MLS Cup: Portland Timbers ready to host MLS' biggest event; NYCFC hopes to spoil party
By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports Soccer Writer
Editor's Note: Footnotes, FOX Sports’ MLS column, takes you inside the major talking points around the league and across American soccer.
It’s more than fitting that Portland is finally hosting the MLS Cup.
Saturday’s finale — the 26th in league history — between the hometown Timbers and New York City FC will be a celebration of MLS, as it always is, and of a lot more than that, too. What better place to stage the first championship played in front of a full stadium since the COVID-19 pandemic began almost two years ago than the place that bills itself as Soccer City, USA?
That last year’s final, won by the Columbus Crew in Ohio, was played before fans at all was a triumph. But it was far different than MLS supporters had come to expect: In 2018 and ’19, Atlanta United and the Seattle Sounders sold out NFL stadiums for the title game. The atmosphere at both matches was nothing short of spectacular.
Now it’s Portland’s turn. For all the success the Timbers have had since they joined MLS as an expansion team a decade ago — an MLS Cup win in 2015, a runner-up finish three years later, the MLS is Back Tournament title two summers ago — none of those touchstone moments happened at home.
"It’s an event that we’ve been waiting for in the city," Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese told FOX Sports on Monday. "There’s nothing bigger. Being able to play for the MLS Cup in Portland is a dream come true."
Timbers punch their ticket to MLS Cup
If America’s youngest major sports league has its own version of Fenway Park or Lambeau Field, it’s in Portland. For the uninitiated, Providence Park boasts the most passionate, raucous and, for visiting squads, intimidating crowd in MLS. It’s also rich in history. The Timbers began playing there way back in 1975, when the club was in the old North American Soccer League.
While it seats only 25,000, the design of the 95-year-old venue (which got a $100 million face lift in 2019) traps the noise, making it feel like a stadium double that size.
The steady rain expected during the match should only enhance the spectacle. But if the hosts want to beat an NYCFC team that has already won two knockout games on the road in these playoffs, they can’t let all the pregame pomp distract them.
"Even though we are so happy about the fact that we’re playing at home, we have to stay focused on the main thing, which is to have a good game and win against a good team," Savarese said.
MLS FOOTNOTES
1. Cascadia Cup
This year marks the seventh in a row that the West’s representative is either the Timbers or their rival Sounders, a remarkable statistic in a league that, by design, is driven by parity.
"It’s an amazing stat," Savarese said. "I think the rivalry between Seattle and Portland has pushed both of the teams, both organizations, to be very competitive. That competition has made the two teams better."
Speaking from U.S. national team camp in Southern California, Sounders star (and Seattle area native) Jordan Morris cited the local support in the Pacific Northwest as part of reason for the pair’s success.
"Both have amazing fan bases. I think if you look at teams in MLS, we are both in the upper echelon," Morris said. "Portland and us, I think we're built for tournaments.
"As a Sounders player, it's hard to see them in the final, obviously," he added. "But I think it just shows the strength of that that rivalry and how much it means."
2. Spoiler alert
After upsetting top-seeded New England and depleted Philadelphia to reach the final, NYCFC have set their sights on spoiling Portland’s party, too. Before this year, City had never made it past the Eastern Conference semis, losing at that stage in each of the past four seasons.
"We learned from the past years," central defender Maxime Chanot said Thursday. "It’s a different kind of game in the playoffs than in the regular season. Having that experience helps."
NYCFC outlast New England in penalty kicks
The only time NYCFC failed to qualify for the postseason was in the team's inaugural season in 2015. Chanot arrived the following year. Alexander Callens, his partner in the middle of coach Ronny Deila’s backline, joined in 2017, as did goalkeeper Sean Johnson.
That defensive stability has helped, but there have been plenty of changes elsewhere. Youngsters such as James Sands, Talles Magno and Tayvon Gray have emerged as key contributors. It feels like a long time ago that aging European stars such as Frank Lampard, Ardrea Pirlo and David Villa were the main attractions at Yankee Stadium.
