Will Bruin hits the post on his penalty. He was never going to help us win the cup. I am glad he is liked and enjoying soccer in Seattle though.
2018 MLS Playoffs The second legs are done: Conference Semifinals First Leg Sunday, November 4 (E5) Columbus 1-0 (E1) NY Red Bulls (W5) Portland 2-1 (W2) Seattle (E3) NY City 0-1 (E2) Atlanta (W6) Salt Lake 1-1 (W1) Kansas City Second Leg Thursday, November 8 (W2) Seattle 3-2 (pks 2-4) (W5) Portland Portland advances on penalty kicks. Sunday, November 11 (W1) Kansas City 4-2 (W6) Salt Lake Kansas City advances on aggregate, 5-3 (E2) Atlanta 3-1 (E3) NY City Atlanta advances on aggregate, 4-1 (E1) NY Red Bulls 3-0 (E5) Columbus NY Red Bulls advance on aggregate, 3-1 Conference Finals First Leg Sunday, November 25 (E2) Atlanta v. (E1) NY Red Bulls TBA (W5) Portland v. (W1) Kansas City TBA Second Leg Thursday, November 29 (E1) NY Red Bulls v. (E2) Atlanta TBA (W1) Kansas City v. (W5) Portland TBA MLS Cup is December 8.
2018 MLS Playoffs Home team first, times are CT Conference Finals First Leg Sunday, November 25 (E2) Atlanta v. (E1) NY Red Bulls 4:00 pm ESPN (W5) Portland v. (W1) Kansas City 6:30 pm FS1 Second Leg Thursday, November 29 (E1) NY Red Bulls v. (E2) Atlanta 6:00 pm FS1 (W1) Kansas City v. (W5) Portland 8:30 pm ESPN MLS Cup is December 8.
2018 MLS Playoffs Home team first, times are CT First leg results: Conference Finals First Leg Sunday, November 25 (E2) Atlanta 3-0 (E1) NY Red Bulls (W5) Portland 0-0 (W1) Kansas City Second Leg Thursday, November 29 (E1) NY Red Bulls v. (E2) Atlanta 6:00 pm FS1 (W1) Kansas City v. (W5) Portland 8:30 pm ESPN MLS Cup is December 8.
Red Bulls play was super odd and out of character.... it was like they were scared or something. No pressure on 2 of the 3 goals, which isn't close to there style of play.
Somebody else brought this up but it is pretty amazing. Of the 11 teams currently in the MLS East only 4 have ever won MLS Cup: Toronto - 2017 Columbus - 2008 DC United - 1996, 1997, 1999, 2004 Chicago - 1998 Only two of those were in the last 10 years. 8 of the 12 current West teams have won it: Seattle - 2016 Portland - 2015 LA Galaxy - 2002, 2004, 2011, 2012, 2014 Kansas City - 2000, 2013 Colorado - 2010 Salt Lake - 2009 Houston - 2006, 2007 San Jose -2001, 2003
2018 MLS Playoffs Home team first, times are CT Second leg results: Conference Finals First Leg Sunday, November 25 (E2) Atlanta 3-0 (E1) NY Red Bulls (W5) Portland 0-0 (W1) Kansas City Second Leg Thursday, November 29 (E1) NY Red Bulls 1-0 (E2) Atlanta Atlanta advances on aggregate, 3-1 (W1) Kansas City 2-3 (W5) Portland Portland advances on aggregate, 3-2 MLS CUP Saturday, December 8 Atlanta v. Portland 7:00 pm FOX/UniMas
2018 MLS CUP Saturday, December 8 Atlanta 2-0 Portland Atlanta wins their first MLS Cup. 13 different teams have now won the Cup at least once in the 23 years of the league.
Yes, this validated all of the Orange Kool Aid Brigade theory that spending money doesn’t guarantee success
Their coach Tata Martino is moving on to the Mexican National Team. Almiron is open to transfer during this upcoming Winter Break. So is the league MVP Martinez, someone is going to purchase these players across the pond. Also, we both have CCL play coming up in February. Both teams could be very different by then. So we will see how that city evolves after winning so early on. Which us in Houston know very well. How the years roll on from such early, domestic and regional earned respect. Atlanta is not "Kings of the South" as their fans claimed from season 1. That is cute on them. Bless their heart for thinking this way.
