MLS Cup Final Takeaways

Photo from Andy Mead of ISI Photos

For an extremely fun league, the final was a little bit of a drag.

And then suddenly, much like all of MLS, it became amazing and stupid.

New York City prevailed on a disgusting day in Portland to win on penalty kicks, but it likely shouldn’t have even gotten there.

Let’s start with the first goal.

Taty Castellanos helped put NYCFC in the Eastern Conference Final with a big goal in extra time over the New England Revolution, and then he almost gave it away due to a foolish red card.

But NYCFC survived New England, and then survived Philly in ugly fashion to make MLS Cup.

Castellanos, the golden boot winner in MLS for most goals in a season, was back.

And Portland seemed to forget that…

Should Steve Clark do better there with that save? Yeah, probably. It wasn’t the hardest shot to keep out.

But the main question has to fall on Portland for choosing not to defend the leading goalscorer in MLS.

In a tough game, a massive slip up had Portland on the ropes.

Ropes that they had no interest ever getting off of.

Until NYC made a mistake of their own.

Felipe Mora’s last second goal is an incredible moment for MLS.

It saved the season at the very last second in one of the greatest atmosphere’s in the league. It’s iconic.

But there is one thing the clip doesn’t show.

Steve Clark, the Portland goalkeeper, is not in frame, but he is out of his net.

Of course he is, Portland is down a goal and need one. But you also may notice that clip starts with a throw in.

That’s due to NYCFC kicking the ball out of play.

They kicked the ball out of play, despite numbers going forward and a goalkeeper out of his net.

They could have ran down and finished it off, or at least booted it down field where Portland would have go and retrieve it, wasting even more valuable time.

But they didn’t. They just got it out of play as soon as they possible could.

The result? Portland suddenly has life.

(It also should not have counted as there was clearly a foul, but this weekend’s theme was ignoring the rules for more dramatic endings if you notice the F1 race).

After 30 more minutes, MLS Cup went to penalty kicks.

Enter, Sean Johnson.

The NYCFC goalkeeper is one of the league’s best, but he doesn’t typically get the same acclaim as others.

He showed up in a big way during the shootout, saving the first two penalties.

The two penalties saved, one taken by Felipe Mora who scored the tying goal and the other by club legend and former league MVP Diego Valeri, weren’t tremendous penalties. But they were still hit with a lot of pace and forced Johnson into full extension.

Sean Johnson might not ever be up for the number 1 spot on the U.S. Men’s National Team like Matt Turner is, but Sean Johnson is MLS Cup MVP. Something Matt Turner doesn’t have.

New York City FC are MLS Cup champions.

Something that their rivals, the New York Red Bulls, don’t have.

Congratulations to NYCFC, and congratulations to Ronny Deila who after winning MLS Cup stripped down into his underwear and started doing push-ups in front of the away supporters.

I’m not going to link that one. If you want to see it you can go find it.