The MLS season comes to an end on Saturday evening with two teams that could not have taken more opposite paths to the final squaring off. The away side are the Portland Timbers, the fifth seed in the Western Conference that took down giants throughout the postseason, beating the Nos. 4, 2, and 1 seeds en route to the final. The hosts are Atlanta United, which has looked dominant all season and mowed through the Eastern Conference as a two-seed despite only being in its second year in the league.
It’s a fascinating matchup, one which pits a former MLS Cup champion in Portland against the league’s new kids on the block. For added intrigue, the game will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which has turned into perhaps the most hostile road environment in the league, as 70,000+ are expected to fill in wearing the red, black, and gold of Atlanta United.
To get you prepped for what should be a dynamite final, we caught up with John Strong and Stu Holden, Fox Sports’ announce team for all teams soccer. The pair were on hand for the Champions League final in May, traveled throughout Russia and called the final for the 2018 World Cup, and will call all the action from Atlanta on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Strong and Holden broke down both teams, picked the coolest experiences they’ve had as broadcasters, and while we had them, gave their reactions to U.S. Soccer selecting Gregg Berhalter to lead the men’s national team.
Uproxx Sports: Let’s start with Portland, it’s not often a team seeded fifth out of six teams gets to a final, how did they get here and past the top-2 seeds in the conference?
John Strong: There are definite similarities with what Portland has done this year and what they did three years ago when they won the title, which is that regardless of what they did over the course of the season and sort of their ups and downs that got them into the seed that they are, is they’re catching fire at the right time. Both times it’s been giddy up momentum behind the in October, a formation change that was a part of that and just sort of the pieces clicking into place. Everyone has performed certainly at the attacking end.
While on the one hand you would say “they were the fifth seed, they were the fifth-best team in the Western Conference,” and I forget off the top of my head where they would be in the overall standings, but they clearly have been in the last two months one of the best teams in the league. To be able to go and win in Dallas without a whole lot of fuss, to be able to outlast a Seattle team that has been to the last two MLS Cups, then to beat Kansas City outright in their own building, those are impressive results. That’s just the nature of the playoffs, the team that has been the best soccer over the most important time of the year finds themselves as one-half of the MLS Cup matchup.
Timbers defender Zarek Valentin said “We’re not favored, but who cares? We’ll be underdogs all day.” In watching them or in conversations you’ve had with players/coaches in Portland, have you seen them have this chip on their shoulders, and why is it there?
Stu Holden: I think they have, also I think the coach, Giovani Savarese, has a little bit of that, because he was a coach that came into this league having had success in NASL and I think many people from the beginning were saying, “Well, this is gonna be a much bigger challenge for him, we’re really gonna find out about him as a coach.” This is his first year with this group and the team that still has players from that MLS Cup team back in 2015, it still feels like they never get as much credit as they’re probably due.
I think that that mentality has served them well, certainly throughout the playoffs. Giovanni Savarese rested players in their last regular season game, to go to Dallas and beat Dallas, the No. 2 seed, then they beat Seattle their rival. I just think that this team has an incredible belief that they’ve built up and the momentum that they’ve built up throughout the playoffs. We say it so often with Major League Soccer, it’s two seasons, it’s the regular season and then it’s about the teams that peak at the right time and come together at the right time, and I think that’s again where Savarese deserves a lot of credit for just really allowing this group to find their identity, to find what works best for them, to believe in themselves, and then ultimately when it matters most, they’ve performed at an incredibly high level and they’ve been worthy winners in every single matchup they’ve had so far in the playoffs.
Moving over to Atlanta, you’re talking about momentum, I can’t think of a team that sums that up better than Atlanta. Their rise from playing their first match to playing in MLS Cup in 21 months is kind of stunning. How did they get here?
John: I think the answer with Atlanta has to begin with Arthur Blank and the investment that he’s put in, not just in dollars but in the belief that this is big time pro sports, and sometimes we’ve had owners in this league, owners in this sport, who have the financial wherewithal to do it but one thing or another got in the way from them really going all-in. What Arthur Blank has done, not just with the coach he went out and hired in Tata Martino, not just in the players he’s gone out and purchased and spent money on, the way they built that stadium where they built half of it for Atlanta United, they built it with the soccer team in mind to make sure it felt like their home and not just a soccer team is playing in the football team’s stadium. The training facility they built, all these things show an ambition and a desire to win, and that is something that is needed. In any pro sport, you have to have an owner who is willing to go all-in on it, so that’s where it starts with Atlanta.
