New York City FC new 2021 MLS Champion: Goals and match summary

Portland Timbers and New York City FC faced each other at Providence Park to define the 2021 MLS Cup champion. In front of approximately 25,000 thousand fans, both teams gave their best in the final. The match ended 1-1, so the game went to extra time where the result remained. Penalty kicks defined the match and New York City, the visitor team, was more accurate in the throws.

New York City FC First MLS Championship

New York City FC won their first MLS title and became the 14th team in the MLS with at least one championship. NYCFC was founded in 2013 by Manchester City and the New York Yankees, who jointly paid $100 million to join as a new franchise in Major League Soccer in the United States.

Since 2015 the club plays as an MLS expansion team and is the second team in the New York City metropolitan area alongside the New York Red Bulls.

Match Resume

The visitors controlled the action for much of the first half and were rewarded with the opener on 41 minutes through Castellanos. Taty who won the Golden Boot presented by Audi as the top goalscorer during the MLS regular season, struck for the first goal of MLS Cup 2021 to give New York City FC a 1-0 lead late in the first half at Providence Park.

Castellanos latched onto a Maxi Moralez free kick served toward the back post and put his downward header on frame. The ball was parried along the wet surface by Portland Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark, though trickled inside the far post.

Castellanos, who returned from a one-game suspension after a late sending off in NYCFC’s upset of the New England Revolution in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, is just the second Golden Boot winner to score in an MLS Cup Final in the same year. Josef Martinez was the first in MLS Cup 2018 – ironically also against Portland – to lead Atlanta United to the title lift at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

But Mora sent the match into extra time on the final play of regulation with one of the most dramatic late goals in MLS Cup history. The Chilean international forward pounced on a loose ball in the box following a mad scramble and slotted the finish past NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson, sending the crowd of 25,218 onlookers at Providence into bedlam.

NYCFC prevailed in the shootout, aided by a heroic performance from Johnson. The veteran backstop saved each of Portland's first two attempts from Felipe Mora and Diego Valeri. While Clark also managed a save on.