Who cares? Arthur Blank is a very competitive owner and he really wanted this trophy bad. Great for him and his ambitions. Others should learn from him.
Well done Atlanta. Y'all have now equalized FC Dallas in major trophy haul. Region III, aka the South, will have two expansion teams enter with Nashville and Miami. This part of our United States had one team for the first decade of MLS. Then us in Houston got our chance. To then see how well Orlando and Atlanta arrived on the MLS scene. That is one team to six for Region III. Looks like it's game on for supremacy in the dirty 3rd!
1.3M viewers for MLS Cup 2018 on FOX http://www.showbuzzdaily.com/articles/the-sked-saturday-network-scorecard-12-8-2018.html
Post game thoughts. (Blessedly I'm typing this, because my voice is shot.) - First off, thank you Uncle Arthur. We could not have asked for a better owner to empower us fans with the ability to build our part of this experience. Thank you so much. - Dear MLS, so long as you're having the final in one team's stadium then make the 5% share standard for visiting fans. Having the Timbers faithful in the house helped drive the atmosphere because every time they started "P-T! F-C!" it encouraged the Stripes faithful to respond in kind. And since the two fan bases by all accounts had civil interaction throughout, know that that was exactly the scene you want for this event. - Re: Portland - I was surprised by how high up the pitch they were attacking. I thought their line in the sand would be the halfway line but they routinely attacked Atlanta's defenders when the Stripes had the ball in their own third. This did yield a few short-field turnovers but i don't recall Portland utilizing that with more then 4-5 players, so it rarely bore fruit. I also think Diego Chara was lost. Not sure how much of that was his own head, Atlanta's D, or just an off night, but he seemed neutered as an attacking threat. Lastly I thought while Portland's defense was solid overall they gave up the wings too easily, which allowed Garza, Escobar and company room to control the match and provide the crosses that at least kept the pressure on Portland. - As for Atlanta I think they certainly have played better games but you could see their intention with the long passes (both across the field and, less successfully, through the middle) and their intent to pressure the Timbers in the center of the pitch. IIRC Portland struggled to connect more than 4 passes in the offensive half for much of the first 45'. Atlanta struggled to sustain their own offensive possessions but were able to spend much of the match on the front foot, aided by getting the first goal. So once they endured Portland's surge to start the 2nd half Nagbe and Gressel pushed up into more advanced positions and eventually drove Atlanta toward goal # 2. It was a more scrappy version of their home leg versus NYCFC, albeit with a more dynamic defense needed since Portland's attack is midfield oriented, but it got the desired result. - MOTM for me was Brad Guzan. He made the save when needed, was very vocal in keeping the defense tight and made sure to pull LGP and Parkhurst back when they drifted too deeply forward. I hope it was an entertaining show for everyone and maybe made a few new fans for MLS. Cheers.
Ah, well... If the Timbers were awarded the foul they deserved when Nagbe stepped on Valeria at the top of the box,,, maybe...? And if Ebo is tighter on the ball and we got into the half without giving up the goal... Or if Larenowtiz was given any of the forty-seven yellow cards he could have been...? Yeah, can say the same about any game. I'm a Timbers fan but I'm also a fan of the league at large. I recognize that it is good for the league that the Five Stripes won. Congratulations to them. I will of course hate them forever starting after this post, but for the moment I'm going to be magnanimous
Your courtesy is appreciated. We'll send you a "Conquered!" auto decal as a gift. In all seriousness I enjoyed the Timbers fans I met. Bought 4 a round after the match. Least I could do given the deluge we slopped through entering and leaving the venue.
I also noticed that Chara didn't really contribute in the attack. I think it was the game plan. Guzman was playing up pretty high and Chara was left back to deal with Almiron. That probably should have been scrapped once they went down two, but I will say that he's by far the best defensive player on the field and I imagine if he pushed high too often the Timbers would have probably lost by more than 2.
It went from the commissioner to Arthur Blank to Michael Parkhurst to the team on the stage in what seemed like a couple of minutes. (Granted I didn't actually time the exchange). In the meantime, all of the players on stage were receiving their championship medals. The players had plenty of time posing with the trophy afterwards. And, you could see Arthur Blank mingling with the players afterwards.
That argument also works for DC in the inaugural year...but the entire league was new then, so not quite the same. Though, it take an entire 4 years to win 3 league titles.
Scott Van Pelt's Best Video tonight was footage from the Atlanta United parade. He also pointed out that with Parkhurst winning MLS Cup after losing his first 4 there's only one player in league history who's 0-4 in MLS Cup, their former summer intern Tyler Twellman (calling him Tyler is an on-going joke between SVP and TT).
All the photos from Andy Mead/MLS and Scott Bales/YCJ http://andymead.photoshelter.com/ga...-at-Atlanta/G0000xNKs9sQYawI/C00002px16rlWxpw