The Landon Donovan Era finally came to an end on Dec. 7, 2014 at StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.. Bruce Arena’s Los Angeles Galaxy won a record fifth MLS Cup with a 2-1 win over Jay Heaps’s New England Revolution in MLS Cup 2014. The torch has officially been passed to captain Robbie Keane, who scored a personal double by winning league MVP honors and MLS Cup MVP honors with a screamer in extra time.
As with the previous two meetings in MLS Cup, the match between the Galaxy and Revolution would be decided in extra time, and the Revs now claim the unenviable honor of being the first to five MLS Cup defeats without winning a single one. It was a day in American soccer history that no one will ever forget. Here are six things we learned, followed by player ratings, for the match between the Los Angeles Galaxy Football Club and the New England Revolution Football Club.
Dec 7, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes (11) celebrates as time expires in the 2014 MLS Cup final against the New England Revolution at Stubhub Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
1. The MLS Multiplex Discovers…the return of El Gyasinho!
Gyasi Zardes had been on a coldstreak for weeks in regards to his scoring form. In the 79th minute, after some adjustments by Arena at the request of Keane (a future club manager in his own right), Zardes finally broke through, scoring in the 52nd minute off a nice first touch, dribble and finish. That’s how you remove the Welcome mat, Gyasinho! Take a look.
“Robbie Keane suggested it at halftime,” Arena confirmed. “He should probably be the player-manager of this team. We had of loose balls, but probably needed to be a little bit cleaner in the final third with our passing, our runs. Moving Landon there suggested we could be a little bit better there. Having said that, Gyasi was very good playing in the midfield. The change helped us.
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“One would think if the game ended 1-0, maybe we’d say “eh, the game was nothing great.” But for us to get pushed like, it’s only right, and to see that we had the determination to win it out was tremendous. Again, got to give New England a lot of credit. They came in here with a plan. They are a determined, competitive group. Jermaine Jones is a real leader. It was a good battle. Maybe not the greatest game, but there was some drama involved. Maybe that’s good as well.”
“It feels amazing just to enjoy this moment with my family, which are my teammates,” Zardes said. “My teammates are my family this year, and it showed. Just for us to battle is wonderful, and just to score in a game like this when we really needed it, it’s amazing. It’s not just my goal, it’s our goal; this is all of us. I was very patient after my first touch, I was just ready for it, didn’t put my head down or anything and tried to get the shot off as quick as possible.”
Dec 7, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; New England Revolution player Chris Tierney (8) scores a goal against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the second half during the 2014 MLS Cup final at Stubhub Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
2. The MLS Multiplex Discovers…the resurgence of Chris Tierney!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Chris Tierney was able to force extra time off a solid sequence that was initiated by Jose Goncalves, the Revs captain, and Patrick Mullins.
“Great buildup,” said Heaps. “I thought Patrick Mullins did a nice job reading the play and did a great job to keep it alive and Chris did a nice job of finding the little gap and scoring a good goal.
“I think it was a good game all the way around. I really liked the way we came out and had close to 60 percent possession. That was key; we wanted to take it away from them possession-wise. I really felt it wasn’t our best game in the final third but I thought we dictated a lot of the game.”
Heaps was impressed, in particular, with Mullins’s play throughout the course of the season.
“We thought Patrick has been flying the last couple of weeks and we needed fresh legs up there,” Heaps said. “Charlie was getting beat up pretty good. And Patrick brings a different dynamic. I thought Patrick did a great job of battling and doing a good job of creating a little bit of space.”
“It challenged us for once,” said defender A.J. DeLaGarza of the Tierney goal. “A couple of times this year, we’ve gone after that first goal, and then given up another one after that, and lost games. That plays with your mind a little bit, but at the same time you are just trying to get the job done. We go into overtime, and once we scored that Robbie Keane goal there was no doubt in my mind that we were going to win.”
And that leads us to…the next slide.