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 as the Supporters Shield runner-up since the Seattle Sounders won both the U.S. Open Cup and the Supporters 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.
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.[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 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.[5]
Both the Revolution and the Galaxy are original MLS clubs, beginning play in 1996.[6] The teams had faced off in MLS Cup 2002 and MLS 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 the 2001 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 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.
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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]
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
Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).
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