The first-ever MLS #DecisionDay lived up to the billing to the tune of 34 goals in a span of four hours.
That was an average of one goal every seven minutes.
And the stars came out to play: Didier Drogba (Montreal Impact), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders), Darlington Nagbe (Portland Timbers) and Ethan Finlay (Columbus Crew SC) each scored two goals on an event-filled night.
Finlay helped Crew SC put up a 5-spot on DC United, matching DC's worst defeat in team history, to take the Eastern Conference's No. 2 seed and earn an automatic bye to the Conference Semis. Vancouver would later do the same in the West with a comfortable win over the already-eliminated Houston Dynamo.
And while the playoff suspense was muted early in the East with the New England Revolution scoring early and often vs. New York City FC to lock up the final postseason spot, it was a roller coaster ride our West with teams swapping positions throughout the night.
And it looked for a moment like Sporting Kansas City would miss out on the postseason in favor of the upstart San Jose Earthquakes, but SKC found a way past the defending champions LA Galaxy (with a controversial goal by defender Kevin Ellis), while the Quakes saw their 1-0 lead crumble in Frisco (with a controversial red card to SJ playmaker Matias Perez Garcia sealing the deal).
In the end it was the Supporters' Shield verdict that really came down to the wire. A late goal by Chicago's Gilberto had New York Red Bulls supporters on edge as one more Fire goal would have meant FC Dallas claiming the trophy awarded to the best team in MLS. But RBNY held on to celebrate their second Shield in three years.
Here's a brief #DecisionDay recap via Twitter's Curator tool, featuring some of the highlights of the day:
