No team reaches the MLS Cup final, let alone wins it, without a dominant centerback who forms a solid partnership with the player alongside him.
Teams prefer to use the same duo as often aspossible, or swap out one of the two occasionally to form a three-man rotation. Occasionally a team can win by keeping its best centerback on the field and switching around his partner. A good exampleof this is the Galaxy, which while winning three titles since 2011 has used several different partners with U.S. international Omar Gonzalez.

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