The bonkers MLS season finale
Ok here’s the deal:
As this Reddit thread points out, the next two weeks of the MLS regular season are going to feature some high drama. In the Western Conference, two teams are tied for first place with 60 points each. The teams are Seattle Sounders and LA Galaxy. For some reason, their next two scheduled games…are against each other!
On Sunday, Oct. 19, Seattle will travel to Los Angeles for a 7:30 p.m. CST game televised on ESPN2. On the next Sunday, Oct. 25, Los Angeles plays in Seattle’s, 1:30 p.m. CST at the Sounder’s massive CenturyLink field. For that game, the Sounders already plannedto open the entire stadium, which could produce attendance records of over 60,000 people.
The MLS awards the Supporter’s Shield to the team with the best regular season record. One quick look at the standings shows the Sounders and Galaxy are both fighting for the spot. Seattle leads by two wins, so if Los Angeles wins their next two games (against Seattle!), the Galaxy take home the silverware in dramatic fashion ahead of the playoffs.
All this gets even sweeter when you realize the matches will feature some of the most popular players in U.S. Soccer: Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan, just to name two. This is Dempsey’s first full season in the league after making waves in Europe, while Donovan, a national soccer hero, is playing his final season after announcing his retirement.
If there was ever a time to start watching top-flight domestic soccer, this is it.