LA Galaxy advance to first MLS Cup in 10 years with 1-0 win over Seattle in Western Conference final

CARSON, Calif. (AP) — Dejan Joveljic scored his fifth goal of the playoffs in the 86th minute and the LA Galaxy advanced to the MLS Cup final for the first time since 2014 with a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders in the Western Conference final on Saturday night.

The Galaxy will host the New York Red Bulls in next Saturday’s MLS Cup final. The Red Bulls became the lowest-seeded to play for the title with a 1-0 victory over Orlando City in the Eastern Conference final.

The Red Bulls were the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.

It will be a record 10th MLS Cup appearance for the Galaxy, who have won five titles. The Red Bulls are making their second trip after losing to the Columbus Crew in 2008.

“I’m super excited for these guys to lift a trophy but the objective is one week away. As one game ends, the anxiety for the next game emerges,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said.

Joveljic's goal was set up when the Galaxy intercepted the pass near the sideline. Mark Delgado got the ball and passed to Riqui Puig, who fed it to Joveljic at the top of the box. Joveljic then beat Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei with a shot to the near left post.

It was Puig's seventh goal contribution this postseason (four goals, three assists).

“I’m very happy and proud. This is the most important goal in my professional career,” said Joveljic, who has 20 goals across all competitions. “I knew the goalkeeper was going to make one step to his left. He almost made the save. I was a little bit lucky.”

John McCarthy made four saves for his eighth shutout this season across all competitions. Frei also stopped four shots. The Galaxy had a 13-8 advantage in shots.

“We did enough to not lose the game, but we didn’t do enough to win the game," Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan said. “What we saw tonight was what happened all year. We were struggling to generate chances.”

The Galaxy were the second seed in the Western Conference after not making the playoffs last year. They beat Colorado in two games in the first round and defeated Minnesota 6-2 last Sunday.

The Galaxy and Red Bulls did not face each other during the regular season.

This will be Vanney's sixth trip to an MLS Cup final. He made three with the Galaxy as a player and led Toronto FC to two as a coach, including a win over Seattle in the 2017 final.

AP MLS: https://apnews.com/hub/major-league-soccer

Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei walks off the pitch after a loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy in an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney celebrates after a win over the Seattle Sounders in an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Dejan Joveljic, right, celebrates his goal with midfielder Riqui Puig (10) during the second half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match against the Seattle Sounders, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy players celebrate on the podium after a win over the Seattle Sounders in an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Dejan Joveljic celebrates after scoring during the second half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match against the Seattle Sounders, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy defender John Nelson, left, heads the ball over Seattle Sounders midfielder Alex Roldan during the first half an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy defender Miki Yamane, right, shoots past Seattle Sounders forward Georgi Minoungou during the first half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy (77) stops a shot on goal during the first half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match against the Seattle Sounders, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Seattle Sounders defender Nathan, right center vies for a header against Los Angeles Galaxy defender Maya Yoshida, left center, during the first half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Seattle Sounders defender Jackson Ragen (25) stands on tue field after a loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy during an MLS Western Conference final soccer match, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

Los Angeles Galaxy forward Dejan Joveljic, left, celebrates after scoring during the second half of an MLS Western Conference final soccer match against the Seattle Sounders, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

NEW YORK (AP) — Lou Carnesecca, the excitable St. John’s coach whose outlandish sweaters became an emblem of his team’s rousing Final Four run in 1985, has died at 99, just a few weeks shy of what would have been his 100th birthday.

The university said it was notified by a family member that Carnesecca died in a hospital on Saturday surrounded by his family. St. John's said the Hall of Fame coach “endeared himself to generations of New Yorkers with his wit and warmth.”

Carnesecca was a treasured figure in New York sports in his day, affection for “Little Looie” never wavering in a city with scant patience for its players, coaches, executives and owners.

He coached St. John’s for 24 seasons over two stints — making a postseason tournament each year — and became the face of a university whose campus arena in Queens would eventually carry his name. A statue of him was unveiled before the 2021-22 season. When asked once in a question-and-answer session with the school to describe St. John’s, Carnesecca said: “home.”

It was home where he coached St. John’s to 18 seasons of at least 20 wins, and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. It was home where he finished with a 526-200 record and had 30-win seasons in 1985 and 1986. And it was home where St. John’s became a charter member of the Big East Conference and a pillar of its success.

He was the coach of the year three times in a league that began play in 1979 and quickly asserted itself as one of the nation’s best. Among his star players during those early Big East years were Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Walter Berry.

Carnesecca coached St. John’s to the NIT title in 1989, although by then the tournament had long been a poor cousin to the NCAAs. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, the year he retired.

“I never scored a basket,” he said at his induction, forgoing a sweater for a crisp suit. “The players did everything. Without players, you can’t have a game.”

He was an old-school coach, grounded in fundamentals. And through it all, Carnesecca was a swirling, kinetic presence on the sidelines, arms flailing, legs kicking, shirt tails flying, all 5-foot-6 of him curled in exasperation over a missed shot or agonizing call. But his antics never crossed the line into chair-throwing fury.

Carnesecca was simply consumed by his players, a love for a game in his marrow, a lifetime spent in schoolyards, beat-up gyms and big-time arenas. He loved the “smell of the sweat” and the “feel of rubber burning” when sneakers met a varnished floor.

He remained the consummate gentleman in a sport populated by outsized egos, fierce recruiting wars and a relentless pursuit of the next contract. Mike Tranghese, a former Big East commissioner, once called him “our soul and our conscience” and “one of the giants of the game.”

