Goaltender’s huge save with game in the balance sends TFC to MLS final

One save, one early moment, one opportunity to survive.

Quentin Westberg guessed right and dove to his right. He managed the improbable, and Toronto FC now will play for the MLS Championship.

Against all odds but their payroll — powered by their US$115,000 goalkeeper and US$175,000 midfielder and some good fortune and one amazing save — TFC defeated Atlanta United 2-1 Wednesday night in front of a loud and packed crowd of 44,055 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The trip to Seattle next week for the MLS Cup final will mark TFC’s third appearance at the final in the past four years, including winning it in 2017. The Reds now have gone 13 straight MLS games without losing.

Seattle hosts the MLS Cup on Nov. 10 at CenturyLink Field. The Sounders and Reds previously met in MLS Cup in 2016 and 2017. Seattle won the first match on penalty kicks in 2016, before TFC earned a convincing 2-0 victory in 2017, with both matches at BMO Field.

It isn’t often a soccer game can be won or lost in the early minutes, but it almost happened in this Eastern Conference Final. It almost happened after TFC looked lost in the opening minutes and gave up a goal four minutes in. It almost happened as it looked to be about to go down 2-0 just 11 minutes in.

The match got off to a wild start, with two goals and an unsuccessful penalty kick in the first 14 minutes.

Atlanta United opened the scoring in the fourth minute on a beautiful three-way passing play starting with Ezequiel Barco finding Pity Martinez through the Toronto midfield. Martinez then fed Julian Gressel a pass in front for the easy strike.

And then, in the eighth minute, Michael Bradley brought down Martinez in the penalty area, a foul he pretty well had to make as Martinez was all alone. And it wasn’t much of a foul, at that, as Bradley sort of brushed him with his arm.

But Toronto goalkeeper Westberg came up huge, saving the Josef Martinez penalty kick in the 11th minute by diving to his right, preventing an early 2-0 Atlanta lead.

It’s the kind of shot, from 12 yards out, that usually scores — a gimme. Almost.

But thanks to a pair of timely goals by Nick DeLeon and Nicolas Benezet, and that huge save from Westberg, Toronto prevailed.

Without that Westberg save, that probably would have been it for the Reds. That would have been “see you next year.” In that moment, money didn’t matter. The US$115,000 goalkeeper put aside Martinez, the US$900,000 Atlanta star.

Money doesn’t always buy what you need in any sport, but in the MLS, overspending has been good to TFC. They won one championship. They lost another they should have won. Now there’s this opportunity. Overspending, Tim Leiweke would say, works in MLS.

But the big-money guys weren’t exactly prominent on Wednesday night. Bradley, at US$6.8 million a year, looked a touch old and a touch slow throughout the night. Jozy Altidore, making similar money, wasn’t healthy enough to play. Alejandro Pozuelo, at US$3.8 million, part of the three TFC players in the Top 8 of MLS salaries, was quiet most of the evening, until a pass to DeLeon, on what looked like a non-scoring chance, wound up with a goal.

DeLeon, who brings home a little more than US$175,000, did his own soccer version of the spin-a-rama and booted the ball into the upper corner in the 77th minute.

The guys who don’t pull in the big bucks were doing the big work for TFC in this unexpected win.

But somebody had to breathe some oxygen into the TFC lineup early and late, and for so much of the night, Atlanta was the better squad. The shots were 17-4 at the 90-minute mark. The better team didn’t necessarily win. But that’s what goaltenders and difference makers can do.

And Westberg was the star of the show.

Oddly, when the clock ran out and the hugging began, Westberg stood alone just a few feet from the goal, not celebrating, not jumping up and down. Others were hugging: As he did for so much of the game, he stood alone.

And now TFC heads to Seattle for the MLS Cup. The win was by no means conventional. The win was by no means easy. The win was hard fought, though, under difficult circumstances, against an Atlanta team that looked a step quicker, a touch more aggressive. They looked the part of champion.

This one will hurt. Toronto FC now has some time to regroup, find its game, and be better prepared.

Maybe at the end, Westberg didn’t get emotional, didn’t celebrate with any exuberance. Maybe he didn’t have any energy left. This was his night.

TFC is advancing to the championship on the back of its US$115,000 goalkeeper.