Galaxy hold off late Red Bulls push to win the MLS Cup

The Galaxy are back.

After a decade-long slump in which it lost almost as many games as it won, the team capped an improbable rise from near-worst to first Saturday, capturing a record sixth MLS Cup with a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, full time

The Red Bulls were called offside and the Galaxy thought the whistle signaled their win.

The officials cleared the field to let the Galaxy take a free kick with just a few seconds left.

After the Galaxy controlled the ball off the free kick, the official finally signaled the Galaxy won their sixth MLS Cup.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 93:28 left on the clock in the second half

Jalen Neal replaced Joseph Paintsil for the Galaxy.

New York has camped out on the Galaxy’s end of the field, trying to send shot after shot toward the goal with no success. The Galaxy entered the final known more for scoring than defense, but all of their top goal scorers have contributed to holding New York scoreless in the second half.

The Red Bulls wanted VAR to call the Galaxy for a foul in the box, arguing a potential goal scorer was held as New York tried to send in a pass into the box.

The official never signaled a foul on the play and the match continued.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 91:42 left on the clock in the second half

Emiro Garces was down on the pitch and getting treated for a potential head injury after previously appearing to cramp.

The officials showed six minutes of stoppage time.

Garces was led off the field and the Galaxy briefly had to defend with 10 players.

Gabriel Pec poked away the ball as the Red Bulls pushed for a goal and took it to the other side of the field to relieve pressure before he turned it over.

The officials held up 10 minutes of stoppage time.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 86:48 left on the clock in the second half

Gabriel Pec applied pressure as Cameron Harper’s shot was saved by John McCarthy.

The Galaxy, meanwhile, have tried to extend possession on their end of the pitch and haven’t been as quick to take shots.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 83:31 left on the clock in the second half

Wikelman Carmona replaced Daniel Edelman and Cory Burke replaced Dylan Nealis for the Red Bulls.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 74:15 on the clock in the second half

Diego Fagúndez replaced Dejan Joveljic, giving the Galaxy a veteran presence on the pitch.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 74:15 on the clock in the second half

Marco Reus replaced Gaston Brugman in the Galaxy lineup.

Reus is coming off an injury, but he is a more dynamic player and the Galaxy hope he will be a game changer late in this match.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 71:06 on the clock in the second half

The pressure is mounting as the Galaxy push to make their lead insurmountable and the Red Bulls chase an equalizer.

Gabriel Pec moved the ball up the right side of the box in transition and bounced the ball off a Red Bulls player to set up a corner kick.

The Red Bulls cleared it, the Galaxy poked it away at midfield and the Red Bulls regained possession.

New York pushed up field, but the Galaxy got the ball back. Dejan Joveljic was fouled by Cameron Harper and shoved Harper after Harper earned a yellow card on the play.

When play resumed, Gabriel Pec puet a shot on goal from the center of the box, but it was saved by Carlos Coronel New York quickly pushed the ball the other way and Emil Forsberg missed a shot wide right.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 68:06 on the clock in the second half

The Galaxy have pulled off a few tackles and blocks in transition in the second half.

The team has been kncooking on the door for its third goal, with Joseph Paintsil missing a shot in the 55th minute, Gastón Brugman missing a shot in the 62nd minute and Miki Yamane banging the ball off the right post.

The Red Bulls made to two subs in the 65th minute, with attacker Elias Manoel replacing Dante Vanzeir and Ronald Donkor replacing Peter Stroud.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 50:54 on the clock in the second half

The Galaxy have won three free kicks and the Red Bulls have won two early the second half, but neither side has delivered a shot on goal.

The Red Bulls entered the second half with a bit more confidence as they continue to push the ball into Galaxy territory, while the Galaxy have struggled to continue their early match fluidity pushing the ball in transition.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 45:32 on the clock in the second half

Galaxy fans are roaring at Dignity Health Sports Park and play has resumed in the second half.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, halftime

And we’ve reached halftime.

