The MLS Cup is finally here after a long playoffs and the Major League Soccer championship in 2013 has two new teams going at it in Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake playing against each other and the matchup starts at 4:00 pm on ESPN and will be streaming live on the WatchESPN website from Sporting Park in Kansas, as the new format has the team with the best record hosting the final Cup round after a two leg aggregate for the others.
Kansas City came out from the east and they were a number two seed and RSL was a second seed also and now these teams will face off for the championship and it means for sure that there will be a new champion in the MLS for the first time in a couple years, as the Los Angeles Galaxy pulled off the victory in each of the past two seasons, but they were eliminated early and so were the New York Red Bulls in the east after coming in with the best record in the league and that was another disappointing finish for the team this season. The Galaxy were able to win last season over the Houston Dynamo by scoring three goals and allowing just one, but this time around LA couldn't get out of the west and Houston ended up losing to Kansas City and now a new champion will be crowned and the match will be from Kansas this year and live on national television and comes at a high time for soccer, as the World Cup draw just came out.
Check here for the ESPN coverage of the MLS Cup between Kansas City and Salt Lake.
The MLS playoffs field started out with 10 teams and after the knockout rounds there were four teams on each side to shake things out and this year the MLS Cup winners will get a place in the 2014-15 Champions League CONCACAF group and both teams will make it in and with Portland Timbers losing in the west, they have to be disappointed after being the top seed in their conference. Houston defeated Montreal to advance in their first matchup, while Colorado fell to the Seattle Sounders and then in the west the Timbers took care of business to move on over Seattle and Real Madrid played against the Los Angeles Galaxy and was able to advance 2-1 on aggregate and that was a disappointing performance for the Galaxy.
The conference finals were tough and hard fought on both sides, but it was Houston getting beaten by KC and Real Salt Lake getting past the Timbers despite their amazing home record and now they will meet for the MLS Cup and as the league gets bigger and bigger, winning championships becomes more and more significant and getting this could be massive for both franchises this year. Sporting KC got some nice revenge over Houston after getting beaten by them the past couple years and this matchup will be at home on Saturday and comes after the two teams played a 2-1 game that saw KC win.
The MLS Cup is live on ESPN and will be streaming from the WatchESPN website for Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake from Sporting Park in Kansas at 4 pm.
