As a foreigner, it's really, REALLY delightful to see the passion and support for the clubs in the MLS recently. In the past, I thought MLS was a retirement league for big time players, and that Americans didn't care much about football at all. However, after the 2014 World Cup, I've noticed that football(well, SOCCER for you guys maybe?) got increasingly popular in the States. Also it's really good to see some new young talents from the USA and MLS. Sure, watching big time players play in the USA before retirement could be good for business, but I think developing young talents like Pulisic, Davies(yes he is Canadian but he started in the MLS iirc), Dest, McKennie and Weah, is gonna be better for the MLS AND American soccer overall in the long run.
MLS is pulling in a lot of talent from clubs in Central and South America that don’t have the money to hang on to their best players. They aren’t at the point where they’re picking off top players from Brazil or Argentina (at least not regularly) but there are plenty of good young players coming in. I think that’s really been the main reason the quality of play in MLS is increasing. The homegrown talent is better too, but that alone wouldn’t explain the jump in the last 5 years or so.
Congrats to RSL for an epic run through the playoffs. And a big congrats to the Portland Timbers. What a year they had, fighting through injuries, defensive fails and all the rest. They finally have a cup final in Soccer City USA. RCTID since 1975!
@@cosmosdart4000 you must have misinterpreted which city I referred to as Soccer City. Of course it's Portland. I was there when the title was given, went to the Timbers games in 1975 when at first there were 5,000 people in the stands and I stormed the field a few months later when over 30,000 people watched the Timbers defeat the Sounders in sudden death overtime. You are absolutely right, Portland is Soccer City USA. End of Story.
santiago moreno put in a hell of a game his goal was amazing and just the challenges he made were something we have been missing in the portland midfield
Good game Portland, from a Seattlite and Sounders fan. Despite the intense rivalry between us, it's nice to see the PNW continue Western Conference dominance. Enjoy MLS cup at home
I love sitting in the back row. Cheap tickets and I don’t have to sit down. I can yell all I want and get my section fired up. So happy we got the win. Midfield did absolutely incredible today. Paredes and Moreno popped off
Not sure I’d go with “Perfect.” Some beautiful opportunities by the Timber’s were flubbed by impatience and miscommunication. Great result, but they have to be sharper in the Cup final.
Today teams have their own life stories. Real Salt Lake are heroes and the Portland Timbers are tough champions. Thanks to the Fans and Players for the spectacular performance in the West Finals.
Line Up Portland Timbers S. Clark 12 (GK) J. Van Rankin 2 L. Mabiala 33 D. Zuparic 13 C. Bravo 5 D. Chara 21 C. Paredes 22 M. Loria 44 Y. Chara 23 S. Moreno 30 F. Mora 9 Real Salt Lake D. Ochoa 1 (GK) A. Herrera 22 J. Glad 15 M. Silva 30 A. Brody 2 N. Besler 13 P. Ruiz 6 A. Julio 29 D. Kreilach 8 A. Rusnak 11 R. Rubin 14
*Portland Timbers on fire this season 🔥* *Its going to be interesting seeing them play against Philadelphia or NYC cause they're also doing really good*
Why is the Northwest region as Oregon and Washington so crazy about soccer? I mean that's good, really good :) Once a guy from Seattle said here in the MLS comment section that sometimes he's watching more people wearing Sounders shirts than Seahawks ones. Wow.
We don’t have many other tier 1 sports. PNW only has Sounders, Timbers, Kraken, Seahawks, and Trail Blazers. Because of this, the only rivalry (besides college sports) is Timbers and Sounders.
Who can afford pro-basket ball or football games, the tickets are crazy expensive. Most people can afford a Timbers, Sounders game... oh yes and that team in Vancouver that hasn't been keeping up its end of Cascade dominance of MLS
adding onto what gcarsk said, portland has a nba team and seattle doesnt, seattle has a nfl team and portland doesnt, so mls is the place where we take out our hatred for each other as cities lol. the timbers/sounders rivalry is one of the main driving forces for the passion among fans- even if neither team makes it to the cup, if we beat sounders in ranking thats a win for us
Thank you Portland. I was so worried about an NYCFC-RSL final at Yankee Stadium, especially with Philly’s recent Covid outbreak. Portland winning tonight ensured that the MLS Cup won’t be there, regardless of who wins tomorrow (that is, if there even is a game tomorrow). RSL, you guys had an amazing run. It’s a shame that it came to an end like this, but watching your Cinderella run to and during the playoffs was something special. But nonetheless, Portland is hosting the MLS Cup. They showed it during the broadcast, but the Western Conference winner has been either Seattle or Portland every single year since 2015. In a league that’s based on parity, that’s a pretty insane stat honestly, especially given that Seattle and Portland have one of the fiercest derbies not just in MLS, but perhaps the entire planet. And last but not least, David Ochoa LOL 3:54. Portland, thank you again for shutting him up. This punk just got dos-a-cero’d, now he’s truly ready to play for L Tri ;)
@@bulletproofman323 only saying that cuz he switched to Mexico cuz it would’ve been a different story if he stay with the US but I’m not even talk about cuz your going to denied it
RSL had a great run through some very strong teams, beating them on their own home field. It just came down to the fact that the team couldn't out play the Timbers and the RSL coach couldn't out coach Savarese. And then there was the Timbers fans. RSL can hold their heads up high, they had a great year. Congratulations
As an RSL fan, good game. We may have lost but im just glad we got to where we got given our season. Ive always had mad respect for Portland and wish em best of luck in the finals!
