MLS Cup 1996 was the inaugural edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer. Hosted at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, it was contested by D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 1996 season. The match ended in a 3–2 victory for D. c. United, with a golden goal scored by Eddie Pope in overtime that followed a second-half comeback for the team.
About MLS Cup 1996 in brief
MLS Cup 1996 was the inaugural edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer. Hosted at Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, it was contested by D. C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy to decide the champion of the 1996 season. The match ended in a 3–2 victory for D.C. United, with a golden goal scored by Eddie Pope in overtime that followed a second-half comeback for the team. The final match was played in heavy rain due to the proximity of Hurricane Lili, which also inundated the field. The MLS Cup had an attendance of 34,643 spectators, falling short of the 42,000 people who paid for tickets, and included a large contingent of traveling D. c. United supporters. The league decided on a playoff format to determine its yearly champion in a fashion similar to other sports leagues in North America. It also adopted an Americanized version of the game’s rules, including a 35-yard shootout to decide tied matches and a countdown clock to keep time. The inaugural MLS season was delayed to 1996 and consisted of ten teams organized into two conferences, divided between east and west. Each team played 32 matches in the regular season, which ran from April to September, facing opponents from the same conference four times and outside of their conference three to four times. The top four teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs, which were organized into three rounds and played from late September to October.
The winners of the Conference Finals advanced to the single-match MLS Cup final, which would be held at a predetermined neutral venue. The finalists also earned a berth in the 1997 CONCACAF Champions’ Cup and met in the semifinals, which ended in the victory for the Galaxy. The other finalist, RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.c., was instead given hosting priority for the 1997 edition. The 58,098-seat stadium was the home venue of the New England Revolution and the New Patriots of the National Football League. In January 1996, the league allocated U.S. defender and forward Salvador Raíz to D. C. United, which signed former University of Virginia coach Bruce Arena as its manager in January 1996. The last pick in the general draft was defender and defender Salvador Cúlmán, which was given the last pick and signed by the league in January 1997. The Galaxy signed defender and midfielder John Harkes, U. S. midfielder John Bolivian, and Juan Berthy Suverry and Marco Etcheverry to D C United. The two teams finished in the top two spots of their respective conferences, with D. C. United placing second in the East and Los Angeles atop the West. Both teams finished with a 4–1 record in the playoffs and shared comparable records during theRegular Season. The teams also had identical win–loss records in the first two rounds of the playoff, losing the opening match in the Conference Semifinals and winning the remaining four matches of both rounds.
You want to know more about MLS Cup 1996?
This page is based on the article MLS Cup 1996 published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
