Two for two is the record of wins in championship games that Columbus Crew will be aiming at this Sunday when they face the Portland Timbers. Under the lights of MAPFRE Stadium, with 21,000 spectators watching from the stands and thousands more on TV, the winner of the 20th season of Major League Soccer will be decided.
Portland Timbers Preview
The Portland Timbers will be facing a number of challenges if they want to become the winner just four years after coming into the league. The Western Conference Champions are making their first trip to the big game and they are hoping to shut down the city of Columbus, Ohio, where the game will take place.
In the 20 seasons of MLS history, Portland is only the 20th team to reach the final. There are seven current teams and two former teams that have not made it this far into the tournament. So far, only nine different teams have won the MLS Cup with the Timbers hoping to be the tenth side to add the trophy to their cabinet.
While Portland is still a young team, they have some very exciting players one must watch closely. Fanendo Adi, the team's leading scorer with 18 goals so far in the season and of course, Darlington Nagbe, who already has two caps with the U.S. National Team and has helped his team with six goals and four assists.
In the backfield, Nat Borchers is putting up a show. He has four goals, but most importantly, Borchers led the entire league with 32 blocks during the regular season. His performance in the playoffs has been solid enough to help his team get past teams like FC Dallas in the Western Conference Championship.
Caleb Porter is in his third season with Portland and definitely his best one. The 40-year-old manager has helped his team stay undefeated in this post-season. His team has been considerably solid in the back, only allowing 44 goals so far, while only scoring six more. They are on an eight game undefeated streak coming into Sunday.
Head to Head
During the regular season, these two teams met once and in the same venue where they will be playing at this Sunday. Back then, it was Portland who came out with the victory 2-1. In the other two games in which these two sides have faced-off at MAPFRE Stadium, it has been Columbus the team that has come out with a win.
Columbus Crew Preview
Columbus is a slight favorite in this game due to the home-field advantage that they have and also the fact that they have more experience as a team in this type of games. The Crew wants to become the sixth club to have won the MLS Cup more than just one time.
The only time that Columbus lost against Portland, their only goal came from Kei Kamara. The 31-year-old player from Sierra Leone finished the regular season with 22 goals, the same as the league's MVP Sebastian Giovinco. During the playoffs, Kamara has added three more goals to his personal account.
Columbus Crew was not so solid during the regular season while playing at home. They had a record of 9-4-4 making them the tenth best in the league. They have someway turned it around in this playoffs, winning both of their home games against Drogba's Montreal Impact and Bradley Wright Phillip's New York Red Bulls.
They will now host a team that finished the regular season with a .471 winning percentage away from home. That made the Timbers, the second best team in the league under that category. The only team that was better than them were the Vancouver Whitecaps, a team they defeated in the playoffs.
Gregg Berhalter, a former MLS player is looking to become the third person to have won the MLS Playoffs both as a player and as a coach. While he is only in his second year with the Crew, he knows what it is like to be in this position as a player, as he was part of LA Galaxy's winning team in 2011. Porter was also a former player.
So there you have it, the MLS Cup Final is set and the teams have done what has been necessary to get here. In a final that will be remembered for many reasons, as the league turns 20 and it continues to grow. There are many reasons to believe that this is a must watch game and you have no reason to miss it.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
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