MLS Cup facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
MLS Cup

Founded	1996
Region	Major League Soccer (CONCACAF)
Current champions	Columbus Crew (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	LA Galaxy (5 titles)
Television broadcasters	United States: MLS Season Pass Fox/Fox Deportes Canada: TSN/RDS International: Broadcasters

The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion.

MLS uses a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine its annual league champion, a method common to every other major North American sports league. This format differs from most football leagues around the world, which consider the club with the most points at the end of the season to be the champion; MLS honors that achievement with the Supporters' Shield.

A U.S.-based team that wins the MLS Cup is awarded one of the country's four berths in the following season's CONCACAF Champions League. The three Canadian teams of MLS can only qualify for the Champions League through the Canadian Championship—if any of them should win the MLS Cup, the Champions League berth tied to game is passed on to the highest-placed U.S.-based team in the overall regular season table that did not already qualify.

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.

Three trophy designs have been used for the MLS Cup: the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy from 1996 through 1998, a redesigned Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy from 1999 through 2007, and the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy since 2008.

Champions

The winner of Major League Soccer's MLS Cup, the final match of the MLS Cup Playoffs, determines that season's league champion. The playoff tournament is organized by the league at the conclusion of the regular season in a format similar to other North American professional sports leagues. The tournament is open to the top nine clubs of the Eastern and Western Conferences.

The first MLS Cup final was played on October 20, 1996. To date, the record for the most championships is held by the Los Angeles Galaxy with five cup titles. The record for the most championships lost is held by the New England Revolution, who lost the game five times during their history. The championship has been won by the same team in two or more consecutive years on three occasions.

Results

Records and statistics

MLS Cup titles

As of the 2022 season, a total of 30 teams have competed in MLS. Nineteen of these teams have appeared in a cup final, with fifteen of these teams having won the MLS Cup. In the table below, teams are ordered first by the number of appearances in an MLS Cup Final, then by the number of wins, and finally by alphabetical order. In the "Years of Appearance" column, bold years indicate a winning MLS Cup appearance.

MLS Cup finalists records in CONCACAF competition

For most of the league's history, the MLS Cup champions and runners-up have earned berths into the CONCACAF Champions League, though only U.S. teams are eligible to fill these slots. Canadian teams, even MLS Cup participants, must qualify by winning the separate Canadian Championship; as of 2020^[update], the only Canadian winner has been 2017 MLS Cup champion Toronto FC, who also won the Canadian Championship that year.

Key

• QR1 = Qualification First Round
• PR = Preliminary round
• GS = Group stage
• R16 = Round of 16
• QF = Quarter-finals
• SF = Semi-finals or Consolation match
• CON = Consolation match
• F = Final

Notes

Trophies

The Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, first version (1996–1998) and second version (1999–2007)

Culminating the championship, the winning team is presented with a trophy, known as the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy, named for the contributions and investment to American soccer and MLS by Philip Anschutz. Typically, the award presentation is held on a podium in the center of the field, where the league commissioner will award the team with the cup.

Before the actual award presentation, the finalists are awarded with silver medals with the league's logo imprinted on them. The champions are then presented with gold medals, before the trophy is handed to the winning team's captain.

In cup history, the MLS Cup champions have been awarded with three different trophies. For the first three MLS Cup finals, the winning team was awarded with the Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, named for Rothenberg's contributions to American soccer. The Rothenberg Trophy was a dark gold trophy that had two handles around a soccer ball, with the league's logo imprinted on the plaque. In 1999, the Rothenberg Trophy was redesigned with a soccer ball placed on a beacon. In 2008, the trophy was redesigned again to its present state and renamed the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.

Venues

Dignity Health Sports Park has hosted six MLS Cup finals.

In MLS Cup history, eight matches have been played in the Greater Los Angeles area (once at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, six times at Dignity Health Sports Park (formerly StubHub Center and Home Depot Center) in Carson, California, and once at Banc of California Stadium). Four markets are tied for having hosted the MLS Cup final the second-most number of times, with three matches each: the Greater Boston metro area (twice contested at Foxboro Stadium and once at Gillette Stadium, both in Foxborough, Massachusetts), Washington, D.C. (all played at RFK Stadium), Toronto (all held at BMO Field) and Columbus (all held at the Historic Crew Stadium).

Through the 2011 season every MLS Cup had been played at a predetermined site (i.e., announced before the playoff participants were known). On the day before the 2011 Cup, MLS announced that starting in 2012, Cup finals would be hosted by the participant with the highest point total during the regular season. As is the case with awarding the Supporters' Shield, if the two finalists are tied on points, the team with the most wins hosts the final. For example, at MLS Cup 2022, Los Angeles FC and the Philadelphia Union both finished with 67 points, but LAFC had two more wins and thus hosted the final.

Before the 2012 Cup and the change to awarding the final to the participant with the higher point total, only three teams played the match on their home field. In the 1997 MLS Cup final, D.C. United won the match in their home stadium over Colorado Rapids, RFK Stadium. The same occurrence applied in the 2002 MLS Cup final, where the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 1–0, in the Revolution's home stadium Gillette Stadium. As a result, the 1997 and 2002 MLS Cup finals drew the largest crowds in MLS Cup history prior to the 2012 change to the higher seed hosting. In 2011, the LA Galaxy won their 2011 MLS Cup match in their home stadium (Home Depot Center), 1–0, over the Houston Dynamo. The Galaxy became the second team (and first since D.C. United in 1997) to win the Cup at home.

