MLS Week in Review: Playoff Edition – Conference Semifinals, Second Leg - 24th Minute

The MLS playoff blitz continued midweek as all four of the Conference Semifinals were wrapped up with the second legs taking place on Wednesday and Thursday.

The weekend’s drama extending into the return fixtures, while perhaps less exhilarating, the tension of possible elimination ratcheted the emotion to the next level as players and coaches took to the pitch with their futures on the line, where only the winners would progress to the next round.

Four matches were played – two each day - and not a match was drawn, while just one road team managed to find a win in their travels – crucially so.

Fourteen goals were scored – one from the spot – and only eleven yellow cards were shown, as the referees – more or less – wanted to let the players on the pitch decide the outcomes.

Before the results, the goals of the round:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Three of the series-deciding goals are nominated this round, in chronological order – Claudio Bieler’s welcome-back strike for Kansas City, Chris Schuler’s back-post sneak for Salt Lake, and Diego Valeri’s cleave-and-finish for Portland.

Bieler’s finish was as much a product of the awareness and hunger of Benny Feilhaber – against the team that let him go - as it was of the out-of-favour DP’s predatory instincts:

All the hard work and industry in the world will never replace a cultured penalty box finisher when it counts.

Desire too played a key role in Schuler’s efforts to get on the end of a ball that many would have considered lost:

A tip of the hat to Javier Morales’ troublesome set-piece delivery, that, well, troubled LA all night long.

And the league is fast running out of superlatives to describe the impact of Valeri to this fascinating Portland team:

An individual may have minted a pretty penny by placing a wager on them to win it all in the off-season.

Results in Brief

New York 1 – Houston 2 (Houston advance 4-3 on aggregate)

Wednesday’s opener was sure to be a classic, given how Houston fought back from a two-goal deficit in the second half of the first leg to tie the series at 2-2 before travelling to New York.

Irked at having squandered their lead, New York came out itching and the first good chance fell their way after twelve minutes when Thierry Henry’s ball over the top played in Bradley Wright-Phillips – he touched past the on-rushing Tally Hall, but could not get enough to ensure it trickled over the line.

The match was more open and quick-paced than either coach would have liked and given the extremely short turnaround – having played the first leg on Sunday afternoon – it was no surprise that the goals would come from mistakes.

Hall has been near-impervious this season, developing into one of the premier, if lesser discussed, keepers in the league, but the blame for the opener rests squarely on his not-unimposing shoulders:

Tim Cahill fed Lloyd Sam wide on the right; the fleet-footed winger skipped past Corey Ashe on the outside and hit a harmless cross to the near-post. Hall fell on the ball, but spilled, simultaneously blocking the path of the nearest defender, Eric Brunner, to the loose ball in the process, allowing Wright-Phillips to pounce and right-foot into the open net after 23 minutes.

At home and having taken the lead, New York appeared to be in the ascendancy, winning most of the second balls and nearly adding a second within ten minutes when Henry had a clean look at goal from a Wright-Phillips cross, but he could not square his shoulders and sent the header harmlessly wide.

A thrusting Houston move in the 33rd minute drew a stretching block from Ibrahim Sekagya, leaving him strained and limping, ultimately precipitating the tying goal:

Having cut out Will Bruin’s cutback and aware that defensive options on the bench were limited, Sekagya opted to gut out the injury, never even going down to receive treatment and take a moment to compose himself.

Three minutes later that discomfort would craft a horrendous error, when Sekagya, rather than punting a clearance up-field under duress, tried to play out of the back and Brad Davis alertly pounced on his rash pass, stealing in alone and placing a left-footer to the left-side of goal past a helpless Luis Robles.

Error balanced, Houston keeper, Hall, would find sweet redemption with a miraculous reaction save on an Henry shot that was redirected by Cahill at the last moment.

The second half opened with a string of New York chances, the best of which came in the 65th when Henry’s header from a Brandon Barklage throw flicked on by Cahill rang off the bar and then drew another brilliant save from Hall, reacting to a redirected Cahill header that skimmed off teammate, Giles Barnes.

The match seemed destined for the looming extra time, but not before one last chance as a late David Carney free-kick fell to Henry and his bicycle attempt was blocked en route to goal.

New York would see a shout for a handball waived away before the dagger from the first leg reared his head again.

