Sporting Kansas City defeated Real Salt Lake on penalty kicks in the Major League Soccer MLS Cup finals on Saturday, which needed two periods of extra time and more than the required penalty kicks and now they are champions.
The MLS Cup for the Major League Soccer playoffs has arrived and it is a less glamorous matchup than many predicted, as Sporting Kansas City will take on Real Salt Lake on Saturday and the game will be streaming live at 4:00 pm on WatchESPN from TV on ESPN and the game will be held at Sporting Park in Kansas City in Kansas, as this year marks the first time that the game will be held at the stadium with the team's best record.
Real Salt Lake comes in after playing very well through the playoffs and they ended up dominating the Portland Timbers on their way to the finals and now they have the chance to keep the Cup in the western conference after the LA Galaxy took it home last season over the Houston Dynamo. Kansas City will be hosting the championship after they lost to the Dynamo the past two seasons and now it is guaranteed that the Cup will be going to a new team and these two squads played a heated battle this season and this will be the next matchup and comes after Houston was able to get past Montreal in the knockout round before getting beaten by Kansas City and that came after an upset of the Red Bulls, who had the best record in the MLS heading into the playoffs and they suffered another tough defeat.
Check here for the ESPN coverage of Sporting Kansas City vs. Real Salt Lake for the MLS Cup.
The conference finals were very exciting, but the Dynamo couldn't put up a fight in the east, losing 2-0, while the Timbers were finally beaten at home and lost 5-2 in that series and now the MLS Cup is set with the east and west number two seeds meeting for a winner take all match. Robbie Findley scored the lone goal for the team in the second win over the Timbers and now the Kansas City team will be hosting the championship. KC had previously lost to Houston in the past two playoff years and now they have some revenge and this time around they get to have the championship at home.
The knockout rounds of the playoffs had the Houston Dynamo taking down the Montreal Impact in a 3-0 victory to advance, while the Seattle Sounders defeated the Colorado Rapids 2-0 to get to the next round. In the main playoffs, the eastern semifinals saw the top seeded Red Bulls get upset by Houston 4-3 on aggregate, while Sporting Kansas City got past New England by the same score. Out west, the Portland Timbers continued their strong play at home and won over the Sounders, while Real ended up beating the defending champions 2-1 in a tough series.
MLS Cup 2013
Sporting Kansas City against Real Salt Lake
At Sporting Park, Kansas City
Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 4 pm on ESPN
