At the end of November the long march to MLS Cup will be over. More than 10 months after preseason began, we’ll finally know the two contenders for the 2016 title.
Before then, though, there’s a little bit of work left to do in the Conference Championships. Starting on Tuesday night, Toronto FC and Montreal Impact will duke it out for the East’s place at MLS Cup, while the Colorado Rapids and Seattle Sounders will battle for the West’s spot in the championship game.
There’s plenty of intrigue in both Conference Championship series. Here are a couple storylines from each conference that I’ll be watching closely, starting on the Canadian side of the bracket:
Toronto FC vs. Montreal Impact
Canada’s time to shine
I’m occasionally guilty of being a prisoner of the moment, but I can’t remember being more excited for an MLS Conference Championship series than I am for Toronto vs. Montreal. A big part of my anticipation is the huge crowds expected at both legs. I’m a sucker for a good atmosphere – a buzzing stadium heightens everything I love about sports – and we should have two of the best crowds in recent MLS memory in this series.
The Impact will have a sell-out crowd of more than 60,000 people at Olympic Stadium for Tuesday’s first leg. We’ve seen big crowds at the Big O before, and we know full well that they can be magic. Montreal fans are going to be up for this one, as are the 1,400 traveling TFC supporters making the trip over from Ontario.
The crowd will be a bit smaller at BMO Field, but not by all that much. Toronto are planning to add 6,000 temporary seats to their newly renovated 30,000 seat home. If Leg 1 is close, we should be in for a hold-onto-your-butts, live-and-die with every pass/tackle/shot sort of night on the shores of Lake Ontario. I can’t wait.
Not insignificantly, the big crowds will give MLS’s Canadian contingent some well-deserved shine. They’re not always talked about on the US side of the border, but the Impact, TFC and Vancouver are three of the best supported and most ambitious clubs in the league. The East Championship series will be a good moment for all MLS fans to remember that.
Giovinco vs. Piatti
The outrage over Sebastian Giovinco not making the list of MVP finalists was righteous, indignant and well-documented.
The anger over Ignacio Piatti not being in the Top 3 wasn’t anywhere near as widespread (you do you, Marco Donadel), but that doesn’t mean the Impact’s Argentine star wasn’t nearly as excellent as his Italian counterpart in 2016.
Playing for a Montreal squad that doesn’t feature the same overall attacking firepower as Toronto, Piatti recorded 17 goals and six assists in 32 regular season games. He’s put up numbers at an even better rate in the playoffs, tallying three goals and an assist in Montreal’s three postseason contests. Those aren’t Giovinco numbers – 17 goals, 15 assists in 28 games in the regular season; four goals, two assists in a pair of playoff matches – but they’re still damn good.
Both teams rely heavily on their Designated Players to make things happen. Giovinco is the fulcrum of TFC’s attack, serving as both the team’s main creator and best, most ruthless finisher. Piatti’s role is a bit different, but his brutal efficiency on the counterattack – especially in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs – is a main reason why Montreal can be successful with their relatively defensive style.
They won’t be facing off against each other much on the field, but how the two MVP-caliber players perform will go a long way toward deciding this series. That’s an obvious take, but I’m still excited to see two of the best in MLS duel on such a big stage.
Colorado Rapids vs. Seattle Sounders
Injuries force role players to forefront
Both Colorado and Seattle are hurting heading into the first leg of the Western Conference Championship series at CenturyLink Field on Tuesday night.
For the Rapids, goalkeeper Tim Howard is out for the year and Designated Player attacker Shkelzen Gashi is “doubtful” for Leg 1. Seattle, of course, have been without Clint Dempsey since earlier this summer, while the Leg 1 status of leading scorer Jordan Morris and impact midfielder Alvaro Fernandez is still to be determined.
We already know that goalkeeper Zac MacMath, who started the first 17 games of the regular season and performed pretty well while the Rapids waited for Howard to arrive, will start in goal for Colorado. If Gashi can’t go in Leg 1, the Rapids will likely move Kevin Doyle to striker, shift Dominique Badji to the wing and play Jermaine Jones as more of an attacking central midfielder (a role he thrived in earlier this year) ahead of defensive midfielders Michael Azira and Sam Cronin. Some pieces will move, but tactically, not much should change for Colorado. They’ll likely keep their 4-2-3-1 shape and focus on keeping the Sounders off the board in Seattle.
Things could be a bit trickier for Seattle. The Sounders don’t have a like-for-like replacement if Morris, who injured his hamstring against FC Dallas on Nov. 6, isn’t able to start the first leg. His combination of quality and speed, and corresponding ability to stretch opposing backlines to create space in the middle for Nicolas Lodeiro, doesn’t exist elsewhere on the Sounders’ roster. If he can’t go, head coach Brian Schmetzer will have his work cut out in terms of how he wants to replace the young US international.
Can Seattle finally do it?
It’s weird to think of an organization in its eighth year as “long-suffering,” but that’s kind of where I am with the Sounders.
Seattle have made the playoffs in every year of their existence, but never did that outcome look less certain than in 2016. The Sounders have gone over some well-documented speed bumps this year, losing Obafemi Martins to China, firing Sigi Schmid after an awful start and losing Dempsey due to a heart condition.
Even with all of that, they’re perhaps in the best position they’ve ever been in to reach MLS Cup. They’re hot, healthier than the Rapids and have the best player in the series in Lodeiro. I see them as the favorite to reach their first title game, and, with Montreal still in the mix, a contender to even host Cup. We’ll see if they’re able to exorcise their demons, or if Seattle’s in for another winter of discontent.