Omar Cummings, the most unlikely of threats after a season spent on the sidelines, for the second-straight match would prove the difference maker, scoring another late, game-winning strike, this one in the 104th minute:

Oscar Boniek Garcia laid a ball down the right-side of the box for Kofi Sarkodie, who sent a looping cross to the back-post, where it was met, nodded down and back across to the near-side by Cam Weaver.

Cummings reacted faster than both Sekagya and Marcus Holgersson to get a touch towards goal with the outside of his right-boot, forcing the ball over the line, if barely, past the dive of a scrambling Robles, who got there a fraction too late.

Desperation set in and New York proceeded to punt long passes rather than keep their heads, the panic made worst by an injury to Cahill, who played on, despite obvious limitations.

One final chance for salvation graced the home team in the 117th minute when Henry was fouled by Bobby Boswell atop the left-side of the box.

Images of last season’s end, when Henry allowed Roy Miller to take the last-minute free-kick against DC United, flooded the minds of fans and pundits alike, but this time Henry took the attempt himself, disappointingly to the same effect – off target.

And thus ended a historic Supporters’ Shield-winning season from the much-maligned New York-New Jersey franchise.

Mike Petke was asked to sum up and grade his first season in charge post-match, "Come on, it's not the time for that. I'll never give myself a grade - that's for you guys to do and my bosses. I don't think I'm in the right frame right now to sum this season up, but listen: It was a long journey, for sure. I learned a lot. And like I said, I'm proud of these guys for this entire year. And for responding to what we were trying to do and accomplish. You'll have to give me a week or so to answer that question properly."

Houston would win the match 1-2, take the series 4-3 and move on to the Eastern Conference Final to meet the winner of Kansas City-New England.

Afterwards, Dominic Kinnear was asked why his side is so good in the playoffs, laughing off such a notion, "I mean, we just try to win a game, to be honest. There were a lot of chances coming the other way, and Tally made some huge saves and some great last-line defending. We try not to think too much about it, we just try to win games and move on to the next round" and offering a quick remark about the play of Cummings, “We brought him here for a reason. He’s definitely making me look good.”

Kansas City 3 – New England 1 (Kansas City advance 4-3 on aggregate)

But who would face Houston in that conference final?

That would be decided in front of an intense, baying crowd in Kansas City; a fierce atmosphere for the visiting New England side, who carried a one-goal advantage from the first leg.

Sporting started brighter, seeing several chances missed before forcing a big save out of Matt Reis on a Dom Dwyer header from a Seth Sinovic cross.

The emotion in the stands led to a confrontation on the pitch as Chance Myers and Darius Barnes tussled over the ball on a disputed throw-in – Barnes was lucky to only see yellow for raising his hands to the face of his opponent, who also saw yellow.

The fractious physicality intensified, aided by the return of the yapping bulldog that is Paulo Nagamura, who got stuck in and barked at the referee at every opportunity.

Kansas City would finally find their breakthrough in the 41st minute:

Dimitry Imbongo was whistled for a foul on Uri Rosell; former Rev, Benny Feilhaber, took it quickly, touching wide right for Myers who sent a cross towards the back-post, where Dwyer got a flick that bounced off Andrew Farrell and fell to Aurelien Collin.

The big French defender would score his second playoff goal in as many matches, smacking a left-footer in off the inside of the left-post to erase the advantage of the first leg and put his side in front into half-time.

Ten minutes after the restart, Reis was called upon again to keep New England alive with a fantastic double save as the game got more and more stretched.

New England would ride his keeping to a goal of their own in the 70th minute, putting them back in the driver’s seat:

Kelyn Rowe’s free-kick from the right touch-line sailed to the back-post, where Imbongo managed to get body position on Matt Besler and beat the keeper with a right-footed side-volley that overpowered Jimmy Nielsen on the goal line and trickled in.

That advantage was short lived as Sinovic, another former Revolution player, would re-equalize the series at threes nine minutes later:

A long ball out of the back from Collin was flicked into the path of the left-back by Graham Zusi and Sinovic would thunder a left-footed blast across Reis into the right-side of goal.

Rowe would waste a good look, dropping a pass back rather than realizing he was in clear between the centre-backs before Diego Fagundez skipped a hopeful shot from distance off the intersection of post and bar in the 85th minute, prompting a half-hour of extra time.

Sporting redoubled their efforts, looking better through the first half of extra time, but Nielsen was forced to come up big on one of the few chances the Revolution crafted - Juan Agudelo skipped in, nutmegging Besler, only for the keeper to deny his shot.

