by As Columbus Crew and LAFC prepare to meet in the 28th edition of the MLS Cup on Saturday, the showdown between the crown jewel of American soccer has come a long way since its inaugural final in 1996, contested between DC United and LA Galaxy on a rain-soaked field. in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
However, despite the unquestionable increase in quality of play, training and infrastructure that the league has witnessed since then, the first MLS Cup may never be surpassed for sheer entertainment.
Long before the seismic impact of Lionel Messi arriving in the United States and still more than a decade after David Beckham’s change of era in the league, Major League Soccer was formed in the wake of the 1994 World Cup hosted in the United States as the first American professional soccer league. since the dissolution of the NASL in 1984.
“It was kind of an early situation where everyone was trying to figure it out,” says Cobi Jones, the LA Galaxy winger who was one of the new league’s first stars. “When you talk about the Premier League and football in England, it has been around for hundreds of years. Major League Baseball has been around for more than 100 years. This was very new. The LA Galaxy expected between 15,000 and 20,000 fans for the first game. They ended up showing 67,000 people. “They were a little unprepared: they didn’t know the market, they didn’t know what to expect.”
Along with Jones, the Galaxy featured one of the league’s first star signings in flamboyant Mexican goalkeeper Jorge Campos and was coached by former national team boss Lothar Osiander. They raced to the top of the Western Conference, winning 12 straight games to open the season.
It was a different story in DC. Bruce Arena’s side won just one of their first seven games before a late-season turnaround saw them secure second place in the East.
“The team had started slowly,” remembers midfielder Tony Sanneh, a mid-season signing for DC. “Bruce was trying to sign me before, but the league wouldn’t pay me more. They had really strict limits on what they would pay people based on where they came from. It just didn’t make sense for me to move to a big city and lose money. Then they started losing. The more they lost, the more and more calls he received.
“[Arena] operates in a very competitive environment. You could tell right away that he was building winners. At the end of the season, our biggest competition was training.”
After beating the New York/New Jersey MetroStars two games to one in the first round of the playoffs, DC continued their momentum by sweeping the top-seeded Tampa Bay Mutiny in the Eastern Conference Finals. On the other side of the playoff standings, the Galaxy beat the San Jose Clash in three games before sweeping the Kansas City Wiz to set up a final showdown with DC in Foxborough.
When they arrived in New England, the DC and LA players found the Foxborough field flooded. Heavy rains caused by Hurricane Lilli threatened the MLS inaugural play.
“It didn’t occur to us [that out would be called off]”says Jones. “I think if it had been in the current era of the game, it would have been cancelled. There was a cyclone and a downpour on a field that was not prepared for football in that type of environment. It was a solid field and water was falling everywhere, which made it difficult to play.”
“The weather was bad, but normally you play in bad weather,” adds Sanneh. “It wasn’t until we got there and saw the state of the course that we thought it might be cancelled. We just had to keep going. The field was worse than we thought it was going to be.”
Initially, the Galaxy was better suited to adverse weather conditions. Eduardo Hurtado put the Western Conference champions into an early lead. Then, 10 minutes into the second half, midfielder Chris Armas broke through the DC defense and put Los Angeles ahead 2-0 with a low shot that slid across the soggy turf and into the bottom corner of Mark’s goal. Simpson.
“Going up by two, you think, ‘This is good,’” Jones says. “And it wasn’t just that we were two up. We were playing well too. It was a shame that some injuries occurred and some substitutions unbalanced everything, with the departure of Jorge Salcedo. He showed how much he was helping to win balls in midfield with Chris Armas and that when they took him off, things changed.”
It was one of Arena’s substitutions that had the greatest impact of all. Sanneh had been a regular starter at DC until he was injured late in the season. After returning to fitness, he was disappointed to be called up to the bench for the MLS Cup final. When he was called on to replace John Maessner after 59 minutes, he wasted no time in demonstrating why he felt he should have been on the pitch soaking wet the entire time, rising to head in Marco Etcheverry’s free kick in the minute. 73.
“Once we got to the final, Bruce said, ‘We’re going to play with the same lineup as the last game,’” Sanneh recalls. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute? “I played every minute, I got injured and I’m not going to get my place back.”
“For me, personally, I was very, very upset. It wasn’t until the day before the game, at the game, that my sponsor, Adidas, gave me a nice gift at the stadium. I just thought, ‘You know what? Life could be worse. I’m playing in the pros, I’m here, I’m getting free stuff. Just be prepared.
“When they brought me in, they just told me to go and make something happen, make a difference. I came in with energy. It was a beautiful ball from Marco and I was able to finish. “I’d like to think I helped change the momentum of the game.”
Jones almost regained momentum in the 78th minute, but his 30-yard shot hit the crossbar and sailed to safety.
“You always think they’re going to get in, right?” Jones says. “If you’re a good striker, you think every shot you make goes in. I was a little discouraged that it didn’t go in, but you keep playing, you keep doing your duty.”
Three minutes later, DC found the equalizer. Once again, it was a set-piece from Man of the Match Etcheverry that was the catalyst, with Shawn Medved scoring after Los Angeles failed to clear the initial free kick. DC were on the rise, but, as Sanneh remembers, they weren’t thrilled about the victory in regulation time.
“Our mentality, after having that big emotional boost, was to play to win the game, but that includes all aspects of the game,” Sanneh says. “That means not only scoring but putting ourselves in a position not to concede goals. We had new substitutes come in and we were making a difference. Our mentality was to win the game, but we didn’t take any risks to do so.”
The winning goal was about to come in the final minutes of the 90th, when Etcheverry’s shot from close range hit the post. However, United did not have to wait long for the goal that secured victory. Just four minutes into overtime, defender Eddie Pope, a future USMNT mainstay, rose above Curt Analfo at the near post to head another expert delivery from Etcheverry, this time from a corner kick, high into the net. Fields. With the now defunct golden goal rule in effect, the Galaxy had no right to reply. The match ended and DC was the first MLS Cup champion.
Pope ran to the bench, pursued by his teammates, and slid, face down, onto the rain-soaked field, giving MLS one of its first iconic images. Pope was still a student at the University of North Carolina, the same school where Michael Jordan rose to fame in the 1980s. Just two days after his MLS Cup win, he would return to school to perform at three exams. His Cup-winning header was perhaps the most impressive scoring effort by an active UNC student since Jordan hit a mid-range jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship victory over Georgetown.
“There were some kids in that first year who were finishing their studies,” Sanneh says. “The league was just starting and no one really knew what to expect. It wasn’t like they were paying people enough to give up everything.
“I just remember the joy. We had superstars on that team but we worked very hard together. In that group of 15 we were very competitive. Our younger players were less known. We were on the path to becoming world-class players. We loved challenging the big names. It was really good that we could all contribute to that game. He brought us all together.”
“Being up 2-0 and then losing the game with a golden goal, you remember all the moments when things could have changed, or when you could have changed things,” Jones says. “But you have to remember that you did the best you could at the time. It just didn’t work for us. DC had a great performance there, with Eddie Pope and Etcheverry with their delivery on set pieces. They beat us in a lot of situations where you would hope their team would have done better.”
