United captures MLS Cup for Atlanta’s first title since 1995
ATLANTA — The players bounced up and down on a hastily erected stage in the middle of the soccer field, confetti falling all around as they hoisted the championship trophy.
It’s a familiar scene at the end of any season, only this time a team from Atlanta was doing the honours.
The title drought is over in the A-T-L.
Josef Martinez and Franco Escobar scored goals, Brad Guzan came up with a couple of clutch saves and Atlanta United gave the city its first championship since 1995 with a 2-0 victory over the Portland Timbers in the MLS Cup final Saturday night.
Cheered on by the largest crowd in franchise history (73,019), United captured the Major League Soccer crown in just its second season to set off a huge celebration in a city that has known so much sporting heartbreak. Owner Arthur Blank lifted a trophy and got soaked with champagne — less than two years after his other team, the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons, squandered a 25-point lead in an epic Super Bowl collapse.
“My first night in my new house in Atlanta, I went to bed at halftime of the Super Bowl,” defender Jeff Larentowicz said. “I woke up and I read the headlines, and I couldn’t believe what I saw.”
Now, United had written a new headline: Champs.
“Hopefully, we can transcend that past,” Larentowicz said, “and move on to a new future for the city.”
Martinez, capping the greatest goal-scoring season in MLS history, put United ahead in 39th minute. Escobar added an insurance goal in the 54th, turning the final minutes into a raucous, flag-waving celebration and sending coach Tata Martino out with a title in his final game as coach. He’s reportedly headed to Mexico to become that country’s national coach.
“If I had to choose the way to leave somewhere, this is the best way,” Martino said. “This is the way I wanted it to happen.”
Atlanta revelled in its first title since the Braves won the 1995 World Series — a gap of 8,442 days.
“Most of us aren’t from here, so we don’t know the pain that they’ve been through,” said United captain Michael Parkhurst, who finally broke his own drought after playing on four runner-up teams. “I’m just happy we could come through for them tonight. I know there were a lot of anxious and stressed-out fans.”
After a surprising playoff run, the Timbers were denied their second MLS championship after winning the cup in 2015. They prevailed on the road at Dallas, Seattle and Kansas City before coming up short in Atlanta.
“I’m extremely proud of the work we’ve had the entire season,” coach Giovanni Savaarese said.