Portland Timbers Win the MLS Cup! Beat Columbus Crew SC 2-1

“All I could think about was sharing that moment with my players, we have been through a long season.

“Because it is a cup game and due to the occurrences that have happened throughout the world over the last couple of weeks, unfortunately tragic events, we will have enhanced security”, Courtemanche said.

So, I’m curious – FC Dallas fans, will you be watching?

“It’s all the players”, he said.

But the Timbers never looked like tanking. How did they manage this return to form? They told me nobody stopped. No other team in MLS has been better at avoiding losses in bunches.

That isn’t easy in MLS, what with thin rosters, the travel and global call-ups.

The Timbers made Columbus pay for its terrible start, and now the Crew will have an entire offseason to contemplate the faded dream of lifting MLS Cup on their home turf. Despite that beginning, it was the first team to build its own soccer-specific stadium, which was part of the league’s original business plan.

Columbus’ best chance of the second half came in the 77th minute, when Harrison Afful chipped a cross toward Federico Higuain in the area, where the Argentinian one-touched it over his head out of the air – just past Jack McInerney’s attempted header. “That was the goal, and here we are”.

A Bexleyheath mum will be cheering on her son Liam Ridgewell when he plays in America’s biggest football match of the year this weekend.

All-in-all it should be an wonderful game, made even more so by the fact that the two teams seem to have changed identities. And when they scored, I felt pretty bad.

“It’s a testament to our hard work and everything we’ve been through, not everyone knows what goes on in the locker room, the ups and downs and the battles that we go through”.

Finding Fanendo – Through the duration of the match, every time Adi was found the Timbers had success. Just over 10 minutes late, Timbers front man Adi headed goalward and watched in agony, as the ball came back off the post and then bounced against Clark and, luck now smiling the Crew keeper, away to safety.

The Timbers, whose first season was 2011, did not lose a match during their postseason run (three wins and three draws) and became the third expansion team in MLS history to win the championship.

“Diego Chara certainly is a machine”, he said.

It took just six minutes for Portland to double their lead, via a play that Crew SC players and fans believed should have been blown dead.

“He’s played in England as well, so he’s a very good player”, he said.

The revelation was Jorge Villafana, the former MLS Sueno victor at left back.

Then came the playoffs, where Valeri notched four assists, helping to spark the Timbers on a eight-game unbeaten streak that carried them into the MLS Cup Final.

It will be quite interesting to see Nagbe try and use his pace and guile to get past Trapp, who narrowly missed playing with Nagbe on the National Championship winning side by a year.