{"id":472410,"date":"2023-12-10T04:11:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T08:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=472410"},"modified":"2023-12-10T04:51:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T08:51:52","slug":"crew-fairytale-has-happy-ending-as-they-beat-lafc-in-mls-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/crew-fairytale-has-happy-ending-as-they-beat-lafc-in-mls-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Crew fairytale has happy ending as they beat LAFC in MLS Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Columbus Crew showcased their bold, possession-oriented style to perfection, clinching the ultimate prize in MLS with a 2-1 victory over LAFC in MLS Cup 2023 presented by Audi.<\/p>\n<p>This triumph adds to their previous victories in 2008 and 2020, cementing their place in history once again.<\/p>\n<p>The first-half saw goals from Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez (33&#8242;) and Yaw Yeboah (37&#8242;), providing Columbus with a comfortable lead despite D\u00e9nis Bouanga&#8217;s (74&#8242;) lifeline for LAFC.<\/p>\n<p>This victory marked the end of LAFC&#8217;s MLS Cup repeat quest, and Wilfried Nancy&#8217;s team successfully reached the summit of the 29-team competition that commenced with the MLS is Back weekend on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Earlier this year, LAFC was valued as the first $1 billion franchise in Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n<p>Columbus \u2014 with one of the smallest markets in American pro sports \u2014 is worth nearly half that.<\/p>\n<p>The Crew just took down the reigning champs to win their 2nd MLS Cup in three years \ud83c\udfc6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KTgLK3yZ8W\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/KTgLK3yZ8W<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Front Office Sports (@FOS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FOS\/status\/1733624663186571285?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez played a pivotal role in Columbus&#8217; lead, converting an authoritative penalty kick that earned him the MLS Cup MVP presented by Audi honors. This achievement also made him the co-leading goal scorer in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs with five goals. The penalty opportunity arose when referee Armando Villarreal deemed LAFC defender Diego Palacios to have handled a flicked-up touch from Diego Rossi.<\/p>\n<p>Columbus, known as the highest-scoring team in 2023, quickly extended their advantage as Yaw Yeboah capitalized on an 11-pass buildup. The left wingback received Malte Amundsen&#8217;s line-splitting through ball and skillfully slotted home an outside-the-foot finish past LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Cr\u00e9peau.<\/p>\n<p>However, D\u00e9nis Bouanga, a consistent force in 2023, added drama by slipping a second-effort shot past Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte. This goal drew Bouanga level with teammate Carlos Vela for the most calendar-year goals (38) in MLS across all competitions, matching Vela&#8217;s MVP-winning 2019 performance.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">COLUMBUS CREW ARE THE NEW MLS CHAMPIONS! \ud83d\udd25\ud83c\udfc6\ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@MLS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BQtwAPvGJm\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/BQtwAPvGJm<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MARCA in English \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@MARCAinENGLISH) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MARCAinENGLISH\/status\/1733626009813950660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite LAFC&#8217;s late push, Columbus held firm, and after seven minutes of second-half stoppage time, they celebrated as the MLS champions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pFhmem8LPY4?si=OtkRvJbhYjMcyXvL\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Columbus Crew showcased their bold, possession-oriented style to perfection, clinching the ultimate prize in MLS with a 2-1 victory over LAFC in MLS [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":472411,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17688,17738,17546],"news_category":[17676,14235,14084],"gn_keywords":[19941,18192,22305],"acf":{"announce":"Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez and Yaw Yeboah scored for the 2-1 win in the final battle","video":["video"]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/472410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/472410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":472417,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/472410\/revisions\/472417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472410"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=472410"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=472410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}