Pacific Northwest soccer fans were hopeful for a high stakes cascadia rival to be revisited in the Western Conference final, Portland was unable to punch its ticket while Seattle easily advanced. After Seattle clinched their bid to the final earlier in the week, they were almost certain Portland would be their next challenge. However, Houston shocked the number one seeded Portland Timbers with a 2-1 upset in the second leg in Portland. Houston managed to shut down MVP candidate Diego Valeri and score two unanswered goals. Seattle is hot going into this matchup coming off a dominant victory over fellow Cascadia rival Vancouver in which Clint Dempsey scored two goals.
The winner of Houston and Seattle will go on to the MLS Cup to take on either Toronto or Columbus. Houston aims to follow in the footsteps of local MLB counterpart, Houston Astros and bring the city its second sporting title of 2017, to do so they will have to dethrone defending champion Seattle before facing the Eastern Conference champion. Seattle’s attempt to defend their title from a year ago begins on November 21st in Houston, with the second leg being played in Seattle.
Prediction: Seattle (3-1 Aggregate)
While Toronto FC has been the favorite to win it all throughout the regular season and in the playoffs so far, they have found themselves in an unforeseen predicament entering the conference finals. Up until Sunday’s game against New York Red Bull in the second leg of the conference semifinals, Toronto had been building on their dominant season by disposing of their opponents. Red Bull New York provided a dangerous challenge on Sunday's game in which Toronto was lucky to escape in chaotic fashion. Due to accumulated yellow cards and a red card, Sebastian GioVinco and Jozy Altidore, respectively, will be absent from the first leg conference final game against Columbus. Up until this point, Toronto has simply been too good to be taken down, although without their two star forwards they could be in danger to surging Columbus.
Columbus enters the conference finals as the surprise team of the playoffs. After shocking Atlanta in Atlanta, the Crew further proved their resilience by demolishing NYC FC in the first leg 4-1 and hanging on in the second leg to edge them 4-3 in aggregate. Columbus has the luck of facing Toronto without Altidore and Giovinco and hopes to capitalize on their absence in leg 1. Columbus has the motivation and momentum to stun Toronto, particularly if they can play as they did in leg 1 of the semifinals against NYC FC and grab an early 3 goal advantage going into the second leg.
Prediction: Toronto (4-3 Advance Aggregate)