New York City FC defeated Portland Timbers 4-2 on penalties, after a 1-1 draw to became 2021 MLS Cup champions for the first time in their history. Taty Castellanos opened the scoring and Felipe Mora got the equalizer for the Timbers in the 94th minute. In the penalties shootout, Alex Callens got the final call for NYCFC.
This was their seventh overall meeting. Portland Timbers were the absolute favorites in head-to-head clashes, having celebrated a victory on five occasions so far; New York City FC have grabbed a triumph just once to this day, and, before the final, no matches had ended in a draw.
Before the 2021 MLS Cup final, their most recent game was played on August 1, 2020, when the Timbers won comfortably 3-1 away at the Yankee Stadium in New York in the Quarter-Finals of the 2020 MLS Is Back tournament.
New York City FC: Past Cup wins
On Saturday, December 11, New York City FC marked their debut in the MLS Cup Finals and it's first trophy. In 2015, they missed out on the MLS Cup Playoffs, finishing eighth in the Eastern Conference with 37 points. The next season, new coach Patrick Vieira led them to their first MLS Playoffs participation, as well as a second-place finish in the Supporters' Shield.
The furthest the Pigeons got was the Conference Semi-Finals, where they were defeated 7-0 on aggregate by Toronto FC. In 2017, NYFC ended the regular season in second place in the Eastern Conference with 57, securing a direct Conference Semi-Finals spot. They were again stopped at that particular stage, this time by Columbus Crew (4-3 on aggregate).
The following two seasons were also unsuccessful for the Boys in Blue, reaching the Conference Semi-Finals stage twice, only to lose to Atlanta United (4-1 on aggregate), and Toronto FC 2-1 respectively in the 2019 MLS Playoffs. In their previous attempt, in MLS 2020, they failed to get past the First Round, losing to Orlando City on penalties, after a 1-1 draw.