But their ownership is investing at a level which will allow them to reload. It’s not really an argument anymore - the last few MLS champs are all big spending clubs. The days of Colorado-Dallas finals are long gone
Martinez has said numerous times he has no interest in returning to Europe and plans to be back in Atlanta next year. Almiron might go, but likely for something north of $20 mil which gives Atlanta plenty of money to reinvest. They've got Barco ready to step in next year. They have Pity Martinez lined up to come in. From a coaching perspective, I have no doubt they'll get someone every bit as capable as Martino. The rumored candidates at this stage are very much of the same ilk. Fact is, Atlanta is poised to be a force for a long time. They won't win it every year, because even the best of teams have down years, but they are going to be very difficult to keep up with.
Following the media hype, ATL is building a product. Players, facilities, a culture that will lead to long term stability and success. No, they won't win every year but it looks like they'll be competitive and possibly even set the standard. So how does Houston match that going forward? It looks as if the bar has been raised and the rest of the league can step up or strive for mediocrity that support revenue from concerts and football games that are played in the stadiums. I'm not optimistic at this point.
The way I put it is Atlanta won't win every year, and depending on team chemistry or other issues they might have the occasional bad year like Toronto did this year. The Dynamo are the exact opposite, they will be on the fringe of the playoffs most years but every now and then they'll have a year like last year where everything comes together at the right time and they make a little run. I'd rather be Atlanta in that scenario.
There's a few things that make the Atlanta situation both relevant and non-relevant to most MLS teams: 1) Atlanta had a perfect storm of a new facility opening (paid for mostly by the taxpayers of Atlanta and the NFL itself) that folks wanted to "get in" to at the same time Atlanta United launched and the MLS ticket prices were much cheaper than NFL prices (along with no PSLs) so they have had an attendance boom at the beginning that never would have been predicted by any prior Atlanta pro sports team attendance history or trends. Seattle is the closest analog but that could have be predicted to some degree. Plus the owner wanted to spend early to win and has billions. In short, the Atlanta MLS situation is practically not able to be replicated anywhere in MLS. SSS have been pushed everywhere so going to some NASL-type model where teams would play in large NFL stadiums to draw big crowds just can't be done at this point - that train left the station 10-12 years ago. You're down to maybe the Revs (never happening) and NYCFC as teams that can do this big stadium/big spend type of strategy. 2) I don't think its a requirement to spend Atlanta money to win, but you have to be in probably the top 6-8 in spenders on salary to be a championship contender. The days of being 18th in payroll and winning are probably done unless they eliminate a DP slot. Look at the last 5 MLS Cups, you've got maybe 2 cheap teams in the final of the last 10 finalists (Columbus & NE). You'll have some failures like LA some years and Toronto this year but spending definitely helps your chances in MLS. 3) our Dynamo Fan of the Year good 'ol Web Tilton still beats the drum of wanting to be the plucky Stoke City kind of team. I guess when the Dynamo are playing the Rapids in front of 8,000 fans in October 2022 to see who finishes 24th in MLS that year, the team can at least count on his revenue. Yeah, Toronto was terrible, Seattle was bad most of the year. Galaxy spent a ton and was in last place last season and didn’t make the playoffs this year. Dynamo didn’t spend money and were 1 game from the final last year. https://t.co/f60OkTWTGO— Web 🕸 Tilton ☮️ (@webtilton) December 9, 2018 Its amazing how some of the Orange Kool-Aid Brigade has taken a hot streak in October 2017 in concert with other Western teams fading as some sort of structural evidence that the Dynamo were just a break away from MLS Cup. 4) You can't really make owners spend in MLS - reality is that you can spend Atlanta money or spend Dynamo-level money and there's nothing anyone can do about it. MLS has a lot of rich owners but not billionaire owners where MLS losses are a rounding error. Pretty much the NFL owners can spend whatever they won't but a lot of the old guard owners don't have that sort of funding. So Atlanta winning should be a wake-up call but all of those like left wing Sebastian Salazar who challenge the MLS owners to "step up" or die are just being loud and foolish with other peoples' money.
To my point, Pity Martinez confirms he is joining Atlanta. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018...rget-pity-martinez-leave-river-plate-end-year When you can pick up an Almiron for $9 mil then flip him teo years later for $25 mil, that's a buisiness model that slloal you to continue to grow and bring in great players. Then you have the Dynamo, a biz model of spend $2.5 mil then flip for $3 mil.
We have to at least get to middle of the table in team salary spending to have a reasonable chance for success. Otherwise we're playing with crappy odds to start