDS | French | Claudine Douville | Jean Gounelle | François-Etienne Corbin,Patrick Leduc,Patrice Bernier |
| Radio | ||||
| Sirius XM | English | Joe Tolleson | John Harkes | Tony Meola |
| ESPN Deportes Radio | Spanish | Kenneth Garay | Elmer Polanco | Diego Cora |
          LA Galaxy |      New England Revolution |
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MLS Cup MVP: Assistant referees: | Match rules
|
| 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 |
The Galaxy set the record for most MLS Cup wins, with five, and qualified for the2015–16 CONCACAF Champions League as USA #1 spot. They won their group, which includedCentral Football Club andComunicaciones F.C., but lost 3-1 over atwo-legged match againstQuerétaro F.C. The Galaxy next appeared in the2024 MLS Cup final, ten years to the day from the 2014 final. They won 2-1 against theNew York Red Bulls.