"We don’t have the superstars that maybe we had the first couple years," said 21-year-old midfielder Sands, an academy product who grew up just 20 miles north of the Bronx. "But what we now have is a lot more quality from the first guy on the roster to the 23rd. There’s a closeness in this group. We’re a team with a lot of belief right now."
3. Coming in hot
New York City went through a major rough patch this season before finding their feet. NYC won just once between Aug. 29 and Oct. 21, with two defeats to the rival New York Red Bulls mixed in.
The result that turned things around for Deila’s side was actually a 1-1 tie in Atlanta in which defender Gudmundur Thorarinsson stole a point with a 90th-minute free kick:
"I don’t think I realized at the time how big of a goal that was," Thorarinsson said. "We hadn’t scored in four games. We were struggling. … I think it got us going again, and we went on a run after that."
Sands said the team never lost its confidence.
"The whole season, I felt that we played pretty well, even if the results didn’t go our way," he said. "In this league, it’s all about getting in form at the right time."
Fun fact: Thorarinsson is also a well-known singer in his native Iceland:
4. Coming in hot, part II
The Timbers got off to a terrible start this season. Heading into their Aug. 21 contest in Seattle, they had won just seven of 20 games and looked in real danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in five years.
"The last three-and-a-half months, we went through a gauntlet in the West," Timbers keeper Steve Clark said Thursday. "Every week was a playoff atmosphere. We’re comfortable [with the pressure]."
5. Having a ball
One thing Clark isn’t necessarily as comfortable with is the 2022 match ball that MLS unveiled Monday. The new rock debuts at MLS Cup.
"Yeah, they like to put out new balls right before the match," Clark joked. He also confirmed the whispers that it plays slightly differently than the version it replaces.
"The ball is fast," he said.
6. Valeri's Portland swan song?
Saturday’s match could mark the last with the Timbers for club legend Diego Valeri. The 2017 MLS MVP’s contract expires at the end of the month. Valeri, 35, said Thursday that he wants to keep playing but acknowledged that it might not be in Portland.
Asked about Valeri’s future at Thursday’s prematch media conference, Savarese was noncommittal. "The most important thing is to enjoy Diego Valeri" on Saturday, the coach said. If it is the Argentine’s Rose City swan song, what better way to end it than with a second MLS Cup.
7. Cup check
Finals across the world have a well-earned reputation for being snooze-fests. There’s so much on the line that teams often err on the side of defensive caution. At least, that’s how it usually goes elsewhere: Each of the past four MLS Cups was decided by multiple goals.
Savarese thinks Saturday’s contest will be similarly entertaining. Both teams like to attack, and that doesn’t figure to change, regardless of the stakes this weekend.
"I think it’s going to be a good soccer match," he said. "It’s going to be a game in which everyone who is watching from overseas will see that MLS has grown a lot."
8. Lucky seven?
The Timbers are 5W-1L-0T against New York City all time. That’s good, but Savarese’s record against the Pigeons is even better. When he was coach of the second-tier New York Cosmos, Savarese knocked NYCFC out of the U.S. Open Cup twice. Since taking the Timbers' helm before the 2018 season, he’s a perfect 3-0 vs. New York in MLS play.
Not that it matters. "I wish that I could tell you that every time you play a team you’ve been successful against, it repeats itself," Savarese said. "It doesn’t."
Still, it’s worth mentioning that a home team has dropped the final just twice since 2011.
9. Prime ticket
Good luck getting a seat Saturday unless you’re a member of the Timbers Army. The club set aside 5,000 general-admission tickets for their most ardent independent supporters group, who will occupy their usual spot behind the north goal. The cost? Just $58 each.
That’s a far cry from the secondary market, where tickets were going for more than $3,500 midweek.
One of the most prominent soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams in more than a dozen countries, including multiple FIFA World Cups. Before joining FOX Sports, the New York City native was a staff writer for Yahoo Sports and ESPN. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