After MLS adopted its current criteria for awarding the MLS Cup match, the first three Cup finals were won by the hosts. The 2012 MLS Cup saw a rematch of the 2011 Cup at the same site, with the Galaxy successfully defending the title with a 3–1 win. In 2013, Sporting Kansas City became the third team to win the cup in their home stadium (Sporting Park) when they beat Real Salt Lake in the penalty kicks, which was the longest shootout in MLS Cup history. Then, in 2014, the Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 2–1 at the renamed StubHub Center in a match that was also notable as the final competitive match for U.S. national team all-time leading goal scorer Landon Donovan. The pattern was broken in 2015, however, when the Portland Timbers defeated the Columbus Crew in the Crew's home stadium.

Through the 2011 season, MLS typically announced the championship location either prior to the start of its respective season, or even a few weeks into the campaign. For the 2011 championship, the league selected Home Depot Center in Carson, California, making it a fourth time the league's championship had been hosted at the venue.

To date, the coldest MLS Cup final was the 2013 championship game played in Kansas City, Kansas at Sporting Kansas City's Sporting Park where the temperature was 20 °F (−7 °C). The hottest MLS Cup final was the 2005 championship game played in Frisco, Texas at FC Dallas's Pizza Hut Park where the temperature was 75 °F (23 °C).

The 2010 edition of the MLS Cup was the first final in league history to be played outside of the United States. The match was played in Canada at Toronto's BMO Field, the home ground of MLS club Toronto FC.

Stadiums

Pizza Hut Park, now Toyota Stadium, hosted the 2005 and 2006 MLS Cups.

Italics indicate a stadium that is now inactive.

Most Valuable Player

Following each championship, a player on the winning club is awarded with the title of being the Most Valuable Player (MVP). Usually, but not necessarily, the winner of the award is the player who scores the game-winning goal, or sets up the game-winning goal. This is the case of the 2007, 2008, 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2020 recipients, who all scored game-winning goals, or assisted multiple goals for the winning side.

Exceptions to this occurred in 2000, 2009, 2016, and 2021 where the Most Valuable Player award went to goalkeepers Tony Meola, Nick Rimando, Stefan Frei, and Sean Johnson, respectively. Meola and Frei, with the Kansas City Wizards and Seattle Sounders FC, both earned shutouts for their respective teams in the cup. Rimando and Johnson made two saves in a penalty shoot-out to give Real Salt Lake the title over the Los Angeles Galaxy and New York City FC the title over Portland Timbers, respectively.

List of MVP award recipients

Year	Winner	Position	Club
1996	Marco Etcheverry	Midfielder	D.C. United
1997	Jaime Moreno	Forward	D.C. United
1998	Peter Nowak	Midfielder	Chicago Fire
1999	Ben Olsen	Midfielder	D.C. United
2000	Tony Meola	Goalkeeper	Kansas City Wizards
2001	Dwayne De Rosario	Forward	San Jose Earthquakes
2002	Carlos Ruiz	Forward	Los Angeles Galaxy
2003	Landon Donovan	Forward	San Jose Earthquakes
2004	Alecko Eskandarian	Forward	D.C. United
2005	Guillermo Ramírez	Midfielder	Los Angeles Galaxy
2006	Brian Ching	Forward	Houston Dynamo
2007	Dwayne De Rosario	Midfielder	Houston Dynamo
2008	Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Midfielder	Columbus Crew
2009	Nick Rimando	Goalkeeper	Real Salt Lake
2010	Conor Casey	Forward	Colorado Rapids
2011	Landon Donovan	Forward	Los Angeles Galaxy
2012	Omar Gonzalez	Defender	Los Angeles Galaxy
2013	Aurélien Collin	Defender	Sporting Kansas City
2014	Robbie Keane	Forward	Los Angeles Galaxy
2015	Diego Valeri	Midfielder	Portland Timbers
2016	Stefan Frei	Goalkeeper	Seattle Sounders FC
2017	Jozy Altidore	Forward	Toronto FC
2018	Josef Martínez	Forward	Atlanta United FC
2019	Víctor Rodríguez	Midfielder	Seattle Sounders FC
2020	Lucas Zelarayán	Midfielder	Columbus Crew
2021	Sean Johnson	Goalkeeper	New York City FC
2022	John McCarthy	Goalkeeper	Los Angeles FC
2023	Cucho Hernández	Forward	Columbus Crew

Players with multiple MLS Cup titles

At least 40 players have won two MLS Cups, mostly for teams with sequential or near-sequential titles (D.C. 1996–1999, San Jose 2001 and 2003, LA Galaxy 2002 and 2005, and 2011–2012, and Houston 2006–2007). Brian Mullan is the only player to have won the Cup with four different teams, while players that have won it with three different teams include: Craig Waibel, Alejandro Moreno, Ezra Hendrickson, and Darlington Nagbe.

See also

In Spanish: MLS Cup para niños

• MLS Cup Playoffs
• MLS rivalry cups
• Campeones Cup
• CONCACAF Champions League
• List of MLS Cup broadcasters
• List of MLS Cup finals
• List of MLS club post-season droughts
• List of MLS Cup referees
• List of MLS Cup winning head coaches