The 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs will soon begin with the reigning Supporters' Shield champions the favorites to take home the championship in December.
The record-breaking Inter Miami side that set collected 74 points in 34 matches will hope to become the latest team the lift MLS Cup and make it two trophies in the 2024 season. The south Florida side already clinched the Supporters' Shield title earlier in the season after a 3–2 road win over reigning MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew and is in search of its first-ever MLS Cup title.
The Herons are one of the favorites, if not the outright favorite, to win MLS Cup with their star studded squad containing players like Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suárez. Suárez and Messi are both Landon Donovan MVP candidates while Busquets and Alba have shored up the defensive end while helping out occasionally in the final third.
While Miami has an incredibly talented squad with decent depth, history has shown that it's been rather difficult for the Supporters' Shield winners to go on to win MLS Cup.
MLS Teams to Win Supporters Shield and MLS Cup in The Same Season
Over the last 10 MLS seasons, only two team have gone on to win MLS Cup after lifting the Supporters' Shield near the end of the regular season.
In 2023, FC Cincinnati came close to reaching MLS Cup but fell in extra time to the Crew in the Eastern Conference finals. The last team to win both MLS Cup and the Supporters' Shield was LAFC in 2022 when European legends Gareth Bale and Giorgio Chiellini were in the squad.
New England Revolution had the previous MLS single-season points record in 2021 with 73 points before Miami surpassed it this season but it couldn't lift MLS Cup that year. Philadelphia Union were the best regular-season team in 2020 but also came up short in the postseason.
LAFC also won the Supporters' Shield in 2019 but were unable to holding on for MLS Cup glory in the playoffs. The same can be said for New York Red Bulls in 2018 and 2015, FC Dallas in 2016 and Seattle Sounders in 2014.
Toronto FC is the only other team outside of LAFC to have won both trophies in the last decade. The Reds won both the 2017 MLS Cup and the Supporters' Shield under then head coach Gregg Vanney, who's now in charge at LA Galaxy. Toronto hope to return to relevancy in MLS under new boss John Herdman after missing the postseason for the fourth consecutive time in 2024.
While recent history suggests Miami might come up short in the postseason, it still has one of the best coaches in the league in Gerardo 'Tata' Martino and the greatest player of all time in Messi as it aims to become just the third team in over a decade to win both trophies.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Which MLS Teams Have Won the Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup in the Same Season?.
