The Major League Soccer Playoffs are now nearly complete and on Saturday the MLS Cup will be going down between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake and the matchup puts two of the top teams together for the championship and will be starting on TV and airing on ESPN at 4:00 PM ET and the match will be streaming live online from the WatchESPN website from Sporting Park in Kansas City.
The championship this season will be in Kansas, as the new format has the MLS Cup at the stadium of the team with the best record and will be a single match after the rest of the playoffs had two legs for each round. Things started off with five teams in each conference before a knockout round and as everything shook out, it was Kansas City and Salt Lake left at the end and there will be a new champion this season after the Los Angeles Galaxy won over the Houston Dynamo 3-1 to take their second straight championship. The Conference Championships were a two leg series on aggregate and the two finalists in the MLS Cup also will be part of the 2014-15 CONCACAF Champions League and the finals in 2013 for the MLS has both number two seeds making it, with the New York red Bulls losing in the east as number one and the Portland Timbers in the west.
The knockout rounds of the playoffs had the Houston Dynamo taking down the Montreal Impact in a 3-0 victory to advance, while the Seattle Sounders defeated the Colorado Rapids 2-0 to get to the next round. In the main playoffs, the eastern semifinals saw the top seeded Red Bulls get upset by Houston 4-3 on aggregate, while Sporting Kansas City got past New England by the same score. Out west, the Portland Timbers continued their strong play at home and won over the Sounders, while Real ended up beating the defending champions 2-1 in a tough series.
The conference finals were very exciting, but the Dynamo couldn't put up a fight in the east, losing 2-0, while the Timbers were finally beaten at home and lost 5-2 in that series and now the MLS Cup is set with the east and west number two seeds meeting for a winner take all match. Robbie Findley scored the lone goal for the team in the second win over the Timbers and now the Kansas City team will be hosting the championship. KC had previously lost to Houston in the past two playoff years and now they have some revenge and this time around they get to have the championship at home.
MLS Cup 2013
Sporting Kansas City against Real Salt Lake
At Sporting Park, Kansas City
Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 4 pm on ESPN