And yeah, you can say on the one hand, “Ok, with the amount of money they’ve spent, they should have success, from the players they have to the coach that they have,” but they’ve also been able to get production out of some really savvy veterans. As much as we focus on the attacking prowess of Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron, the heart of this team has been what they’ve been able to accomplish defensively — they’re a lot better defensively than they get credit for, and that’s in large part long-time MLS veterans like Jeff Larentowicz and Michael Parkhurst, and then a returning long-time American abroad in Brad Guzan, so there’s been a nice mix in their roster.
Now it’s a matter of getting it done. Despite what happened on the final day of the regular season in Toronto to lost the Supporters Shield race, we all expected them to be here, they’re supposed to be here because of what they have been able to accomplish in the last two years. What a glorious day it would be in Atlanta if they’re able to get this thing done and really set off a big city-wide party.
I have to ask about Miguel Almiron and Josef Martinez. What makes those two special, and how do they make life easier for everyone else in Atlanta?
Stu: Both players are incredibly dynamic and just powerful in different ways. For Almiron, he’s a player, I think, one of the best players over the last two years in this league and that’s not even a question. Just how he can go … he’s a team player first and foremost, you see him tracking back even in their last matchup against the Red Bulls, he’s back in his own box making defensive plays. But when he’s going forward, he’s a difference-maker, and what separates him from other playmakers in this league is that when he gets in those spots, because of his speed and because of his athleticism, he’s able to either pick a pass or score a goal more often than not. His percentage for doing that is incredible.
Josef Martinez, who is the best goalscorer this league has ever seen, his eye for a goal, his nose for a goal as they call it for a striker. And look, he benefits from a team in Atlanta United that plays in a way that suits him, that can get out, that can break after teams quickly, that allow him to be that lone spearhead of the attack and get into those positions, but he’s getting a lot of service from wide because of the way that Tata Martino has set this team up. Martinez, his composure in the box, and I think that’s something that stood out again in the playoffs — even the goal against the New York Red Bulls, his first one in that series where he just takes it off his chest eight yards from the goal and just has that moment that strikers need where everything just slows down and he picks out the corner. That’s where Martinez has been so good this year and he’s missed a lot of chances, too, but he has that striker’s mentality where he lets those go and focuses on the next play.
He’s again a guy that is gonna worry this Portland defense in this final because they’re gonna be worried and game-planning to combat these two’s speed and their ability just to get in behind defenses time after again. When they are in those positions, like I said, it’s gonna be a goal more often than not.
Could I get predictions or do you guys want to stray away from doing those in the lead-up to things?
John: I hate to give predictions because then if and when I’m wrong I feel like it damages my credibility, so I’m better off just keeping my mouth shut and enjoying it like everyone else. [laughs]
Stu: Yeah, I’ll pass on predictions, too.
Ok, so let’s play fill in the blank. If Atlanta wins, it’s because blank. If Portland wins, it’s because blank.
John: Well, if Atlanta wins, it is because Blank in some ways because of Arthur Blank.
Stu: Nice.
John: I would say if Atlanta wins it’s because their offense overpowers Portland as a team. I would say if Portland wins, it’s because their organization stifles what Atlanta is trying to do.
You’ve gotten to do some pretty cool stuff for Fox, whether it’s calling games, traveling, talking to people. I’d imagine it’s calling the World Cup Final this summer, but what’s been the coolest experience so far and how do you think this one will measure up to that?
Stu: I think you’re right as far as the World Cup Final, I would just say the World Cup in general, it was, for John and I — I mean that by the lead-up, all the games we’ve done this entire year together, and just getting to that experience together. Our first game was Spain-Portugal, which is a game that’ll always stand out for me, but just the month all-encompassing of traveling, and game after game, and then all of that culminating in the World Cup Final. It was one of those moments, as a broadcaster, where I took my headset off right before the anthems and just kinda looked around and said, “This is pretty cool.”
