This format differs from most soccer 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.

[6][7] The Galaxy went ahead 2–0 early in the second half, but their lead was relinquished towards the end of the match when Tony Sanneh pulled one back in the 72nd minute.

The match also saw the rise of U.S. national Landon Donovan who won a Newcomer of the Year award and tallied the equalizer in the Earthquakes 2–1 championship victory over the Galaxy.

Until 2005, the MLS Cup championship games had been dominated by clubs that had either won or had come close to winning the Supporters Shield.

First worn by Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006, following their 2005 MLS Cup title,[12] the Houston Dynamo wore the same triangular scudettos in 2007 and 2008 during their dual-cup run.

Finally, the Los Angeles Galaxy wore the scudetto after winning the MLS Cup in 2011, ironically, it was the last team to do so.

The infamy gave the club the title of being the Buffalo Bills (an NFL American football team) of MLS.

Ramírez's goal sealed the Galaxy's second MLS Cup title, and left the Revs searching once again.

The Western Conference regular season and postseason champions, Los Angeles Galaxy took on Real Salt Lake, who finished fifth in the West.

In the 41st minute, Galaxy striker Mike Magee scored, only for Salt Lake's Robbie Findley to make the tying goal in the 61st.

The only final that the Galaxy did not win, came in 2013, where they lost in the 2013 Western Conference semi-finals to eventual runner-up, Real Salt Lake.

These teams contained several high-profile players including Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Gyasi Zardes, David Beckham and Omar Gonzalez.

Some claim that the Galaxy's dynasty began in 2009, when they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and marched to the finals, only to lose on penalties to Real Salt Lake.

Salt Lake defeated the Galaxy, 2–1 on aggregate, to advance to the MLS Cup final, where they eventually lost to Sporting Kansas City.

The Sounders, despite a very poor start and mid-season managerial change, became the second team from the Pacific Northwest to win the cup, after Portland in 2015.

In the 2017 MLS Cup, Toronto FC and Seattle faced off in a rematch of the previous edition, also at BMO Field.

[16] Atlanta United FC, in their second season as an expansion team, won the 2018 edition of the MLS Cup by defeating the Portland Timbers 2–0.

[17] The club became the second-youngest to win an MLS Cup, behind the 1998 Chicago Fire, and brought the first professional sports championship for the city of Atlanta since 1995.

UniMás will air two exclusive playoff matches, while ESPN and its affiliated networks will split the rest of the contests – including MLS Cup – with Fox Sports.

[34] The new format was assembled so that the lowest seed to qualify out of the wild card rounds will play against the Supporters' Shield winner.

Finally, the MLS Cup was held at the home field of the finalist with the highest point total during the regular season.

[45] For most of the league's history, only U.S. teams were eligible to fill MLS based qualification slots for CONCACAF competitions.

Columbus, Ohio is alone in second place having hosted MLS Cup final 4 times (3 held at the Historic Crew Stadium and one at Lower.com Field).

[47] 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.

[53] 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).

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.

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).