The LA Galaxy may have put a real hurting on Real Salt Lake with a heavy 5-0 thrashing in the second leg of the Western Conference semifinals last month, but on Sunday RSL fans will be rooting hard for their Western Conference rivals.
Should the Galaxy beat the New England Revolution in the MLS Cup final (3 pm ET on ESPN, UniMas, UDN, TSN1 and RDS2), the last remaining 2015-'16 CONCACAF Champions League berth available to an MLS team goes to RSL.
Here's how the five berths are awarded:
(1) US Open Cup Champion: Seattle Sounders
(2) Eastern Conference Regular Season Leader: D.C. United
(3) Western Conference Regular Season Leader:
Seattle Sounders
(already qualified, replaced by LA Galaxy - 2nd in West)
(4) Top regular-season Canadian team (since Canadian Championship was postponed): Vancouver Whitecaps
(5) MLS Cup Champion:
New England Revolution
OR
LA Galaxy
(already qualified, would be replaced by RSL as team with next best record during MLS regular season)
If the Galaxy don't win MLS Cup, the fifth and final CCL spot would go to the Revolution, marking their first appearance in the competition since they played in the first edition of the newly formatted Champions League in 2008-'09.
In that last CCL participation, the Revs bowed out in the preliminary round to Joe Public of Trinidad and Tobago, 6-1 on aggregate. It was a series that concluded with a 4-0 second-leg home loss for the Revs at Gillette Stadium.
