Columbus, Portland advance to MLS Cup
Neither of the top two teams in Major League Soccer during the regular season will be playing for the 2015 MLS Cup.
The Columbus Crew and Portland Timbers held on to their first-leg leads to capture the Eastern and Western conference titles, respectively, and advance to the MLS championship game on Sunday.
The Crew lost 1-0 to the top-seeded New York Red Bulls, but they held onto their two-goal advantage on aggregate, while the Timbers and FC Dallas tied 2-2 to see Portland advance 5-3 on aggregate.
Columbus will host the MLS Cup next Sunday at MAPFRE Stadium. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN and UniMas.
New York won the MLS Supporters Shield this season for the best MLS regular-season record, while Dallas finished second on goal differential. Neither team could find enough of an answer in the conference championship series.
The Red Bulls pressed feverishly over the final 20 minutes on Sunday night in search of a goal that might spark a comeback, but Columbus stayed composed and organized to maintain its lead. New York scored in the 93rd minute on an Anatole Abang header and Bradley Wright-Phillips header in the 95th minute hit off the post, but it was too late to save the result.
The scoreless draw would be enough for Columbus, which won 2-0 last week at home in the first leg of the series. It also ended the title hopes of Winter Park native Dax McCarty, who was named as an MLS Best XI selection.
The earlier game on Sunday night provided more fireworks.
Portland Timbers forward Lucas Melano’s stunning, skillful, deke-heavy goal ensured Portland would head to MLS Cup as the Western Conference champions.
With FC Dallas searching for a goal that would even the series on aggregate, Melano entered the match and sealed the outcome. Melano, who came to Portland with a $5 million transfer fee from Argentina, got on to a pass in the box, weaved past MLS Best XI defender Matt Hedges and then fooled goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez with a head-fake to get to the end line and sneak a shot inside the near post.
That goal tied the game at 2-2 and pushed Portland ahead, 5-3, on aggregate.
Dallas had fought its way back into the series in the second half with goals from Ryan Hollingshead and Blas Pérez, and it threw everything forward in search of the goal. Center back Nat Borchers slide tackle deflected away another Pérez shot inside the box just before Melano’s series-clinching goal.
“It’s not the way we scripted it, that’s for sure, but we knew they’d throw everything at us and they did,” Timbers coach Caleb Porter said on ESPN after the game. “And credit to them they got two goals but credit to our guys after we gave up the two goals for weathering the storm and buckling down. A lot of teams would have given up the next goal and we didn’t.”
Portland has been one of the most impressive teams in MLS late in the year, winning four of its last five in the regular season, but only narrowly advancing out of the first round of the playoffs in penalty kicks against Sporting Kansas City.
The Crew have ridden the form of top MLS Best XI selections: forward Kei Kamara and midfielder Ethan Finlay.