After 33 games and 90 minutes, Laftc and the Galaxy It was not more distant than when the MLS season started in February: the same number of points, the same number of victories, the same goal differential.
They were like even as a carpenter level.
Then for 11 minutes of stopping time on Saturday, the symmetry dissolved in the confusion, the teams exchanging places at the top of the ranking three times before the LAFC affirmed the title of the west conference in the wildest end of an MLS calendar, one or the other team has ever been part of.
When the dust finally settled, the teams were separated, appropriately, by an equality break – one which gave Lafc the advantage of the home field during the first three rounds of the playoffs and ensures that the road to the MLS CUP final will take place in the BMO stadium.
“Incredible, incredible,” said Lafc Ryan Hollingshead's defender after his team joined to beat the earthquakes of San Jose 3-1. “To make it happen in this way, we think it's over, then they come back. What a story.”
Not so much for the Galaxy, which entered the day with a chance to establish a franchise record of the modern era for victories, link the franchise record for points and Get their first regular season conference title in 13 years. But they left without anything after a 2-1 defeat in Houston.
And he was the defender of Houston DanielA players' galaxy coach Greg Vanney Traded Away, who gave Lafc his title, going beyond Maya Yoshida to nod at the decisive goal of the MLS season.
“I will probably not be able to sleep tonight,” said Yoshida, the captain of the Galaxy thereafter.
“It was really good,” replied Steres, whose place was finally filled by Yoshida. “Many reasons behind it.”
Vanney, meanwhile, tried to use disappointment as motivation.
“It's a game at the end of the season when there is a ton of games. But the only game being the last game of the season really hurts for everyone,” he said. “I told the group that we must let it be a lesson.
“He hurt us and it cost us first place. The next one will cost us our season. ”
To finish first in the classification, Lafc launched on Saturday needing a difficult trifecta: a victory over San Jose, a loss of galaxy in Houston and a difference in the scores to constitute a deficit of two goals in the goal differential. After 90 minutes, he was about to claim two of these things, entering the injury time leading the earthquakes 2-1 while the galaxy followed the Dynamo 1-0.
But that left the teams even in the differential, which means that the galaxy would demand the first place of the conference table unless LAFC scored another goal or that the galaxy has conceded one.
Over the next 12 minutes, the two things would happen.
The first Brazilian defender Marlon, who looked at the first 80 minutes of the bench, scored on a head at one minute in stoppage, winning the advance of theFC and more important by giving him the advantage in the goal differential he needed. But when the final whistle rang in Los Angeles, there were still at least two minutes to play in Houston; Nothing had yet been decided.
Some LAFC players, still on the field at BMO Stadium, have rushed around mobile phones to watch Gabriel Pec convert a penalty kick to Houston, tie the dynamo and push the galaxy one point ahead of Lafc with only a few seconds to play.
It was not over … but it was over. Even coach Lafc Steve CherundoloWho also followed the match in Houston, turned off his phone.
“I thought it was a bit done and sprinkled,” he said.
However, Lafc fans who stayed in the stands of BMO Stadium continued to look. And after Houston has loaded the ground on the restart, allowing Griffin Dorsey to curl up a desperate crossroads in the penalty area for an aerial scent, the full of hope have turned into cheers.
“Suddenly, you are starting to hear strange noises,” said Cherundolo. “And then you start to believe.”
Hollingshead also believed.
“I just heard the stands get crazy,” he said. “And you knew it was time.”
Completing to the top of the conference table brings an advantage on the ground with it during the first three laps of the playoffs. LAFC (19-8-7), owner of the best home record in MLS in the past seven seasons, will start the playoffs next weekend when he played the winner of a joker match between the Whitecaps of Vancouver and Portland Timbers.
The second place Galaxy (19-8-7) will be host of Colorado in the first round, which is decided by a series of three best.
But Lafc did not win this advantage on Saturday only on Saturday. After a sequence of five games without victory in August and September threatened to derail his title hopes, the team closed the season with five consecutive victories. Then after following more than an hour on Saturday, he returned to the second half goals of Denis BouangaSon 20th of the season, and two scores of replacements in the second half Eduard Atuesta And Marlon, who started the evening with three goals with each other.
“The bench has made the difference,” said goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. “The players who came showed a lot of personality. They changed the game.”
Now, Lafc, bidding to become the first team in 17 years to play in three consecutive finals of the MLS Cup, starts again, entering the playoff series, even once again with each team of playoffs, including the Galaxy.
“It's just the end of the regular season,” said Lloris. “Now there is a new competition that will start.”
Guncuts of MLS qualifying series
(Sowing in parentheses)
Eastern Conference
Joker
Tuesday
(8) Montreal against (9) Atlanta United
First round (the best of 3)
October 25-Nov. 10th
(1) Inter Miami vs Montreal-Atlanta United Winner
(2) Columbus vs. (7) New York Red Bulls
(3) Cincinnati vs (6) New York City
(4) Orlando vs (5) Charlotte FC
Western conference
Joker
Wednesday
(8) Vancouver at (9) Portland
First round (the best of 3)
October 25-Nov. 10th
(1) Lafc against Portland-Bancouver Winner
(2) Galaxy VS (7) Colorado
(3) Real Salt Lake VS (6) Minnesota United
(4) Seattle vs (5) Houston