Having held firm for large sections of the match, New England’s undoing would be of their own making:

In the 113th minute of play, Reis tried to spring a counter by lobbing a throw towards Fagundez, but Feilhaber read and intercepted, charging down the right-side before pulling a low cross to the penalty spot, where Claudio Bieler, returned from exile, turned it in with the inside of his left-boot.

With the seconds ticking down, any hope of a New England goal would take a severe blow when Reis was forced off injured after trying to play sweeper and jarring his knee, requiring his removal from the match, and leaving his side reduced to ten – Kansas City played on and nearly took advantage of the empty net, but missed and Farrell was forced into goal with all their subs used.

Bieler’s goal would stand as the series decider and a 3-1 win on the night would see Kansas City advance to face Houston in the Eastern Conference Final, 4-3 on aggregate.

Winning Manager, Peter Vermes, was much cheerier than he had been in the build-up, heralding all and sundry, "We came into this game with the idea that we were going to play. We outplayed them tonight. From the beginning of the game all the way to the end we were fantastic. There's not much I can say about the determination and the ambition of the players. But their effort from the first to the last minute of the game and the way they managed the game was exactly what we talked about during the week leading up to this game. So I can't say enough about the perseverance and their determination to make sure that they left here with a win and they did it in incredible fashion. And the last thing that I'll say is that the crowd was absolutely incredible and the fans were unreal. It was amazing how the guys ran as long as they could, and so much of that has to do with the motivation of the fans and the way that they are behind the team."

While Jay Heaps handled the defeat with grace, "I think we fought hard. Unfortunately, the first half is what did us in. We didn’t play real well, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. We tried to get our bearings but credit to a good bunch of players on that team. I think they’re a good group of players. I think that’s a player led team.”

Salt Lake 2 – Los Angeles 0 (Salt Lake advance 2-1 on aggregate)

Thursday’s Western Conference deciders began in Salt Lake with the hosts needing to claw back from a one-goal deficit against a visiting Los Angeles side.

As such, it was no surprise that Salt Lake looked the hungrier of the two in a rather dire first half, affected by the mercilessly swirling winds, while LA’s profligacy of the first leg carried into the second.

Salt Lake would find their goal to level the series after 35 minutes:

Javier Morales received the ball from Kyle Beckerman at the edge of the attacking third, moved to the right before retreating towards the left to swing a ball wide to Chris Wingert charging up that flank.

Having drawn Robbie Rogers in-field, acres of space were vacated for Wingert to hit an unchallenged cross to the edge of the six-yard box where Sebastian Velasquez pushed up from midfield, finding a gap between the occupied LA centre-backs. The diminutive Colombian’s downward header nestled into the left-side of goal.

With all to play for, the two exchanged half-chances and a deep Morales free-kick that was pushed wide at the last second by Jaime Penedo in the 53rd minute provided a portent of things to come.

Salt Lake keeper, Nick Rimando, would look equally shaky, spilling a Rogers cross straight to Landon Donovan, but reacted sharpish to deny the opening.

At home and sensing LA’s vulnerabilities, Salt Lake would come close twice more – a Morales corner kick was sent off the bar by Chris Schuler in the 74th and Alvaro Saborio would strike the base of the post after Olmes Garcia couldn’t burst through a crowd of defenders – before it appeared, if only for a brief moment, that they had found their winner:

Morales drifted another deep free-kick towards the back-post that eluded all players and found the back of the net, but the referee blew play down and disallowed the goal for an apparent foul – Schuler appeared to be holding the wrist of Omar Gonzalez, perhaps preventing the centre-back from making a play on the ball.

Twitter alit with controversy, as first it was posited Nat Borchers was offside – he probably was – then, as such, that he had interfered with play – but no flag was raised – before settling on the soft-but-correct nature of the decision.

As the debate quieted down, LA keeper, Penedo, ensured extra time with big save on Garcia in the 91st minute.

Extra time prompted further discussions when substitute Khari Stephenson clattered forcefully into Marcelo Sarvas and was lucky to only see yellow for his efforts.

Equilibrium in the call department established, Salt Lake left no doubt of whom the worthy winners were when Morales was fouled by Sarvas in the waning moments of the first half of extra time:

Morales swung a free-kick from the left to the back-post, where Schuler ghosted around the back, catching Sean Franklin napping to get on the end of the service, once it had cleared the head of Kofi Opare.

