MLS Cup Final – LA Galaxy vs RBNY are strong favorites with a home field advantage | OneFootball

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake of the coast of California today may have been a premonition for Saturday’s MLS Cup Final.

LA Galaxy who finished second in Western Conference have not won the MLS Cup since 2014. RBNY who finished seventh in the Eastern Conference have yet to win this prize and will be looking to change that in the MLS Cup Final.

SOURCE – LA’s Stadium will host the final

The betting markets see LA Galaxy with a 68% chance (at time of writing) of defeating RBNY. And RBNY have a slim chance at 32% – looking at their form in the playoffs you can see why. The odds are definitely in LA Galaxy’s favor for the MLS Cup Final.

The MLS Western Conference was decided on goal difference. And despite scoring the most goals, LA Galaxy’s defense proved to be too weak and could not get them over the line to win the West Coast Conference.

LA Galaxy finished 2nd on goal difference.

RBNY drew too many games

RBNY on the other side of the country finished in seventh place. Despite conceding the same numbers of goals as LA, they could not close out their games. Only two other teams in the Eastern Conference lost less games then them, however, 14 ties meant they dropped a lot of points as they did not score enough goals.

Galaxy on the other hand have had no problem scoring goals in the playoffs – four of their forwards scored four goals in four games each. And they will be hungry for more in the MLS Cup Final in front of their home fans.

Source – Riqui Puig has been banging in the goals

Maybe RBNY has a chance – their elegant midfielder Felipe Caballo has been is great form and has scored twice in the playoffs to get RBNY to the finals and will be ready for his team’s biggest match in their history, the MLS Cup Final.

Uruguay Felipe Carballo can shake LA

Head to Head

To make this even more interesting both teams have beaten each other 21 times and tied 9 times. That’s right – they each won 21 times and lost 21 times. However, the last time these two teams met was back in 2021 with LA winning 3-2.

RBNY’s New Head of Football

There will also be a keen new team member watching this final. Jurgen Klopp. That’s right – JURGEN KLOPP. Liverpool’s former coach who recently announced that he will take a new role as Head of Football for the Red Bull Soccer Teams in January.

He will be responsible for scouting and recruitment as well overseeing the strategic vision, supporting individual sporting directors in advancing the Red Bull philosophy across all of their soccer teams: RB Leipzig (Germany), Red Bull Bragantino (Brazil), FC Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) as well as Red Bull New York.

Source – Jurgen Klopp will be watching

Time to Make Some Money

The conventional wisdom with the betting markets would suggest that the only bet here is to back LA. However, as you know us Hooligans love an underdog, so I am going to back RBNY to get their first MLS Cup Final win.

Yes, LA have the form, the goals, the home team advantage, the pedigree of winning this competition, the history and the belief they will win…

However, RBNY have overachieved in the playoffs and I have seen too many times the favorites be overconfident and not perform on the day.

So, I am backing RBNY. Sorry, The Qooligan – I have changed my position since the last time we spoke on our podcast.

RBNY have nothing to lose and as long as their solid defense stays solid and keep the Galaxy attack contained, I see Carballo scoring the winner and delivering the MLS Cup Final title to usher in a new era as Klopp takes up his post.

Prediction: RBNY to beat LA Galaxy 1-0 with a 193% return on my money down!