On a foggy afternoon in Columbus Ohio, the Pacific Northwest’s Portland Timbers and Ohio’s Columbus Crew fought tooth and nail for the right of being called champions. Hosting team Columbus Crew faced off with the Timbers in a winner takes all championship game. One team was just ninety minutes away from holding the MLS Cup. Columbus made it through a tough regular season and had a strong playoff run. To get to this point, Columbus beat the Montreal Impact and Eastern Conference winners New York Red Bulls. Portland beat the Vancouver Whitecaps and Western Conference winners FC Dallas. With all the days of anticipation, it was time for kick off.

Astonishingly, it did not take long for the first goal to be scored; in fact, it only took 27 seconds for the Timbers to put the ball in the back of the net. This was an MLS record as the Timbers took advantage of a Crew mess up. A stunning misplay by Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark in the opening minute, a bad touch took him across his own goal under pressure, Timbers midfielder Diego Valeri, who was named MLS Cup MVP, slid in to redirect Clark’s clearance into an empty net.

Only six minutes later Columbus found themselves two goals down. A curling cross from forward Lucas Melano, found Rodney Wallace for a diving header past Clark in the center of the box. The home team spent more than 89 minutes desperately trying to recover. The game was still early and there was plenty of time for Columbus to come back. Eleven minutes later and Columbus was on the board. Scoring off a failed punch clearance from Timbers goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey, Columbus forward Kei Kamara fought for the loose ball with Kwarasey on the ground, pivoted and shot through defender Alvas Powell’s legs on the goal line.

No goals were scored after this, both teams battled it out as losing wasn’t an option. Portland hit the post several times, if one would have gone in, the game might have been put away. Columbus managed to hang in there but could not get the job done.

As the final whistle blew Portland fans and players celebrated their first MLS Cup Title and another long successful season. The Timbers got hot at the right time and as a result the MLS Cup in coming home to Portland. You would think it was only fitting that the Timbers cam out victorious after their impossible Playoff penalty shootout versus Sporting Kansas City.