Stretching, Schuler would direct the delivery in with his right-leg to put the hosts ahead after 102 minutes.

No victory ever comes easy and Salt Lake were forced to play the final eleven minutes down a man when, having already used all three subs, Saborio was forced off with an injury.

LA would muster two good chances – the first in the 116th when a Juninho knuckler troubled Rimando, resulting in a less-than-graceful face-save and again in the 122nd when Sean Franklin, hero of the first leg, found himself a free header from a Gyasi Zardes cross, but sent his effort woefully off-target.

A 2-0 win on the night was enough to overturn the one-goal deficit from the first leg, taking the series 2-1 and advancing to the Western Conference Final where Salt Lake will face the winner of Portland-Seattle.

Jason Kreis was asked post-match how it felt to put the ghosts of several high-profile home losses – the CONCACAF Champions League Final and this season’s US Open Cup Final, to name two - in the past with the win, “It’s huge. I think it just builds an incredible amount of momentum for us; an incredible amount of confidence and positivity. To get that goal in the first half, I think was gigantic for us. It took a big, big monkey off our backs.”

LA’s Bruce Arena lamented a pair of poor displays to close the year from his side, “We didn’t play well tonight. We really had our opportunities on Sunday to have a cushion coming in here and didn’t do it. Tonight we failed on defensive set pieces. The wind made the game terrible with the field conditions and all of that, so it was a real sloppy game – a scrappy game. They were more opportunistic in their set pieces than we were, and that was the difference in the game.”

Portland 3 – Seattle 2 (Portland advance 5-3 on aggregate)

The final match of the round would decide which of the Cascadian rivals would earn the right to face Salt Lake in the Western Conference Final.

Portland took a surprise one-goal advantage back home from Seattle and wasted no time in asserting their dominance over an opponent who was forced to field Shalrie Joseph as a stop-gap striker for the first half with Obafemi Martins still smarting from injury.

The early warnings of intent flashed after just three minutes as Diego Valeri slipped the ball to a wide open Rodney Wallace on the left, but his low shot could only find the side-netting.

A few half-chances came their way before extending the gap in the 29th minute from the penalty spot:

Jack Jewsbury touched a throw-in past Djimi Traore at the edge of the Seattle box and the defender reacted by flicking his hand up, making contact with the ball in the box in the 27th minute, prompting the nearby assistant referee to wave down the foul and the referee to point to the spot.

Will Johnson stepped up, gave Michael Gspurning the eyes, sending the keeper sprawling to his right before calmly slotting to the left with his right-boot from twelve paces.

Portland would put themselves firmly into the next round with a second goal moments before the half-time whistle:

Adam Moffat saw his touch intercepted by Will Johnson, who touched out wide right to Jewsbury. He, in turn, played to Valeri, and received a return ball before faking a cross and rolling the ball across the top of the box to Wallace.

The Costa Rican touched into path of a streaking Valeri, freed by Marc Burch’s lapse in not tracking the run. Valeri took a touch forward then slid to tuck a right-footed effort across Gspurning into the far-side-netting in the 44th minute.

Portland continued the onslaught with the start of the second half, adding a third – and stretching their series lead to four – two minutes in:

A quickly taken free-kick on the left-flank by Will Johnson caught the Sounders napping and found Wallace in space down the left. His cross to the near-post was flicked by Futty Danso past Gspurning after leaving the attentions of Traore trailing in his wake.

With the outcome nearly settled, Seattle finally came to life in the 74th minute, grabbing their first goal of the match:

A long Brad Evans throw from the left was flicked on by Eddie Johnson at the near-post, Traore lunged to get a piece that deflected off Michael Harrington and squirreled to the back-side where DeAndre Yedlin was on hand to roof a right-footer over both Donovan Ricketts and Will Johnson sprawling in his way.

The Sounders would make a contest of it two minutes later with a second goal:

Clint Dempsey laid out wide to Yedlin on the right; he took on Harrington and hit a cross to the edge of the six over Danso, where Eddie Johnson rose over Jewsbury to power a header into the top left-side of goal.

But it was too little, too late and Donovan Ricketts would tip an 80th minute header over the bar before Dempsey wasted a final chance in the 89th minute, snatching and sending it wide.

The 3-2 home win saw Portland advance to the conference final to face Salt Lake by an aggregate margin of 5-3 over their hated opponents, winning their first-ever MLS playoff series at the first time of asking.

