The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer. The game pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the Western Conference Final. A U.S. -based team that wins the Cup is awarded one of the country’s four berths in the following season’s CONCACAF Champions League. The inaugural MLS Cup was held on October 20, 1996, in which D.C. United defeated the LA Galaxy.
About MLS Cup in brief
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer. The game is held in early November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the Western Conference Final. The inaugural MLS Cup was held on October 20, 1996, in which D. C. United defeated the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy are the most successful team in MLS Cup history, winning a record fifth title in 2014. A U. S. -based team that wins the Cup is awarded one of the country’s four berths in the following season’s CONCACAF Champions League. Three trophy designs have been used for the MLS Cup: the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy from 1996 through 1998, a redesigned Alan I Rothenburg Trophy from 1999 through 2007, and the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy since 2008. The first few editions of the game were dominated by D.C. United, who appeared in the first four MLS Cup finals, winning three. The Kansas City Wizards won their first MLS Cup with a 1–0 victory over the Chicago Fire in 2000. The San Jose Earthquakes won their second MLS Cup title with a 4–2 score in a hotly contested match in a final that made it the highest scoring MLS Cup final in league history. The match also saw the rise of U.S. national Landon Donovan who won a Newcomer of the Year award and tallied the equalizer in the Earthquakes 2–1 championship victory. The 2003 final saw the New England Revolution go head-to-head with the Fire, and saw the two clubs that had the best regular season and post-season records at the end of the season.
The Fire won the match 2–0, and went on to win the Supporters Shield and MLS Cup the following year. This season was also the first time in MLS history that any MLS team won the regular season and postseason title in the same season. For the match, over 61,000 fans were in attendance at Gillette Stadium to witness the second period of sudden-death overtime, the Galaxy nabbed their third MLS Cup win in the final of the final against the Revolution. In the final, the Fire and Earthquakes, played for the second time, went head to head and the Fire won 4-2. The final was the first of a string of losses for the Revolution, and sparked the start of a long string of MLS Cup titles for the club. The Los Angeles Galaxy went ahead 2-0 early in the second half, but their lead was relinquished towards theend of the match when Tony Sanneh pulled one back in the 72nd minute. Nine minutes later, Shawn Medved tied the match at two, resulting in overtime between the two sides. The game ended 2-1 in United’s favor over Colorado Rapids, who would not win a championship until 2010. In 1997, the second league cup final was contested at RFK Stadium, where United won back-to -back titles, a feat that would not be accomplished for another decade.
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This page is based on the article MLS Cup published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 15, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
