Columbus Crew Beat Seattle Sounders to Lift MLS Cup

Columbus Crew secured their second MLS Cup in their 25-year history on Sunday by picking up a stunning 3-0 victory against defending champions Seattle Sounders.

It was Seattle who came into the game as favourites, having won the final last year and reached this stage in four of the last five seasons, and Columbus' revelation that midfielder Darlington Nagbe and winger Pedro Santos would miss the game after testing positive for COVID-19 only strengthened that belief.

Despite their underdog status, Columbus rarely looked under threat during the game. They dominated the first half and took a deserved lead through match MVP Lucas Zelarayan after 25 minutes.

Zelarayan turned creator six minutes later to pick out Derrick Etienne Jr., who curled a delightful effort past Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei to give Columbus a commanding lead.

Seattle did their best to roar back after the break, trying to channel the spirit of their comeback in the Western Conference final against Minnesota United, but Columbus refused to back down and bagged a late in the second half.

It was Zelarayan again who fired home in the 82nd minute to bring the cup back to Columbus for the first time since 2008.

"I think there was a little bit of extra motivation to do this for Darlington Nagbe and Pedro Santos," manager Caleb Porter said (via ESPN) after the game. "Those two guys were a key to us getting here.

"Without them, it was a tall order, but I think we used that to galvanize the group even more and give us even a little bit more hunger than we had already, which was a lot.

"As much as I have the utmost respect for Seattle Sounders and Brian Schmetzer with Jordan Morris and [Raul] Ruidiaz, Cristian Roldan and Stefan Frei, we were not going to let history or the past determine today. This was going to be our year, our day and our trophy. That was the message before the game.

"I don't care about what they've done in the past, it's going to be decided on today. I think we showed that. We came out, we fought, we had intensity in the match from the opening whistle."

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