This probably isn’t the ideal time to bring up the full scope of my occasionally fraught relationship with the New York Red Bulls (aka Red Bull New York, aka Metro), the local soccer team that I have supported since 2008. Suffice to say, this is the team that unlocked the fact that I could have a serious emotional connection to a sports team, for all the good and the bad that that implies.

It might help explain how I came to spend around 48 hours in Los Angeles this weekend, though. You see, the Red Bulls had made it to the MLS Cup Final for only the second time in their existence; hosting the game were Western Conference champions the Los Angeles Galaxy. And, spoiler alert for a game that took place last weekend, the hosts won 2-1.

Still, I’m very glad that I went. Most of that came from the fact that I traveled there to watch the game with friends, and the sheer “are we really doing this?” of it all had a charm. Also, LA taking an early lead aside, it was a fun match to watch, as well as being perhaps the best-officiated MLS game I’ve ever seen.

I haven’t been to a lot of other MLS stadiums, and it was interesting to see how Dignity Health Sports Park combined the look and feel of a soccer-specific stadium with the open-air architecture I tend to associate with California. It was nice; then again, you can probably do that a lot more easily in southern California than you can in the New York metropolitan area.

That said, I don’t think I’m ever going to complain about the price of a beer at Red Bull Arena ever again. Hoo boy, LA, those IPAs were not cheap.