And so, the MLS season comes down to Beckham vs. Beckerman, L.A. glitz vs. Salt Lake grit, Coach of the Year Bruce Arena and Most Valuable Player Landon Donovan vs. best-dressed player-turned-coach Jason Kreis and a bunch of Miami Fusion alumni.

The MLS Cup, at 8:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN, is one of the more intriguing final matchups in league history and will be played in front of a capacity crowd of 40,000-plus at Qwest Field in Seattle. Other than the gloomy forecast of rain and 40 degree temperatures, Seattle seems the most fitting host. The expansion Sounders drew a league-record average of 30,897 fans this season, almost double the league average (16,037).

The city is making MLS Cup feel like a big deal, going so far as painting the teams' logos on the 550-foot-high Space Needle.

League commissioner Don Garber is happy with the matchup, and admitted it's good having an icon such as David Beckham and U.S. star Landon Donovan in the championship match. This is the Galaxy's sixth time in the final, but first since Becks joined the league.

``Obviously, it's hard to say that you'd prefer one team over another and still keep your job as commissioner,'' Garber said in a conference call with media. ``But I certainly look at what other leagues have been able to achieve [when] their most popular teams in their largest markets with their largest fan bases get into their championships.''

He said the buzz around the game is proof the sport has made great strides in this country.

``The fact that you can go into a host site that isn't in the home of any of the two participating teams and have 40,000 fans come, probably sitting in the rain, and experience a celebration of our two best teams, I think that's a statement about where soccer has come,'' he told The Seattle Times.

Garber also praised underdog Real Salt Lake, which made it to the final with a losing regular-season record (11-12-7) and barely squeaked into the playoffs.

``I think it speaks to the concept of playoffs generally,'' Garber said. ``It happens in many other leagues. The [New York] Giants had a 9-7 record when they won the Super Bowl. I think it's important, particularly when you're in an emerging sport, to have the kind of competition that can create compelling sustained interest. . . . We believe that the Real Salt Lake story is a very positive one.''

Real Salt Lake joined MLS in 2005. The general manager is former Miami Fusion goalkeeper Garth Lagerwey, 36, the assistant coach is another former Fusion goalkeeper, Jeff Cassar and the roster includes former Fusion players Kyle Beckerman, Andy Williams and goalkeeper Nick Rimando.

Beckerman is the highest-paid player on Salt Lake with a salary of $160,000, a far cry from Beckham's annual salary for $5.5 million -- not to mention Beckham's endorsement money.

The Galaxy made headlines earlier this summer when Donovan criticized Beckham in a book The Beckham Experiment, which led to some locker-room drama upon Beckham's return from his sojourn with AC Milan. But the two patched things up and the team, which started 5-3-9, went 7-3-3 after Beckham's return.

Arena, a former U.S. national coach, did a great job smoothing over whatever tension there might have been between his two star players. He also got his defenders, Gregg Berhalter, Rookie of the Year Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin and AJ DeLa Garza, to step up.

Everyone is picking the Galaxy to win. Kreis even joked that maybe his team shouldn't bother showing up. Can the scrappy team from Salt Lake knock off the star-studded favorites? Tune in and find out.

NEW TEAMS ON BOARD

The Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore have joined the new professional soccer league that was announced last week, beginning play in the United States and Canada in April 2010. Other teams in the new league, a breakaway from the USL, are the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina Railhawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, Montreal Impact, St. Louis Soccer United and Vancouver Whitecaps. The league awaits approval from the U.S. Soccer Federation.

VOTE MIAMI

Miami will find out on Dec. 4 whether it is one of the 18 cities the USA World Cup bid committee has chosen to include in its bid for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Miami is among 27 finalists. South Florida fans are urged to go to www.usabid.com/miami and give Miami a vote of support. As of Friday afternoon, Miami was ranked 10th overall with 6,331 votes, and second in Florida, just behind Tampa (6,949). Orlando had 3,947 votes and Jacksonville 5,134.