LAFC Wins Wild MLS Cup Final After Bale’s Late Goal, PK Shootout

If you thought the 2022 MLS Cup final may not live up to the hype of featuring the league’s top two teams all season, think again.

Los Angeles Football Club defeated Philadelphia Union in penalty kicks 3–0 following a 3–3 draw on Saturday, but not before a series of dramatic events inside Banc of California Stadium.

After the match ended in regulation tied 2-2, LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau was given a red card for cutting off Union forward’s Cory Burke’s path to the goal in the 110th minute. The Canadian goalkeeper suffered a severe leg injury in his challenge to keep the Union from scoring as well.

Up a man, Philadelphia managed to find a go-ahead goal in the 124th minute as Union center back Jack Elliott scored his second goal of the game to give the club a 3–2 advantage. When things felt as though they were headed in Philadelphia’s favor, Gareth Bale shifted the tide. The Welsh star, who joined LAFC after a trophy-laden time with Real Madrid this summer, scored on a leaping header and tied the game at 3-3 to send the match into penalty kicks. The two goals were the latest in MLS postseason history.

In penalty kicks, LAFC’s Cristian Tello started off by being denied by Andre Blake. But from there it was all LAFC. The Union returned the favor when Dániel Gazdag, who had scored earlier in the match, skied his spot kick well over the bar, and LAFC broke through as Denis Bouanga beat Blake.

LAFC’s backup goalkeeper John McCarthy, a Philadelphia native and former Union backup who replaced Crépeau, then saved from both José Martínez and Kai Wagner, all while LAFC converted on its next two kicks—one from Ryan Hollingshead and the clincher Ilie Sánchez—the latter of which secured the club’s first MLS Cup. 

In doing so, LAFC became the eighth team to win both the Supporters’ Shield (most points in the regular season) and MLS Cup in the same season and the first since Toronto FC in 2017.