The Most EPIC Playoff Series In MLS History

hey before we get started i just wanted to announce that i am doing mo vember it is basically when guys will grow up their mustaches in the month of november to help raise awareness for men's health issues such as prostate cancer testicular cancer and men's suicide i've been doing this for a couple years now it's an issue that hits close to my family my sister-in-law raises money every year for this so if you would like to donate that would be incredibly appreciated because every dollar counts i'll go ahead and leave a link in the description below but for now let's get to the video [Music] [Applause] [Applause] foreign okay i know there's a lot of great rivalries in mls and there have been some amazing playoff battles over the years some of them probably deserve their own video but i'm not sure there has ever been a playoff series this intense this was a series of absolute madness a series like no other a series that involved rivals but not just on the field but also in real life like seriously these two cities don't like each other and there's genuine animosity that's been building up between these two cities for years their culture values different montreal french canadian toronto english canadian montreal more old school laid back toronto new school flashy also this was two teams trying to make history by not only making their first mls cup but the country of canada's first ever mls cup it was bragging rights on the line before i dive in remember if you're a fan of mls you're just curious to find out more about the league please subscribe for more mls content and also let me know what you want to see a video on in the future up until this point toronto fc were mostly a joke yeah i tried to find a softer word i tried not to come off as so mean but the reality is is that toronto fc were terrible in the team's first eight years of existence they collected two wooden spoons never finished higher than 11th in the league and compiled a goal differential of negative 126. and now to be fair they did get close to qualifying for the playoffs in 2009 they just needed to win on the last day of the regular season but they lost 5-0 to the worst team in the league that season in 2014 the team started to make some big changes oh yeah tim bes pachenko he was making moves first they brought in michael bradley and jermaine defoe and okay i know defoe didn't last very long in a toronto fc uniform but even still that was a sign of ambition right and yeah they weren't very close to the playoffs in 2014 but then the next year in 2015 they bring in josie altador and sebastian giovinco oh yeah now we're talking while the team started off in normal tfc fashion one in four they started a gel javinco became an absolute menace and one of the brightest stars of the league and for the first time in team history toronto fc didn't finish with a losing record not a winning record either as they finished 15 15 and 4 with zero gold differential but definite progress in the eastern conference knockout game they just didn't have it they got absolutely butt whipped by rival montreal impact 3-0 and as if that wasn't humbling enough montreal also eliminated tfc in the canadian championship hey speaking of montreal they fared a little better than toronto fc at this time but it still wasn't exactly all roses okay stick with me on this one in the nba they consider the worst place to be is middle of the pack because if you're a top tier team and you're competing for a championship yeah obviously that's good everyone wants to be there but if you're a bottom tier team you have a chance to land a really high lottery pick you have a chance to draft the next mega superstar in the league and then if you're in the middle you know sneaking into the playoffs as a seven or eight seat you're not good enough to win the championship and you're not bad enough to draft the next face the league you're just sort of there and it's really hard to build up and compete for a championship without just tearing it all down and starting over okay i know mls isn't a perfect comparison to the nba but i think the best example of a middle tier team in mls in the early 2010s to mid-2010s had to be limp back montreal they weren't amazing they weren't horrible they were just sort of there they were okay i don't think anyone was seriously picking montreal to win at all but they were certainly capable of finishing around 500 and making the playoffs 2016 was when the tides started to turn because up until this point montreal had been winning their rivalry at least in terms of overall success with an mls montreal finished with the better record three or four seasons montreal knocked out toronto out of the canadian championship three years in a row plus they made deeper runs in the ccl but toronto had started to build its juggernaut just a few years prior and in 2016 we saw them transform from team on the rise to real contender while montreal was still middle of the pack toronto finished with a better record overall finishing third in the east and fifth overall montreal they finished 500 5th in the east and 11th overall which was about the usual toronto earned their first ever playoff win against the union and then absolutely demolished nycfc 7-0 in aggregate that included a 5-0 road win montreal meanwhile went to dc dispatched united 4-2 and then took on top seed in the east and perennial playoff chokers red bull new york in the conference semis a ridiculous strike on the run by mancos who gave the impact the lead after the first leg and a nacho piati brace in the second leg gave the impact the win all this talk of new york is right new york is blue no actually in 2016 new york was canadian clearly now i knew this series was a big deal because what i said earlier you know the rivalry the chance to be the first canadian team in mls cup but even i underestimated just how hyped these fan bases would get and i underestimated just how epic this match-up could be and the start of the biggest soccer matches in canadian club history got delayed because they needed to repaint the field yeah someone measured the boxes too small like how does that happen now some have speculated this was just a sneaky strategy to throw toronto off guard kind of like how some have speculated that power outage at super bowl 47 was a strategy from the nfl to get baltimore off guard because they were up by so much i know it sounds crazy i don't know if i buy it but then the match actually got started and oh my god for [Applause] who montreal the scoring in the first leg at olympic stadium he tries to find piatti with a lovely ball through back across goal for montreal 12 minutes into the game toronto what are you