I’m pretty fortunate to be doing this for a living, it’s something I really enjoy, and doing it with one of my good friends as well. I think when we look back on this year as our broadcasting careers go along, it’s gonna be a year that made us better and made us more thankful for what we have, and at the same time, hungrier for more because I know that’s something I wanna experience. I’ll be sitting there again in front of 72,000 people this weekend probably doing the same thing, looking at this from an individual perspective but also look at what this means for soccer in America, to have an MLS Cup in front of this many people and for this to be that big of a deal. Those are the cool moments that we get to experience as broadcasters.
John: I would just add that one of the things that my dad would always tell me growing up was, “Find something you love doing and then find a way to get paid to do it,” and that’s what I’ve been able to do from a kid growing up dreaming of being able to do this for a living, travel around to soccer games and call it. And to be able to do that, then, with my friends, and I know that sounds hokey, but the friendship I’ve developed with Stu forged in fire with 40 days straight of travel around Russia and our remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but also our very good friend Katie Witham, who is with us every week on MLS, our very good friend Shaw Brown, who’s been producing my games for more than six years now, we’re lucky to be in this because rarely in life and in business do all the pieces get to come together, and what a special year it’s been. My biggest motivation for Saturday is just to finish it on a high and have our best broadcast of the year — World Cup, Champions League, MLS, everything included, have our best show all year Saturday night and be able to go off into our offseason really with a good feeling.
While I have you, I do want to ask a question about U.S. Soccer hiring Gregg Berhalter. This is kind of a broad question, but is he what the national team needs right now? If so, what is that thing?
Stu: There’s gonna be, as with ever with an appointment of a national team manager, there’s not gonna be unanimous support across the board. But look, I think we could yell and scream for hours about the process and how long it’s taken, and I agree it has taken too long. Even I was getting to the point the last couple of months … it was more so out of frustration because, I think, everybody was just ready to have a coach that fans and players and coaches and everybody could get behind and rally behind and feel like we’re moving this thing forward as opposed to having felt it’s been stuck in neutral for the past year.
The reality is we’ve seen, in 2018, a good portion of this pool, we’ve seen a good number of young players get their first caps, we’ve seen some players with some good performances and things that we can be excited about, and I think that that’s where Gregg Berhalter fits and checks a lot of those boxes for me. His experience in making younger players better, his attention to detail, his tactical brain, the way that he wants to play, and you see with Berhalter teams a clear style and a clear identity. You can look at that and say that’s a Gregg Berhalter team, and I think that that’s something our national team now has needed for a number of years. I’m excited to see him get to work. That work started yesterday and his first time with this team is gonna be in the January camp, so it’s a nice setting for him to … probably not have all of his best players but have a core number of the group together and really just get to work and drill this team to playing that he wants to.
As John said yesterday, the first litmus test is gonna be the Gold Cup this next summer, which will be on Fox, because that’s gonna be the first competitive fixtures for the U.S. since not qualifying for the World Cup against Trinidad and Tobago. That’s gonna be the one everybody’s looking for, he’s gonna have a little bit of a time to try and get this team together, but at the end of the day, it’s about winning, and that’s what he’s gonna be judged on. It doesn’t matter if you have a sexy style of play or a way of playing that’s good on the eyes, you’ve gotta start winning and getting results with this U.S. team again for people to really get excited about it and believe that this team can make some noise in 2022 if we can qualify.
John: The only thing I would add to that is the idea that, among the challenges facing Gregg Berhalter, he’s not even gonna coach a game for two months, he’s not even gonna coach with his full team until March, he’s not gonna coach a game in a competitive setting — in a tournament setting — until the summer, and really we’re talking about four years from right now, the next World Cup, and only qualifying for that World Cup will solve some of the wounds that happened last October in Trinidad. And that timeline sort of violates every in which way we see the world in 2018, in which we want our answers now, particularly with a lot of well-deserved, pent-up anger, for lack of a better word, from a lot of the fanbase.
So, Gregg Berhalter cannot silence of those critics any time soon, but he’s gotta be able to put his head down and get to work, and hopefully, when four years from now we’re sitting in Qatar, we can look back and go, “Ok, that was a really rough, rough process and year-plus, but we ended up getting to the place we needed to.”
