Nine months of football comes down to one game.

LA Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, December 7 for the MLS Cup. 

Getty Images – Getty

For the Galaxy, it’s an opportunity to reclaim their throne as the best team in the country, a sixth MLS Cup in their sights a decade after they won their fifth.

The Red Bulls, meanwhile, will look to make their own history having never won the MLS’ biggest prize in their 30-year history.

After another dramatic weekend of action that saw the Seattle Sounders and Orlando City vanquished as the playoffs went from four to two, who are the winners and losers as the MLS season reaches its climax?

WINNER

Riqui Puig

While the Galaxy reached the MLS Cup in dramatic fashion as Dejan Jovelvic’s 85th goal proved the difference against Seattle, the success was tinged with sadness.

Providing the assist for that memorable moment will be the final act of Riqui Puig’s epic season, tests later revealing that the former Barcelona attacker had suffered a torn ACL during the course of the Galaxy’s victorious night.

So how is Puig possibly a winner when the course of his career has undoubtedly changed due to such a severe injury?

Because of the rare and truly special way that he handled the devastating blow. Only revealed after the game, Puig had played the final 30 minutes of the encounter against Seattle with the injury that will rule him out for many months.

Not only did Puig continue playing, but he even provided the assist that took the Galaxy to the brink of a title.

They’ll have to do it without their star player but they only have a chance because of Puig’s unique brilliance and newly-revealed toughness.

There’s no hyperbole in saying that Puig as a player is one of the best we’ve ever seen in the MLS and his 2024 season will go down as a truly special individual campaign.

His regular season saw him score 13 goals and supply 10 assists in 29 matches and he continued to carry this Galaxy team in the playoffs. He won’t play in the fifth game of the postseason but in the four he was available for, he managed a total of seven goal involvements – four goals and three assists.

It’s a gigantic loss for the MLS as a whole and fans of football but at least Puig went out as he played throughout 2024 – with brilliance and courage.

Now, a new task lies ahead for the 25-year-old. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, he sent a message to fans.

“Today begins a new challenge. I will be off the pitch for several months, but am already looking towards and motivated to return stronger than ever and ready to continue making history in this club,” he wrote.

“THANK YOU to everyone for your messages of support and love, they truly give me strength to tackle this recovery.

“I’m so proud of how hard we’ve fought to get here, and I know my teammates will give their all to bring the trophy home.

“Even though I can’t be on the field, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines with the same passion as always.

“Let’s go, Galaxy! Keep making us dream ”

LOSER

Seattle Sounders Ownership

It’s been another good season for Seattle. But semi-final defeats in both the US Open Cup and MLS Cup playoffs means that it’s only a good season. Not a great one.

Two-time MLS Cup winners, Seattle are perennial competitors but falling short has become all-too familiar for supporters.

Five times over the past eight years, they’ve reached at least the quarter-finals of the MLS Cup, reaching the final twice in that time but winning it all only once in that period.

Pretty much every other franchise would take that. Objectively, it’s a good record. But Seattle fans are frustrated because they see what could have been – or what could be.

This is a good team, a solid team, a truly decent team. But Seattle’s ownership has failed to turn it into a great team. While the MLS as a whole spends more and more to bring in increasingly talented players, the Sounders have taken a back seat in the arms race.

When they’ve tried, they’ve often failed. Most recently it was winger Pedro de la Vega who arrived for $7million. He was supposed to be the missing link to shatter the glass ceiling and take them over the edge. Instead, he’s disappointed.

Once again, Seattle find themselves close, but not quite there. One signing away perhaps but that feels like a common phrase for Sounders supporters.

WINNER

The MLS Script-Writers

While the Red Bulls have a chance at franchise history with their first-ever MLS Cup, the league as a whole has already made history.

It’s been a year full of twists and turns, with the playoffs marked by shocks rather than the biggest names cruising through. And the Red Bulls represent that more than anyone else.

Their success against Orlando City means that for the first time ever, a seventh-seed has reached the MLS Cup final.

Aided in part by other surprise results through the course of the postseason, the Red Bulls only gave themselves a chance by beating Eastern Conference second-seed Columbus Crew in the first round.

Columbus came into the playoffs as one of the more complete teams in the league and a real threat to win it all. But the Red Bulls had other ideas, winning the first game of the best-of-three series 1-0 before the second game ended 2-2 at the end of normal time.

With a rare chance to make some noise, the Red Bulls held their nerve and completed the giant-killing on penalties. Up next was the New York City rivalry and again, it was the Red Bulls’ night of joy.

Finally, this Saturday, they travelled to Orlando and kept another clean sheet, winning 1-0 to advance to the final.

The Red Bulls’ run comes with three clean sheets in four games and even more impressively, they’ve played three of their four playoff games away from home. 

They’ll have to do it again if they’re to claim the biggest prize, traveling to LA to face the Galaxy. But this is no fluke. We are seeing a team with a real touch of magic about them and it could lead to glory this weekend.

If they are to win it all, it would no doubt go down as one of the greatest – if not THE greatest – runs in MLS history at the end of a season that will be remembered for a long time.

While the MLS would have preferred Inter Miami in the final, this has been the kind of drama that many could have only dreamed of.

Congrats to the script-writers, you’ve outdone yourself this year.