ATLANTA – Coming into Saturday’s 2018 MLS Cup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (5pm PT, FOX) the Portland Timbers and Atlanta United FC have only played each other only twice before in MLS play. But that doesn’t mean the two teams are strangers.
While their shared soccer history stretches back to the USL and NASL eras and there are connections between players who have played for both sides (Darlington Nagbe and Sal Zizzo) and shared homelands from abroad (Timbers head coach Giovanni Savarese and 2018 Landon Donovan MLS MVP Josef Martinez both hail from Venezuela), there’s a unique connection between two Argentines on both sides.