Carnesecca never took himself too famously. He always believed a rough loss should never get in the way of a glass of Chianti and fettuccini with a Bolognese sauce. He held clinics all over the world, making friends, offering toasts wherever he went. He was there with a kind word as well as a wisecrack in his breathy, raspy voice. His family tree may have gone back to Tuscany, but he could hold his own with the best of Borscht Belt comics.

“I don’t know if there’s anybody else in coaching like him,” longtime UConn coach Jim Calhoun once told the Hartford Courant. “Even if people hate the Big East nobody hates Looie. If you like basketball, you like Looie. If you like kids, you like Looie.”

Luigi P. Carnesecca was born on Jan. 5, 1925, the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up in Manhattan, in East Harlem, living above the grocery store and deli owned by his father. He took his heritage seriously, rooting for such New York Yankees as Tony Lazzeri and Joe DiMaggio.

After a stretch in the Coast Guard during World War II, he became the coach at his high school — now the longtime basketball power Archbishop Molloy. In 1958, he took an assistant’s job at St. John’s, his alma mater, where he had played baseball on a team that reached the 1949 College World Series, but not varsity basketball.

He worked for eight seasons under Joe Lapchick, the lessons about humility and hard work from the Hall of Fame coach lasting a lifetime. Carnesecca would later pass along to Mullin some advice he got from Lapchick: “A peacock today, a feather duster tomorrow.”

“I learned more when Coach Lapchick cleared his throat than I could have at any clinic,” Carnesecca said.

He succeeded Lapchick in 1965, the 20-win seasons piling up quickly. But after five years, Carnesecca was not immune to the siren song of the pros. He coached the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association for three years, Rick Barry among his players.

Years later, during a 1982-83 season in which his St. John’s team would finish 28-5, Carnesecca reflected on the pressure of college coaching and his time in the ABA.

“I lost 50 games coaching professionally — that was pressure,” he said. “I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. My mother could coach this team.”

His stay in the pros didn’t last long. Carnesecca knew that was not his natural habitat. He said he could give the same halftime speech only so many times. He returned to St. John’s in 1973.

Winning seasons followed in quick succession even though his city was no longer the recruiting magnet of generations past. Top high school players migrated south and west to campuses with gleaming arenas and didn’t need the commercial pull of New York to burnish their brand.

When asked why he didn’t expand his base in his search of players and venture beyond his city’s five boroughs, Carnesecca knew he had plenty of talent in his neighborhood. He took a subway token — now a relic from bygone generations — out of his pocket.

“That’s my recruiting budget,” he said.

By the 1984-85 season, Carnesecca and St. John’s captivated New York, a throwback to a time when schools like City College and NYU mattered not only in the Big Apple but across college basketball. The Redmen — their nickname years later changed to the Red Storm — played tough, pulsating games at a packed Madison Square Garden against Syracuse teams coached by Jim Boeheim, Villanova teams coached by Rollie Massimino and Georgetown teams coached by John Thompson and led by Patrick Ewing.

It was then the saga of The Sweater took hold. Over the years, Carnesecca would recount his baffling entry into the world of fashion time and again like an embellished family tale.

Essentially, St. John’s was getting ready for a road trip to Pittsburgh in January and Carnesecca was under the weather. The building would be drafty, and his wife thought it would be good if he wore a sweater. He found one that had been given to him by an Italian basketball coach. It was a brown pullover with broad turquoise stripes. It never made it into the pages of GQ.

“It is ugly, isn’t it?” Carnesecca said.

No matter. Mullin hit a winning shot at the buzzer, and the coach had his lucky charm. He stuck with the sweater. Along the way, St. John’s ended Georgetown’s 29-game winning streak and soared to a No. 1 ranking.

But there were also two lopsided losses to Georgetown during the 16-2 run with the sweater. He put it away, his luck exhausted with the pullover. He then went with a tan, snowflake number for the NCAA Tournament. St. John’s defeated Southern, Arkansas and Kentucky before a victory over North Carolina State in the West Regional final sent Carnesecca to the Final Four.

“When I’m going to my grave,” he said, “this I’ll remember.”

St. John’s headed to Lexington, Kentucky, along with two Big East compatriots — Georgetown and Villanova — and Memphis. St. John’s stuck with Georgetown in the semifinals, down 32-28 at halftime. But the Hoyas pulled away to win 77-59, holding Mullin to eight points.

“I think we tried everything,” Carnesecca said of Georgetown, which got upset by Villanova in one the sport’s great finals.

After he retired, Carnesecca was succeeded by a parade of coaches at St. John’s, Mullin among them. Even into his 90s, some three decades out of coaching, Carnesecca would make his way to The Garden when the Red Storm were there. His gait may have been tentative but his mind and wit nimble, the crowd roaring when the jumbo screen panned in on him. The coach was at home.

“It’s going to be very difficult to put the ball down, but the time has come,” he said at his retirement when he was 67. “There are two reasons, really. I still have half of my marbles and I still have a wonderful taste in my mouth about basketball.”

The school said Carnesecca leaves behind his wife of 73 years, Mary, as well as daughter Enes and son-in-law Gerard, a granddaughter, and a niece and nephew in addition to extended family.

This story corrects Carnesecca’s record at St. John’s in the fifth paragraph.

Fred Lief, a retired Associated Press sports writer, was the principal writer of this obituary. Former AP Sports Writer Paul Montella contributed to this report.

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FILE - Former St. John's head coach Lou Carnesecca speaks to the media after Rick Pitino was introduced as St. John's new basketball coach during an NCAA college basketball news conference at Madison Square Garden in New York, on March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Corey Sipkin, File)

FILE - Former St. John's men's basketball coach Lou Carnesecca smiles during a news conference to announce the hiring of his former player and retired NBA basketball All-Star Chris Mullin, on April 1, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)