MLS Cup Playoff Takeaways: Round 1
Photo from ESPN
The MLS Cup playoffs have officially started, and they were pretty stupid!
Here’s what we learned from round 1.
Philadelphia Union defeat New York Red Bulls 1-0
This game was the beauty of soccer.
It was awful. I mean the game itself was absolutely terrible.
But at the last second, right when you think it’s headed to penalty kicks after 123 minutes of pain and suffering, this happens.
This is the third time Jakob Glesnes has scored a goal like that in the past three years.
The man is a legend.
#BangersOnly
Sporting Kansas City defeat Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1
SKC backed their way into the postseason and Vancouver was red hot.
This had upset written all over it, and it felt like SKC knew that too.
Because they did not mess around.
Vancouver controlled the game, but SKC sat back prepared to counter and, crucially, made their moments count.
New York City FC defeat Atlanta United 2-0
The second half Atlanta had against NYCFC was terrible and they deserved to lose.
The defense completely shut off for the second goal, the midfield got overrun and Josef Martinez was hardly involved.
You probably aren’t going to win like that.
Portland Timbers defeat Minnesota United 3-1
And if Atlanta’s second half was bad, Minnesota’s was about 10 times worse.
After an early lead, the Loons fell apart and let Sebastian Blanco control the game for Portland, including letting him absolutely walk down the field and score a wonderful goal.
Not a great strategy!
Portland on the other hand looked great, and with a lack of star power in Colorado they could easily go to Denver and pull off an upset later today.
Nashville SC defeat Orlando City SC 3-1
Hany Mukhtar is unreal.
He’s the MVP candidate a lot of MLS fans may not pay attention to, because Nashville doesn’t exactly play the most exciting brand of soccer.
But it’s effective, and it’s even more effective when Hany plays like he did on Tuesday night.
The guy is unreal, and if he stays hot Nashville could find themselves in the conference finals.
Real Salt Lake defeat Seattle Sounders 0-0 (6-5 on penalty kicks)
There is a beauty and an ugliness to single leg playoff games.
The beauty are wild games like LAFC vs LA Galaxy in 2019 or Seattle vs Dallas in 2019 where both games finished at 4-3.
The ugliness came out on Tuesday night.
Salt Lake was down one of their best players due to Covid. They were on the road, against a team far more talented than they are.
RSL did not take a single shot throughout the entire 120 minutes.
No, I did not say they did not take a shot on goal. They didn’t take one shot.
At all.
They sat back and said “Ok Seattle, break down our defense. Let’s see what you got.”
Seattle had nothing.
Of the Sounders 21 shots, only 3 were on target, and none challenged RSL goalie David Ochoa at all.
RSL played for penalty kicks, got there, and won.
It’s ugly, it’s not particularly exciting, and it’s a snatch and grab win.
But it is a win, and it’s a deserved one with how well they stymied a potent Sounders attack.
