At the 35th minute of Wednesday night's match between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer, the fans got up and left.
The stands were emptied, voices ringing from the concourse. In addition to the two main Whitecaps supporters groups (the Southsiders and Curva Collective), LAFC
If we lived in a fair and just world, ESPN pundits would be spending hours next week arguing behind a chyron pondering “IS TIERNA DAVIDSON ELITE?” in all caps. But it is not a fair and just world, so instead, you're stuck with us, and this wordy preview for the
The semifinals are over. The championship is nigh. There's one last game, for all the marbles. Let's get into it:
A rematch of the final regular-season game in Portland a week and a half ago, this game was remarkably similar to that match
Here we are. The regular season is over, and although it took an almost absurdly long time for it to happen, the four teams we're left with—North Carolina, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago—have emerged as the clear best teams in the league.
With the playoff teams mostly already decided,
A lot has been made about how absurdly tight the playoff race has been this season, with North Carolina spending most of the year as the only team that looked really, definitively Good, and second through seventh places looking more or less like a crapshoot.
These last few weeks, though,
