32 mins: One corner begets another, then another – the latter on one that McCarthy probably should have caught himself.

Before the third corner is taken, one of the Nealis brothers is trapped in the penalty area. He sticks his hand into a defender’s chest and the defender falls as if he had been shot. A foul will not be punished.

And then a CHANCE on the equalizer as the ball flows back into the middle of the penalty area and Noah Eile gets solid contact but sends it straight to a grateful McCarthy.

31 mins: And now a second shot of the game for the Red Bulls, with Cameron Harper deftly trying to get it from a 45 degree angle between McCarthy and the near post. For a corner, McCarthy has to hit the ball back over the line.

GOAL!!! LA 2-1 RBNY (S. Nealis 28)

28 mins: Vanzeir takes a corner for the Red Bulls. Will they get their first shot in the game?

25 minutes: What a mess in front of the Red Bulls goal. Pec slides past Tolkin and fires a shot from a tight angle that hurts Coronel’s hands. The ball is cleared very poorly and Coronel has no easy way to reach it. Delgado misses.

24 mins: For the first time in a long time, the Red Bulls have managed something like an attack, but Garces is too quick for anyone to get a handle on him.

23 mins: The Galaxy play the ball back to keeper McCarthy. No Red Bull challenges him, so the 2022 MLS Cup MVP (who played for LAFC at the time) simply keeps the ball at his feet for a few seconds.

20 minutes: CHANCE! The free kick bounces off the head of a Red Bulls defender and then off the top of the crossbar. Corner.

19 mins: Paintsil commits a foul against Dylan Nealis. Possibly hard, possibly going down a bit quickly. Free kick from the edge of the pitch between the penalty area and the sideline.

17 mins: One OG Red Bulls/MetroStars fan isn’t confident there will be a comeback.

The ball got stuck in the Red Bulls’ half of the field. It’s safe to say the visitors are in a state of shock.

GOAL!!! LA – RBNY 2-0 (Joveljić 13)

GOAL!!! LA 1-0 RBNY (Paintsil 9)

9 minutes: If you can’t watch right now, you won’t miss much. But the Galaxy managed a long series of passes, albeit because the Red Bulls refrained from pressing.

And as I type this…

Peter Oh speaks up: “With a name like Coronel, the RBNY keeper has to have a good instinct!”

(A bit of KFC humor in case you don’t know it.)

Peter also asks what gig I saw last night. It was for a band called Randos and I had a very good view. I am the bass player. (And occasionally keyboardist, guitarist, singer and drummer.)

6 minutes: Dylan Nealis knocks out Paintsil to prevent the Galaxy from collapsing the old-fashioned way.

I would like to point out that I live near Route 1 and the traffic is consistently terrible. I’m not sure why anyone would try it at a football game.

3 minutes: Like so many youth teams whose games I manage, the Galaxy hesitate when it comes to throw-ins.

They pass the ball to Coronel, who passes to Lewis Morgan on Route 1, but Garces is there to take out the Scottish striker and is fouled for his effort.

2 minutes: Not exactly nice so far. Neither team strung together a significant number of passes.

Start

Officials…

REF: Guido Gonzales Jr. Experiences include the 2018 NWSL Finals.

AR1: Kyle Atkins

AR2: Logan Brown

4th place: Ismir Pekmic

VAR: Younes Marrakchi

AVAR: TJ Zablocki

RAR: Jose Da Silva

This is the 29th MLS Cup final. The Galaxy also played in the first. The weather was a little worse:

It’s time for the national anthem, in case you’re wondering why a game supposedly scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time hasn’t started yet. I don’t sleep. I probably should since I got home from a gig around 2:30 Eastern Time, but not with this game on the schedule.

Many Red Bulls fans have made the journey across the country (or happen to live a little closer).

Starting lineups

The Red Bulls counter with…

… people who are not that well known.

A club that had Tony Meola and Tim Howard in goal has now done so Carlos Coronal. Surely you all know him from his few appearances for Paraguay, right?

If you Do But Coronel knows he is capable of spectacular things.

The Red Bulls have not been short of stars for years since they were founded as MetroStars. Thierry Henry. Lothar Matthäus, Bradley Wright-Phillips, now on Apple TV. Juan Pablo Angel. Clint Mathis. Tab Ramos. Claudio Reyna.

Today is the main goalscorer Lewis Morganwho came to MLS via Inter Miami after an unproductive time at Celtic. However, sometimes players just thrive in the right environment, and New York (well, New Jersey, technically) was that environment for him.

Morgan is one of three players that Transfermarkt values ​​at €5 million. Another is the captain, Emil Forsberg, who scored 21 goals for Sweden in his long career. After a long run at the other Red Bull (Leipzig), he came to New York in early 2024.

Bold statement from longtime Galaxy leader Landon Donovan on Apple’s pregame show that the Galaxy’s offense – including Gabriel Pec, Dejan Joveljić, Joseph Paintsil and the unfortunately absent Riqui Puig – may be the best the league has ever seen .

Would you like to join in?

Yes, I’m with BlueSky. So if you don’t feel like writing a whole email, give me a call there.

preamble

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Graham Ruthven’s take on tonight’s final.