Dejan Joveljic’s goal beats Sounders, sends Galaxy to MLS Cup final

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

Wait long enough and the immovable object will eventually bend.

At least that’s what happened Saturday when Dejan Joveljic’s goal in the 86^th minute gave the Galaxy a 1-0 victory in the MLS Western Conference final before a sellout crowd of 26,327 at Dignity Health Sports Park. With the victory, the Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls, a 1-0 winner over Orlando City in the Eastern Conference final, in next Saturday’s MLS Cup final that will kick off at 1 p.m. PST.

“Tonight was a little bit about resiliency,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “It was about patience. It was about when things don’t go perfect, how do you continue to control the game? We were playing the best defensive team in the league who just doesn’t give up goals, right? They just don’t make mistakes.

“The fact that we had to work until the very end of the game to get the goal, that makes a difference.”

The result also capped one of the most remarkable turnarounds in league history. The Galaxy, who have lost more games than they’ve won since 2017, had just eight victories last season, finishing 13^th in a 14-team conference. This season they matched a franchise record with 19 regular-season wins, sharing the conference league in wins and points.

The last team to go from the bottom two rungs of the conference table to the MLS Cup was the Houston Dynamo in 2011, while the last team to go from an eight-win season to the league championship game was the Galaxy in 2009. Neither the 2011 Dynamo nor the 2009 Galaxy wound up hoisting the MLS Cup.

This team will get their chance to that in a week. At the final whistle Saturday, the players and coaches on the bench sprinted on to the field as if trying to outrun 10 seasons of mediocrity.

The Galaxy had just two playoff wins since 2016; they have four already this fall. And they celebrated that by piling upon a hastily contructed stage on the Dignity Health Sports Park turf, where AEG president and CEO Dan Beckerman received congratulations and the Western Conference trophy, which was quickly handed over to Galaxy captain Maya Yoshida.

Few in the sellout crowd left their seats until well after the celebration — largely because the win was not certain to happen coming into a game that offered one of the league’s most intriguing playoff matchups in years.

The Galaxy, who equaled a franchise record with 69 goals in the regular season then scored 15 more in three playoff games, were the unstoppable force. The Sounders, who gave up a league-low 35 goals in 34 regular-season games and just two more in three postseason matches, were the immovable object.

Seattle had a conference-high eight road wins this season while the Galaxy hadn’t lost at home, winning a franchise-record 13 games there. Clearly something had to give — and it finally did four minutes before the end of the regulation when a Seattle turnover near midfield launched the Galaxy on a lightning-quick counterattack.

Second-half substitute Mark Delgado collected the ball and sent it ahead to playmaker Riqui Puig, who slipped between two defenders and delivered a low through ball for Joveljic. The Galaxy forward, with another defender trailing in his wake, then one-timed a right-footed shot from the top of the box off the hand of diving Seattle keeper Stefan Frei for the only goal the Galaxy would need to return to the MLS Cup final for the first time in a decade.

“This is maybe the my most important goal in my professional career,” Joveljic said. “I saw the open space. I knew the goalkeeper was going to make one step to his left side, so I just shot it with 60% power. I mean, we prepared for this. I’m happy, but I’m not surprised.”

The goal may have come at a high price though, with Puig limping to the locker room afterward. Puig was in tears before he departed and at one point had a towel wrapped around his head as Vanney appeared to be trying to console him.

“I don’t know exactly what happened,” Vanney said. “It was right at the end of the game and next thing I know, he was kind of walking off the field. I don’t know exactly what the situation is and what happened.”

Puig was not made available to the media.

Well-traveled goalkeeper John McCarthy who made the goal stand up, making four saves in pitching just his second shutout since Aug. 24.

“We have a lot of special players on this team,” McCarthy said. “Not one player is going to win this game. It’s a true team effort.”

McCarthy, who spent the last two seasons with LAFC, is the only player in the league to suit up for the past two MLS Cup finals, coming off the bench to win game MVP honors in 2022, when LAFC won, and watching last year’s loss from the bench. But this game will be different. Not only will he be starting, but he’ll be doing so after welcoming a daughter, who was born late last Thursday night.

“My wife was an absolute champion and crushed it,” he said. “You have to thank the wife. I’m happy to have a girl part of the family, and we’re all really blessed for that, and to be part of the MLS Cup.”

Seattle’s best chances came late in the scoreless first half, with Jordan Morris escaping defender Emiro Garces in the penalty area then spinning to put a right-footed shot on goal that McCarthy saved in the 35^th minute. Four minutes before McCarthy tipped an Albert Rusnak free kick from the edge of the box over the crossbar.

On the other side, Seattle’s Stefan Frei became the first keeper to hold the Galaxy scoreless for as many as 45 minutes in the playoffs, extending that streak to 85 before a momentary lapse created the only opportunity the Galaxy would need.

“I’m super excited for these guys to be able to lift a trophy tonight, but the objective is still one week away,” Vanney said.

“No two roads to this point are ever exactly the same. And this group has created their own path and done what they needed to do to get there. Now it’s going to be about refocusing our attention and energies on the Red Bulls.”