The banner behind the goal in front of the Timbers Army proclaimed Portland as “Soccer City USA” but the MLS Cup trophy is bound for the Bronx.
Seven years after Manchester City’s owners underlined their global ambitions by entering MLS and signing splashy European imports, a less starry but more effective New York City FC side are champions. They do not yet have their own stadium, but they have a title.
The blue-shirted team whooping and bouncing on the dais, silverware in hand, as fireworks lit up the gloomy sky: this was not how it was supposed to go for the Portland Timbers, with their febrile fans and frightful weather widely expected to deliver a decisive home-field advantage.
Basking in the momentum shift from their stunning injury-time equalizer, we might have expected Portland to prevail. Perhaps – for the scriptwriters with a sense of romance and reward – on penalties, with the Timbers legend Diego Valeri delivering the coup de grace in his last game for the club. But Valeri and Felipe Mora – the scorer of that 94th-minute goal – saw their penalties saved by Sean Johnson in the shootout.
New York dispatched the New England Revolution, the team with the best regular-season record in MLS, on penalties earlier in the playoffs, also after conceding a late leveller. “We’ve been in that position before, that’s what I told the boys, don’t put your heads down, there’s a lot of game left to be played,” Johnson said on ABC. “Embrace the moment.”
