The 2015 Major League Soccer season will come to an end on Sunday, with Columbus Crew SC and the Portland Timbers set to close the book on the league’s 20th campaign at MLS Cup.
They’ll be fighting for the biggest prize in the league: The Phillip F. Anschutz trophy. Made by Tiffany & Co. and consisting primarily of sterling silver, the trophy is a true beauty. It’s also got a host of unwritten rules connected to it.
Here are a few of those superstitions, as shared by players from around the league:
Jack Jewsbury, Portland Timbers (finalist in 2004 with Kansas City): "It’s not so much like the hockey players [where you can’t touch it until you’ve won it]. I haven’t been there since 2004, and I was a young kid out of college at the time; I probably didn’t realize how special it was to get to the final and I didn’t soak it in as much as I should have. I don’t know, I haven’t been there in a long time, and I don’t have any superstitions like touching it or anything like that."
Chad Barrett, Seattle Sounders (won in 2011 with LA Galaxy): "If I could touch it, I’d carry it all the way up until the MLS Cup Final. I don’t think the trophy has been around long enough for people to have superstitions about it or create stories about it. It’s still waiting to do that. All I know is, historically, 4-4-2 teams have won it.
"You might be nervous before, maybe thinking about it every once in a while. Maybe the first time around it’s a little bit different just because it’s silverware you haven’t won. Definitely when you’ve won it before, you know what it takes to get there. You know how to get there. You know it’s not easy. It’s well-earned. But once the game starts, it’s just soccer."
Todd Dunivant, LA Galaxy (won five times): "I probably wouldn't touch it [before winning], because I've heard that from other leagues, the Stanley Cup. At the end of the day, none of that matters. I think what does matter is not thinking about it before the game. The game's the important part.
“It's the Anschutz Cup. We have to win it, right? You know what? It could be a pile of turd, and I would love it. It doesn't matter to me [what it looks like]. It's the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter what it looks like.”
Kekuta Manneh, Vancouver Whitecaps (never won): "Actually, when I first came here I watched a Canucks playoff game and everybody was talking about growing a playoff beard. I tried doing that last year. I think I'm going to try that again this year. I might get a little bit hairy but I think I'm going to try and let my beard grow. … I want to keep that as a tradition."
Andrew Farrell, New England Revolution (finalist in 2014): “I think the guys like the facial hair, here. I think last year that helped us a lot, just kind of everybody on the same page.”
As for the trophy?
Dunivant: “It's the Anschutz Cup. We have to win it, right? You know what? It could be a pile of turd, and I would love it. It doesn't matter to me [what it looks like]. It's the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter what it looks like.”
Farrell: “Don’t touch it until you deserve it and earn it. I think that’s a big one. I don’t want to touch it or see it until we actually win it.”
Barrett: You might be nervous before, maybe thinking about it every once in a while. Maybe the first time around it’s a little bit different just because it’s silverware you haven’t won. Definitely when you’ve won it before, you know what it takes to get there. You know how to get there. You know it’s not easy. It’s well-earned. But once the game starts, it’s just soccer.