doing 2-0 already hey maybe there was something to delaying the start of the game but still plenty of time to come back though right like they just can't give up another one international charging forward here tfc defense back pedaling oyongo will have a crack at goal scores oh i remember watching this and i remember thinking okay someone's got to step to him someone stepped to him someone oh my god like it almost happened in slow motion a yongo a defender dribbling from half field and no one within 10 yards of him in the first hour of this game toronto fc had transformed from the team that finished third in the eastern conference back to the team they were in their first eight years of existence the crowd of over 61 000 had exploded and with the closed roof of olympic stadium this sound reverberated it reached up to over a hundred decibels it was clear that toronto's backline was their achilles heel in this matchup and with montreal's deadly counter maybe this moment was just too big for the reds maybe they weren't ready and then something snapped toronto found another gear and 15 minutes later tomorrow does that cross back to the edge of the area sebastian jaminco with an opportunity roll forward for fate a massive goal by josie pulls one back toronto has a pulse again and just five minutes after that through towards altitude still battling comes the ricketts now it's michael bradley my word toronto second the final whistle blew and montreal led after the first leg 3-2 the win was nice but giving up two away goals was not and in that second half toronto fc went from without a prayer to a fighting chance in the second leg in toronto a temporary grandstand to the south end of the stadium was added to bring the attendance up to over 36 thousand toronto looked more controlled in the beginning of this one possessing the ball making montreal chase early but despite the freezing temperatures outside tempers on the field were red hot out of the gate in the 13th minute josie alterdoor collided with hernan bernadello near midfield which apparently was not yellow card worthy the task for toronto wasn't insurmountable but it did get a whole lot harder as montreal once again struck first [Applause] again just like the first leg he gets montreal on the board first aduro actually played for toronto in 2014 and scored just twice in 24 appearances yeah not great but when he transferred to montreal his numbers were much better aduro was known for two things one shaving a pizza into his hair and two his speed and in both legs the tfc back line couldn't keep up with his quickness the aggregate now stood at four to two [Applause] 36 minutes gone he scores his first goal for toronto fc it's tied at 1-1 15 minutes later off the corner javinco's ball finds haglin and armando cooper who hadn't scored for toronto yet this season pokes it into the net game on 1-1 4-3 on the aggregate you know one of the things that made this series so exciting was that the goals often came in bunches in the last leg montreal was able to score their first two goals just three minutes apart and toronto was able to score their two goals just five minutes apart and leg two was no different because just eight minutes after their first toronto off another javinco corner [Applause] got to guard that near post this is the celebration worthy of a game winner the pure jubilation on the faces of toronto like after a three-goal deficit they would now advance because of away goals then it lasts long thought [Applause] chaos in the box somehow some way the ball trickles into the net yeah sorry clint or when this one's on you caught in no man's land and montreal ties the game and takes the lead in the aggregate and also scores the extremely important second away goal scoring just one more would give the impact the away goal advantage and force tfc to need to score three but 15 minutes later goes short towards justin and now it's played into space for morrow to chip this one into the edge of the box and it is who remember got close in the first half comes through with a bullet header from the penalty spot bed them in toronto again after 90 minutes both toronto and montreal tied 5-5 in aggregate both teams with two away goals extra time coming and just six minutes in javinco has to come off because of an apparent injury a lot of respect here from the montreal players coming up and consoling javinco my initial thought was this is a huge loss for toronto i mean i get it you need him for mls cup if you make it and if he can't go anymore you gotta take him off but there goes so much creativity up top as well as a surefire pk taker if it goes to penalties in comes benoit shairu certainly no slouch but also no javinco and two minutes later [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] it's oh my god with two goals in the first 10 minutes of extra time tfc was able to hold on toronto fc officially became the first canadian team to ever make mls cup a series for the ages we saw the stars the dps step up with crucial goals but in the end was the guys on the bench who became the unsung heroes in this matchup toronto fc would go on to lose mls cup to the seattle sounders in a pk shootout but they got the revenge next year there have been many many epic playoff series in mls's history but for me this is the pinnacle this is the greatest playoff series i have ever seen in any sport yeah other leagues may have been around longer other leagues may have more tradition other leagues may have better players but the one thing that mls has over all those other weeks is the playoffs and this is my hot take of all hot takes tradition be damned every league in the world should have playoffs every league in the world should have the chance to see their own version of toronto montreal 2016. you know usually i'm pretty good at writing a script and painting a picture with storytelling but to close out this video i think i'll reference a quote from waking the red it's the esp nation blog for toronto fc they had an article about this series and this quote read over those 210 minutes the club had officially slayed the myriad of demons and hampered them for decades i couldn't have said it better myself because for the longest time toronto were that team they were the team where you can look at another team struggling and say yeah they might suck but hey at least they're not toronto not anymore not after that series now we just say that about fc cincinnati thank you for watching again please subscribe for more mls content and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: DannyTRadio

Views: 8,391

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Id: HQP_sOH1Fic

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 17 2021