Yahoo Sports What is the MLS Cup and how does it work?
The MLS Cup is the championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top-flight football league in the United States.
The 29th edition will be played between Western Conference champions LA Galaxy and Eastern Conference champions New York Red Bulls. It will take place on 7 December 2024 at Dignity Health Sports Park, Galaxy's home ground in California.
The game kicks off at 21:00 GMT and you can watch it on Amazon Prime Video.
How is MLS competition structured?
MLS is unusual compared to most of the world's top-flight football leagues, in that there is a regular season followed by a post-season knockout tournament to determine the league champion.
The regular season involves 29 teams (including three Canadian teams) organised into the Eastern and Western Conferences.
The seven highest-finishing teams from each conference automatically qualify for the MLS play-offs, a knockout competition which determines the winner of the MLS Cup and, therefore, the MLS champion.
The teams that finish eighth and ninth in each conference face off in a wildcard match, with the winner also entering the play-offs.
The first round of the play-offs follows a best-of-three format, where qualified teams from the same conference meet. It is seeded, with the top seed playing the bottom seed and so on.
The first team to win two matches advances to the conference semi-final. From then on the matches are just a single knockout round, with the conference final following and then the MLS Cup final.
Who is playing in the final?
LA Galaxy are the most successful team in the competition's history, having won five titles in nine finals. In 2024, they finished second in the Western Conference behind California rivals Los Angeles FC – their best result since 2014.
They beat Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United and Seattle Sounders to reach the final.
New York Red Bulls will be bidding for their first MLS Cup title, having lost in the 2008 final, their only previous appearance. During the regular season, they finished just seventh in the Eastern Conference, becoming the lowest seed to contest a final.
They beat defending champions Columbus Crew, city rivals New York City FC and Orlando City to secure their final spot.
The 2024 final marks the first championship match between teams from the two largest metropolitan areas in the United States – Los Angeles and New York City. The last time the two sides faced each other competitively was in 2021 during the regular season when Galaxy won 3-2.
Galaxy have the home advantage for the final, as they finished higher in the regular season.
What's the prize?
The winner is of the MLS Cup is awarded one of the USA's four berths in the following season's Concacaf Champions Cup – the American equivalent of the Uefa Champions League.
However, the winner will not be competing in the Club World Cup, despite the United States hosting the tournament next year and one place being reserved for the home nation.
Fifa awarded this spot to Inter Miami for winning the 2024 Supporters' Shield, given to the team with the highest points total in the regular season. Inter were knocked out in the first round of the play-offs, losing to Eastern Conference wildcard side Atlanta United.
The only other MLS team taking part in the Club World Cup is Seattle Sounders, by virtue of winning the 2022 Concacaf Champions League.
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