The Red Bulls won the possession battle, holding the ball 53.6% of the first half.

The Galaxy, however, took more shots (seven to the Red Bulls’ four) and more shots on goal (four to the Red Bulls’ 3).

Joseph Paintsil’s speed and Gabriel Pec’s smooth moves with the ball at his feet put the most pressure on the Red Bulls’ defense. The Galaxy have weathered the absence of star playmaker Riqui Puig.

Paintsil scored in the ninth minute and Dejan Joveljic scored in the 13th minute for the Galaxy, while the Red Bulls’ Sean Nealis scored in the 28th minute.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 46:25 on the clock in first half

The Galaxy poked through the middle of the Red Bulls’ defense. Dejan Joveljic chested the ball and took a quick shot from just beyond the box at the center of the field. Carlos Coronel was in perfect position and stretched up to grab the ball, earning the save.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 45:00 on the clock in first half

Three minutes of stoppage time were added to the end of the first half.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 43:11 on the clock in first half

In the 41st minute, Gabriel Pec swiftly moved past one defender and was fouled by Peter Stroud. The Red Bulls headed the ensuing free kick out of bounds, giving the Galaxy a corner kick.

The Galaxy won the ball back after the Red Bulls tried to clear it multiple times before a Joseph Paintsil pass finally sailed wide and out of bounds.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 38:08 on the clock in first half

Mark Delgado collided with Emil Forsberg at midfield as he was breaking away in transition, earning a yellow card. Forsberg to a free kick, but the Red Bulls couldn’t convert into a goal.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 33:00 on the clock in first half

The Red Bulls have frustrated the Galaxy defense for the past five minutes, earning four corner kicks and surrendering a goal on one of them.

John McCarthy gathered a save in the 33rd minute and was able to deliver a goal kick, flipping the field and finally taking pressure off the Galaxy defense.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1, 27:17 on the clock in first half

One of the Red Bulls’ strengths is set pieces and one of them helped the club score its first goal of the final.

The Red Bulls earned a corner kick after pushing into Galaxy territory. Emil Forsberg sent the ball into the box and bounced around, with the Galaxy taking swipes but failing to clear it.

Sean Nealis stepped forward and hit a right-footed shot from the center of the box to slice the Galaxy lead.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 0, 24:51 on the clock in first half

The Red Bulls moved the ball to the Galaxy’s side of the pitch after giving up two goals, but the Galaxy eventually flipped the field and applied more pressure on New York goalkeeper Carlos Coronel.

Gabriel Pec evaded one defender along the end right end line and took a left-footed shot Coronel blocked.

The ball shot high in the air and the Red Bulls struggled to clear it. Mark Delgado gathered the rebound and pushed a right-footed shot wide and out of bounds.

Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 0, 12:53 on the clock in first half

During the first five minutes of the MLS Cup final, the New York Red Bulls packed the front of its goal and seemed content to frustrate the high-scoring and up tempo Galaxy.

The Galaxy probed eight minutes before finding seams in the Red Bulls’ defense and the floodgates opened.

After Joseph Paintsill’s goal in the ninth minute, Dejan Joveljic found enough space to take and miss a right footed shot on goal from outside the box in the 12th minute.

One minute later, Mark Delgado found Joveljic in the center of the box and Joveljic scored off a left-footed shot.

The Red Bulls are going to be forced to push for goals, a strategy shift that will likely favor the Galaxy.

Galaxy 1, Red Bulls 0, 8:53 on the clock in first half

In the ninth minute, Joseph Paintsil broke forward during a transition play and finally found a gap in the Red Bulls’ otherwise packed defense. Gastón Brugman dribbled up the center of the of the pitch and passed to Paintsil, who pushed home a right-footed shot from the center of the box and then celebrated by raising injured teammate Riqui Puig’s jersey to the crowd.

Before the goal, the Galaxy had won two free kicks, but struggled to find space in the final third and punch through the defense stacked in front of the Red Bulls’ goal.

