With every Eastern Conference game kicking off at the same time on Sunday afternoon and the Western Conference slate doing the same two and a half hours later, Week 32 was a relentless blur of soccer from coast to coast across North America.
It’s understandable if you missed a thing or two. We’ve got you covered.
Shield party
Toronto FC and their fans officially celebrated their capture of the Supporters’ Shield (awarded to the league’s top regular-season finisher) on a festive afternoon at BMO Field, as this fan-driven piece of hardware was passed from the supporters of 2016 winners FC Dallas to their TFC counterparts.
A 1-0 win over rivals Montreal was icing on the cake, but Sebastian Giovinco gave us the weirdest moment of the day by hitting two penalty kicks off the same goalpost in quick succession:
Giovinco hit the post on a penalty but Crepeau was off his line, and Giovinco hit the same post on the re-take! #TFCLive#IMFC#TORvMTL 😱 pic.twitter.com/RkodT5Q66L
— Jason Foster (@JogaBonitoUSA) October 15, 2017
Ricky's swan song
The face of Orlando City SC for the last three years, Kaká played his last game in the City Beautiful as Columbus Crew SC hit town to take a 1-0 win. The result wasn't the way the Lions hoped to send off their Brazilian legend, but the love was palpable in the Florida night as he and his family bid farewell to the adoring home faithful.
Signing off for @OrlandoCitySC. #ThankYouKakahttps://t.co/xD0yTmFLaS
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 15, 2017
Spoiled rotten
Please join in a quick golf clap for the admirable pettiness shown by the New England Revolution and Colorado Rapids, two already-eliminated teams who took a tire iron to the plans of their opponents New York City FC and Real Salt Lake, respectively. (Diego Fagundez, take a bow!)
The Revs’ win at Gillette Stadium (aided by an early red card to Jack Harrison) may push City down a slot or two (or even three) in the East playoff seeding. RSL may be out of contention altogether, as they now must win next week and get help elsewhere to sneak into the final spot out West.
MVPaleri?
With his ruthless hat trick vs. Philadelphia running him to 24 goals on the year, Chicago’s Nemanja Nikolic looks to have the inside line on the MLS Golden Boot title...
The likely Boot runner-up Diego Valeri might just be in the lead for the MVP trophy, however, with a goal and two assists in Portland’s 4-0 drubbing of D.C. United – highlighted by that audacious bit of juggling skill before serving up Sebastian Blanco:
Return of El Guzano
Brad Guzan didn’t get to play for the star-crossed US national team last week, but the Atlanta United man did come up with one of the best saves in a day packed with jaw-dropping work from the goalkeepers. His denial of Bradley Wright-Phillips was otherworldly:
Houston’s Tyler Deric might have been even more clutch with this point-blank, last-gasp stop vs. Sporting KC that ensured the Dynamo qualified for the postseason:
Mondo Wondo
Chris Wondolowski is most famous for his prolific goalscoring. Over the years he’s learned to drop a dime or two as well, though, as he did with lovely cleverness on Vako’s goal against Vancouver, a truly enormous strike that achieved a 1-1 draw for the San Jose Earthquakes and quite possibly snatched away the final playoff spot out West from Dallas.
Tailspin
Speaking of FC Dallas: The Texans were cut apart in the late going and fell 4-0 at Seattle. Dallas have won just once in 14 games since late July – they were in first place then, but have fallen like a rock – and look like a pale shadow of the side that wowed MLS with a Supporters’ Shield and US Open Cup double campaign last year. For now at least, it appears the Quakes will be the prime beneficiaries of their woes.