Post-match Caleb Porter would not rest on his already-substantial laurels, when asked what the win meant, “I think it means that we’re three games away and we have two teams in our way. I think if you went in the locker room you’ll see a team that’s happy, but they won’t be truly happy unless we win it all. We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We’re not going to think past this next round. Obviously, we have to get to the championship in order to raise a trophy, and we’ve got a difficult team ahead of us in Salt Lake. We’ll keep taking it one at a time, but we’re getting closer. This team genuinely believes that we have a realistic shot at this. It means a lot, but we’re not going to think about what it means until, hopefully, the end.”

Seattle’s Sigi Schmid, on the other hand, was left to reflect on a frustrating end to their season, "It's disappointing, but when you're adding people during the season it's sometimes tough. Being able to play as a team is something that we have to become better at. In terms of that unselfish running for people at times is something we have to become better at as well, and that's something that we'll improve upon and be better at next season because that was one of the keys for us and with the changes in the lineup game in and game out. We were never able to build upon that and never be able to get the roles down. The roles for people were changing and the roles for people today in the game changed; all that makes it tough."

CanCon

Kofi Opare was eliminated from the 2013 MLS Cup Playoff with LA’s 2-0 loss at Salt Lake – he was partially culpable for both Salt Lake goals, having covered the same man (Saborio) as left-back, Todd Dunivant, on the Chris Wingert cross, leaving Sebastian Velasquez unmarked for his header and failed to clear the Javier Morales free-kick that led to Chris Schuler’s game-winner in extra time.

Will Johnson’s post-season with Portland will continue, having been named as NBC Sports Man of the Match on Thursday, scoring from the spot, playing a role in both Diego Valeri’s strike and collecting an assist on Futty Danso’s header, while patrolling the midfield like a general.

Overheard

Just a single remark this round - Arlo White’s subtle mention of “one or two messages for the travelling supporters” after a pan shot of the Timbers Army showed a few unsavoury hand gestures intended for the visiting fans.

See It Live

Plenty of visual delights from Brandon Barklage’s playoff-worthy beard – much respect – to the malaise of Thierry Henry’s disbelief and all its glorious Gallic shrug:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Henry face. <a href="http://t.co/KZ3wr3OWt8">pic.twitter.com/KZ3wr3OWt8</a></p>— Jason Davis (@davisjsn) <a href="

">November 7, 2013</a></blockquote>

And then there was Tally Hall’s jaw-dropping reaction save on Tim Cahill.

There were some flashy-eyed cardboard robots in the stands at Sporting Park in Kansas City and who does not love when an out-field player is forced into playing goal.

Bruce Arena’s skill on the ball needs a little work – as does his evaluation of whether the ball had left the field of play (courtesy of MLSsoccer.com’s Matthew Doyle):

While Jaime Penedo and Nick Rimando each put their bodies – and faces – on the line.

And what about that tifo in Portland – though surely they could have found a scarier wizard than the black mage from Final Fantasy:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Smoke obscures tifo, which says " This magic is real." <a href="http://t.co/Dsfdx49SOQ">pic.twitter.com/Dsfdx49SOQ</a></p>— Don Ruiz (@donruiztnt) <a href="

">November 8, 2013</a></blockquote>

Controversy

Should Darius Barnes have seen red for raising his hands to the throat of Chance Myers?

What about that Javier Morales goal that was ruled out?

Did Khari Stephenson deserve more than a yellow for his tackle on Marcelo Sarvas?

Opinion Poll

Any thoughts on this hectic playoff schedule?

Is the compression of the drama good for the league, drawing in fans? Or is it too tight, affecting the play on the field – and perhaps, the results?

Upon the realization that the comment section remained unavailable, these polls seem superfluous, but the decision was made to solider on – feel free to reach out on twitter for any discussion (see below).

Upcoming Fixtures

No rest for the weary as the conference finals are set to begin on Saturday with the Eastern Conference tilt before Sunday’s Western Conference opener, prior to taking a two-week break for the international window before the second legs.

Saturday: Houston-Kansas City. Sunday: Salt Lake-Portland.

All quotes courtesy of MLSsoccer.com

Each week James takes a look at the league as a whole.

You can follow James on twitter @grawsee or read more of his writing at Partially Obstructed View

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MLS Week in Review: Playoff Edition – Conference Semifinals, Second Leg

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