Galaxy 0, Red Bull 0, 1:56 on the clock in the first half

As the match kicked off, MLS announced Red Bulls starter Andres Reyes was removed from the starting lineup due to illness and is ineligible for the match. Substitute Noah Eile replaced Reyes in the lineup and the Red Bulls did not add a replacement substitute to the bench.

Galaxy 0, Red Bulls 0, 18 seconds on the clock in the first half

MLS Cup has kicked off in Carson, with the Galaxy briefly gaining possession and driving toward the Red Bulls goal before turning the ball over.

The starting lineups are set for MLS Cup, with Gaston Brugman and Mark Delgado set to help the Galaxy offset the loss of Riqui Puig. Marco Reus is an option to come off the bench.

When Mark Delgado made his MLS debut, he was just 17 and even he acknowledges his approach to soccer was unsophisticated.

“Just being a young kid and running around,” he said.

Fortunately for Delgado, his team, the now-defunct Chivas USA, had a rookie assistant coach named Greg Vanney. And while Vanney could do little for the unfocused teenager in their season together, he remembered Delgado and made him the first player he acquired after taking over as manager of Toronto FC in 2014.

This is a story about how Gabriel Pec and the Galaxy got their grooves back.

For Pec, the Galaxy’s spectacular 23-year-old winger, the change started last February, when he left Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, the only team he had ever known.

“At Vasco there was a lot of pressure,” he said through a translator. “We had to tackle all the time. My passion is dribbling the ball, passing the ball, assisting, goals.”

To truly understand how far the Galaxy have come in reaching the MLS Cup final on Saturday, you first must know where they started.

The Galaxy headed into last season having lost more games than they’d won since 2017. They’d made the playoffs twice in six seasons and had gone a team-record nine years without playing in the league championship game.

Once the model franchise in MLS, the Galaxy had become a dysfunctional mess. And it didn’t look like things would be getting better any time soon.

Until he sustained a season-ending knee injury last week in the Western Conference final, Galaxy playmaker Riqui Puig was having a tremendous season.

So I heard.

I watched Puig play only twice this year, once in the Galaxy’s season-opening 1-1 draw with Inter Miami and a second time in his team’s Fourth of July defeat to LAFC at the Rose Bowl. Outside of short highlight clips on social media, I never saw the former Barcelona prospect, not even when he assisted on the goal that sent the Galaxy to the MLS Cup final that will be played Saturday at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Will Kuntz’s life changed with a letter.

He was a small-college basketball player at Williams College, an even smaller liberal arts college in Massachusetts, when he found himself alone in a dorm room flipping through the school’s alumni directory out of sheer boredom. On that list of former Purple Cows — that’s the school’s mascot, not a description of the alumni — was George Steinbrenner, then owner of the New York Yankees.

A light bulb went on.

“I wrote this cheesy letter, introduced myself and asked to be considered for an internship,” Kuntz remembered over a cup of tea 22 years later.

In a team sport no player is irreplaceable. But for the Galaxy, Riqui Puig comes close.

Puig, the playmaker and leader of one of the most potent attacks in franchise history, will miss Saturday’s MLS Cup final with the New York Red Bulls at Dignity Health Sports Park after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in last weekend’s Western Conference final with Seattle. He will undergo surgery soon and is expected to be out until next summer at least.

And that leaves the Galaxy searching for a replacement for their most irreplaceable player.

The most impactful player in Saturday’s MLS Cup final won’t even be on the field at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Riqui Puig, the dynamic midfielder who makes the Galaxy’s offense go, has been limping around the team’s training sessions on crutches this week after tearing the ACL in his left knee in the Western Conference final. And his absence from the Galaxy lineup will change the way both teams approach the game.

For Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, it means having to find a replacement for the team’s most irreplaceable player. For the New York Red Bulls, Puig’s absence will influence the way they prepare for the game.