If we're looking for a close baseball comparison, it would be something like this - http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MLN/MLN195905260.shtml Haddix vs. Burdette, settled in the 13th inning. Considered a classic rather than a black eye that marred the sport. I'm not saying the MLS Cup was a legendary game, but I don't see why anyone needs to apologize for a tactical, defensive cup final. Those happen.
Look at the game highlights on the MLS website and you'll see several Toronto chances ranging from "shooda haddits" to half-chances. If any of them had gone in, the tune would have been very different. So it wasn't as if there was no creativity or attempt to attack. It wasn't one of those games where both teams are bunkering and niether one is daring enough to even attempt to score. A very different animal. Just because the game ended without any goals doesn't necessarily mean that it was "boring."
Very true, I use the same line whenever I'm talking to my non-soccer friends too. But this was a boring.
I detest PK shootouts to decide a title. My proposed alternative - golden goal extra time, in 15 minute chunks. At the beginning of each chunk, each team must subtract a player. Teams get an extra sub at the beginning of the extra time. By the time you get to 8 v 8 for minutes 121 - 135, there'd be so much space on the field you'd be sure to see a goal. And they could use the 4th sub to put on a speedster to take advantage of all that space.
I like the suggestion above, and it pretty much forces that a goal will be scored in the run of play somehow. Bringing in fresh legs will also help. But that idea has been around since the early 90s and the stodgy guardians of the game don't seem likely to seriously consider it. As a compromise solution, even if they used the old MLS-style shootouts instead of PKs to determine winners in the knockout stages of a tournament. At least there is some strategy involved and the keeper has a fighting chance.
The way they were used to break ties in regular season games, absolutely. But in a knockout tournament where you need to have someone win, I would argue that they are better than PKs. A shootout situation like a breakaway actually could happen in the run of play during a game, so it is more realistic than a PK.