ATLANTA — This is what MLS can be: A stadium filled to the rafters with 73,000 fans, all of them standing—seriously, standing—for 90 minutes. A championship team in the American South, once thought to be a no-go zone for soccer, playing sexy fútbol under a former Barcelona coach. And a team owner reveling in a title as though he had just won the Super Bowl, all while sending a clarion call to his fellow MLS owners: Follow my ambition or you will be left behind.
I have attended 17 of the 23 MLS Cup finals, and the one here on Saturday—a 2-0 win by Atlanta United over the Portland Timbers—felt like no other MLS final before it.