On Saturday, the MLS will see its 29th edition of MLS Cup Final. As the headline states, it will be the Western Conference Champions, La Galaxy, taking on the Eastern Conference Champions, New York Red Bulls. Reviewing each team, let’s take a look at their strengths and weakness heading into this monster clash.
The Galaxy continue their dominant run throughout the post season. This time, they put no doubt they can beat anybody. Last Saturday, the Galaxy took down the Sounders by a score of 1-0. While the game looked fairly even on paper, the G’s were in full control seemingly all game long, and found a winner through striker Dejan Jovelic with 5 minutes to go in regulation. However, the party was soon cut short, as just hours later Galaxy fans were made aware that star player Riqui Puig would miss MLS Cup Final due to an ACL tear he suffered in the match against Seattle. The Galaxy’s biggest strength is within their midfield, Riqui sets up the players like Pec and Paintsil who go and make the magic happen themselves. Undoubtedly their biggest weakness going into this match is the loss of Riqui. This now means that it falls on the shoulders of German and former Dortmund player, Marco Reus, to step up and make an impact.
The Red Bulls have been on a Cinderella run this postseason. Beating the Columbus Crew in both of their matches against them, taking down rivals New York City, and holding on to edge out a narrow 1-0 win over Orlando, in Orlando’s own backyard. The Red Bulls greatest strength this post season has been in their defense and primarily in goalkeeper Carlos Coronel. The shot stopper has kept 3 clean sheets in 4 games in the Play Offs so far, and stepped up big in a penalty shootout in Game 2 of the first round. However the biggest weakness for the Red Bulls comes within their lack of offense. Against a Galaxy team like this who is going to be hungry for goals, there is only so much your defense can do, and the Red Bulls are going to need to find some form of attack to put goals past McCarthy and stay in this match.
Prediction: I said once the Galaxy knocked out the Rapids and I’m going to say it again, the Galaxy are winning MLS Cup… or at least that’s what I would have said had Riqui not been out for this game.
Score Prediction:
La Galaxy 1-3 New York Red Bulls
While the Galaxy are on paper the better team, they are now going to have to rely on an old Marco Reus to run the midfield. I just don’t see this Galaxy team winning without Riqui, while they may have other great offensive pieces, Puig is arguably their most important. We will see what happens in just a couple of hours.