Red Bulls beat Atlanta, but go home
United win on aggregate score, reach MLS Cup in 2nd season
Atlanta United advanced to Major League Soccer’s championship match in just its second season, losing to the New York Red Bulls 1-0 on Thursday night on a goal in second-half stoppage time but winning the two-match Eastern Conference final by a 3-1 aggregate score.
Atlanta will play host to Portland in the MLS Cup on Dec. 8, a chance for the city’s second professional sports title and first since the Braves won the 1995 World Series.
New York, one of the league’s original teams, had the best regular-season record for the third time in six seasons but remained without an MLS title. The Red Bulls have reached the conference final five times but advanced for the only time in 2008, when they lost the MLS Cup match to Columbus.
Tim Parker scored the game’s only goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time after a poor clearance by Brad Guzan following a corner kick.
Timbers 3, Sporting KC 2: Diego Valeri scored a pair of goals, including one in stoppage time, and Portland beat Sporting Kansas City to advance to MLS Cup for the second time in four years. Sebastian Blanco also scored in the second half for Portland, which didn’t even need Valeri’s clinching goal. The teams had played to a scoreless draw Sunday in Portland in the first leg of their aggregate-goal Western Conference final, and with road goals being the tiebreaker, the Timbers were assured of playing for a championship even when the score was 2-2.