Looked like fair challenge to me. Portland exposed ball, Parky pounced. Agree so much like an LD goal.
At least Portland knows what they need to fix next season. They need to upgrade those outside backs. They stink.
Congrats to Atlanta. Have to give the organization, fans and players major props. To get this far that quickly is quite an achievement.
I think there’s some holes in your timeline. Jeff was an unrestricted FA after his season with us, so could go where ever he wanted. However I don’t think he would’ve signed with us again because it was clear that the team wanted to let the expensive MLS veterans walk and replace them with cheap G2 players. We also signed Pedro to essentially take his place. Kitchen came much later. I think what’s forgotten is that Jeff was brought in to be a backup on our team in ‘16, behind NDJ. I think the overall feeling was that Jeff was done as an everyday starter in the midfield. Before coming to LA, he was being experimented at CB in Chicago.
I wasn't saying direct replacement - you already had corrected me on that. I was just questioning our trend of getting rid of hustlers/fighters like Jeff and AJ and replacing them (over time) with non-hustlers, non-battlers like Pedro/Kitchen/Skjoiuk (all "soft players" imo). I do remember Jeff was considered a bit over the hill back-up and that he had some meh performances for us. He got a little bit of criticism on these boards, including some from me iirc. And even when he first started playing for ATL he was suspect at times. But watching him play several games this season makes me realize our coaching staff just weren't getting the max out of him. He was absolutely stellar in the two playoff games I watched, especially the 2nd leg against NYRB.
Impressive you guys could watch this one. I'm starving for MLS, but there could be no joy for me in watching Portland or Atlanta win. Besides not wanting to watch Seattle 2.0 or Seattle 3.0, don't both these teams play on plastic pitches? It's a different game on fake turf - an obstacle for visiting teams to overcome - and it makes the game different (just a bit too zippy and bouncy without any beautifully weighted lofted passing and slide tackling is just not the same). Sure I'm going to hear "but these new surfaces play just like grass". But you know what plays just like grass? Grass.
Oh I'm with you. Atlanta's turf is better than most, but it's still turf. During the game I posted complaints about the turf making the game chaotic and making some skill moves almost impossible. It's even uglier with teams like Portland who have a number of players whose poor first touch got really exposed in this game. You would think that with all the time they practice on turf they would be better at it. I don't know the answer. The ATL franchise and its 60k+ crowds are definitely good for the league. But to get stadiums with that capacity MLS teams have to partner with NFL and that means turf. Hopefully MLS will continue to grow in popularity and $$ and that will change.
I haven’t watched a MLS Cup final since 2014. I lose interest fast when the Galaxy are not involved. However I watched on Saturday. With that crowd size it actually felt like a “big game.” I hated the turf look, but something about Atlanta being in the game pulled me in to watch.