The first two trophies of the 2017 MLS season were awarded over the last couple of days, with the Chicago Fire downing FC Dallas on Thursday to win the Brimstone Cup and Toronto FC smashing Columbus to win their season series with Crew SC and snag the Trillium Cup.
Cousins to the more well-known Cascadia Cup contested between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, the Brimstone and Trillium Cups are a pair of longstanding rivalry trophies contested each year.
Created in 2001 by the supportersā groups of each club, the Brimstone Cup is a callback to the old Dallas Burn nickname, pitting MLSā two fire-branded teams against each other. With Dallas and Chicago now only playing each other once a year, the Brimstone Cup is a winner-take-all trophy, with the Fire earning the spoils by defeating FCD 2-1 at Toyota Park on Thursday night.
After the match, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Dax McCarty snagged some time with the trophy as the Fire celebrated their fourth win in a row.
Columbus and Toronto split their first two meetings of the year, making Fridayās match at BMO Field a one-off for the Trillium Cup. Created in 2008 and highlighted by nearly 2,500 TFC fans traveling to Columbus for that yearās opening match, the Trillium Cup refers to the official flower of the province of Ontario and the official wildflower of the State of Ohio. Crew SC have historically dominated the rivalry, but Toronto have hit back by winning the last two Cups, snagging the 2017 trophy by throttling Columbus 5-0 on Friday.