Timbers were first Cascadia club to win MLS Cup in 2015. Now in 2021 they are the first Cascadia club to play MLS Cup on their home field & possibly hoist MLS Cup in front of their home supporters.
What about 2019? Seattle played, and won, MLS cup at Century Link Field (now Lumen) against Toronto FC. That makes Portland the second Cascadia team to host MLS Cup.
Let’s be completely fair to rsl. They have no owner they have an interim manager, they clinched the playoffs narrowly, won an upset against Seattle and Kansas City, all while playing away from home every time. And they got this far. Congratulations real salt lake.
From what I found from the rule book, that 2nd goal should be counted as an own goal. MLS awarded an own goal to GK James Pantemis of CF Montreal for the exact same situation
David Ochoa represented the United States at the U 23, U 20, U 18, and U 16 levels - He was called up by Gregg for the senior squad last year. Despite being born in the US, living in the US, making a living in the US on a MLS team, and most likely being one of many young American MLS'rs to make the jump to Europe, Ochoa decided to make his one time switch to play for Mexico. Seeing him lose tonight was satisfying to me.
Bro you gotta chill and understand that he has Mexican roots inside of him, it’s who he is. Do you expect him to forget and ignore his heritage? I’m sure he’s grateful for what he’s been given but you shouldn’t be mad or frustrated that he chose the country where his roots are from
Great run from RSL, I really kept an eye on them since decision day. Fun fact: they were the only team in the playoffs this year that made it to the second round that wasn’t seeded 1st-4th. Honestly, it’s kinda sad seeing 5/6 of those first round games go to the bigger team (maybe exceptions for NYC v Atlanta since Atlanta could be argued the bigger team despite a worse season).
Unreal scenes on the sidelines with Blanco,etc. egging their companepros on until the end. Considering how up-and-down things have been this season, super-happy to reach MLS Cip on a high, hosting at that
Funny how the team that was supposed to mainly defend and try to maybe score a goal due to some error from the defence was the one who was on the back end of those two awful goals
Congrats. I really like the Timbers and the Atmosphere. However slight above average teams should not be called " league champion" at the end of a season. A cup is a cup. A league champion is a league champion.
Great stuff! Congrats to Portland! So... this MLS Cup is the league title, right? You do it your way, with a regular season followed by playoffs... I think it's harsh on the teams having to play so many games...
Ugh... Rodolfo Landeros was on the sidelines for this one and did an _AWFUL_ job. Katie Witham should have been on there. They didn't even acknowledge her in the final sign-off for the season, either.
It's NYC best chance to win a championship! Let's be honest they gonna play a Philly side that is missing pretty much all there starts and will have there goal scorer back for the finals ! They also will be playing a weakend Portland side! No Blanco and no asprilla !
@@cornerclick1469 regardless of if blanco feels hes fit i dont think he should play we played so well with mora and moreno today i say we dont take a chance
Their center backs actually had a decent game. It was their right-back and defensive midfield that let them down. Herrera was a disaster and their midfielders were like traffic cones just watching the Timbers run by them every time they raced up the field.
European fan here - it's sometime tiring watching MLS games because tactically the teams are very, very poor. Look at Portland's second goal, where was the medfield and that is every goddamn game.
@@HeritageRescue My man i don't like the EPL but MLS teams want to desperately emulate it and they succeed ....in the running up and down. I've been following this league for more than 10 years to know what works and were work should be done.
@@Snitch55 i misunderstood your comment, putting in it in the wrong framework. I get so tired of uninformed commentary from Euros. But here you've educated me, based on 10 years viewing Appreciate it, let's see what today's NYC-PHIL shows!
Why are there always Europeans in the comments of MLS videos? We get it, you've got a hundred-year head start on us and you do things The Way They Should Be Done. Does that mean you can never STFU and let us enjoy our league? So rude.
@@joshwheel5748 You’re replying to every single objective critique of RSL with this exact same comment. I’d be upset if my team lost in the playoffs too, but please stop, it’s already annoying.
