Portland ultimately was not able to take advantage of their home-field advantage and lost in penalties to a feisty New York City FC side with captain Sean Johnson making two huge saves and led by MLS 2021 Golden Boot winner Valentin Taty Castellanos on the scoring end, the boys from the Bronx claim Major League Soccer's ultimate prize. NYCFC MLS Cup Champions is how the year ends, but of course what's next for MLS and NYCFC?


Sean and Erik discuss the game, the standout performances, and if there are any leads for a new stadium for NYCFC. They also go through the highlights of Don Garber's "State of MLS" address which includes the upcoming MLS TV rights deal, MLS Next PRO, Las Vegas being team # 30, Don's thoughts on the Biennial World Cup idea, and more.


Plus the NWSL keeps making big moves and now Alex Morgan literally joins the San Diego Wave, Jesse Marsch is out at RB Leipzig, Chris Armas is in as Manchester United assistant, and the final USMNT squad of 2021 prepares for a friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina this week.


Of course, our Manchester United Moment is an interesting one as Ralf Rangnick's first week is eventful with two wins and a draw that doesn't really matter. Are there any positives to take from what's happened so far? Should there be a lot of concern with Brentford and Brighton coming up? And is it Bruno or Ronaldo? Who's the actual problem in the team?