Western Conference drama, Hell is Real & more: Decision Day's biggest moments | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

The first goal of the night arrived almost immediately.

New England’s Alhassan Yusuf did the honors, exploiting a playing-out-of-the-back howler by the Chicago Fire just one minute into their clash at Gillette Stadium to kick off the breathless five-hour collective whiparound that was MLS Decision Day 2025.

Perhaps it was a premonition. That first one would prove quite a weighty goal indeed (more on that in a bit) and 51 more followed across 15 matches, for a pulse-quickening average of 3.47 total goals per game as the gripping fight for the last few Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs spots lasted until the final whistle of the final game of the regular season.

If you couldn't quite keep pace with everything all at once – and who could? – here’s a whiparound of the whiparound, so to speak: a quick tour through some of Decision Day’s high points.

The Night Shift

The math was simple: Four teams – Colorado, Dallas, Real Salt Lake and San Jose – competing for the final two playoff spots left in the Western Conference. The path to a final reckoning was anything but.

The Rapids needed to beat LAFC to get in. Dallas needed a result in Vancouver. RSL needed to at least avoid defeat in St. Louis. The Earthquakes had to beat Austin and hope for help elsewhere. And at one point or another in the season’s nerve-wracking final half-hour, all four were agonizingly close to the chips falling in their favor.

There was Darren Yapi’s sensational diving header in the 87th minute to push Colorado in front, only for Mile High dreams to be dashed by an even later strike from Andrew Moran. Salt Lake looked set for smooth sailing thanks to Victor Olatunji’s first-half brace, then got slashed open twice by CITY SC and had to hang on for dear life at the end of the night.

The Quakes slipped into an early deficit at the hands of Owen Wolff, then rallied in the final moments for a 2-1 home win, and turned their weary eyes to the big screens at PayPal Park to see whether STL could complete a dramatic comeback at rain-lashed Energizer Park that would have opened the path for them. Even with a man advantage for most of their game, Dallas had to cling for dear life to their slim 2-1 advantage up in British Columbia.

When the dust had settled, it was RSL and Dallas in, Rapids and Quakes out.

And deep, calming breaths for the rest of us.

GOAT does GOAT things

All year long, anyone asked to predict how the Golden Boot presented by Audi or Landon Donovan MLS MVP races would shake out has had to add a disclaimer to the effect of, ‘all bets are off if Lionel Messi stays healthy and goes Super Saiyan down the stretch.’

Well, folks… he did, reeling off an absurd 10g/9a in Inter Miami’s final eight matches, elevating an already outstanding individual campaign into best-ever territory and, perhaps, MVP level.

Entering Decision Day with a two-goal lead on Denis Bouanga atop the league scoring charts, Messi bagged a gorgeous hat trick in a 5-2 win at Nashville SC – his second straight Decision Day hatty – to pivot the Golden Boot race from photo finish to laugher.

Prayers up for B.J. Callaghan and Nashville, who now have to solve the Messi buzzsaw in a Round One Best-of-3 Series rematch in the playoffs.

WATCH: Lionel Messi scores Decision Day hat trick!

Dallas do the dang thing

Just a couple of months ago, most league observers, were they to speak truly honestly, would've considered FC Dallas cooked, languishing 12th in the West after winning just one of 12 league matches between the start of May and mid-July. Then they shipped their most talented player, former MLS MVP Lucho Acosta, to Brazil, signaling a reset of what was already expected to be a rebuilding season under first-year coach Eric Quill.

Then something funny happened. The North Texans found themselves.

FCD have lost just once since Lucho left, reeling off a 5W-1L-4D record to surge back into the playoffs reckoning, riding the strike duo of Petar Musa and Logan Farrington and a tenacious team-first ethos. Still, Decision Day posed a mighty tall order: Jet all the way up to Vancouver and knock off the first-place Whitecaps – without the suspended Musa and Farrington.

One week after losing Farrington to a harsh red card that contributed to a costly loss at the LA Galaxy, Dallas’ luck turned 180 degrees, with an early DOGSO red card to Matias Laborda that left the ‘Caps shorthanded and set the stage for a 2-1 upset.

Quill & Co. aren't just in the postseason, they’re in seventh, clear of the Wild Card round and on course for a Round One rematch with the very same Vancouver outfit.

Thomas Müller and his teammates should be motivated for revenge, considering this setback cost them first place in the West. Thanks to their 4-0 road drubbing of Portland, San Diego FC equalled VWFC on 63 points and snatched the top spot via the wins tiebreaker, another garland for the best expansion season in MLS history.

Andres Dreyer (2g/1a)... take a bow. In a world where Messi isn’t Messi, the Dane is this year’s MVP. He'll likely have to settle for Newcomer of the Year, ending the regular season with an astounding 19g/19a.

Highway to Hell is Real

Anyone who knows the MLS playoffs can attest that the Wild Card round is no place for aspiring champions: Playing an extra game just days before the start of Round One piles on wear and tear that tends to kneecap would-be Cinderellas.

So Chicago, Columbus and Orlando were hunting positive results to lift themselves into seventh place and avoid the extra hurdle awaiting the eight and nine seeds. While they made heavy sledding of the task, falling behind early at home to the already-eliminated New York Red Bulls, it was the Crew who held their nerve in this game of cutthroat pool.

First, Wilfried Nancy’s side equalized via a trademark wingback-to-wingback goal by Andrés Herrera, then painstakingly clawed back control of the match down the stretch. Dániel Gazdag finally dug out a close-range tally in the 66th minute, before Ibrahim Aliyu iced it in the dying minutes to ensure club legend Darlington Nagbe got a positive sendoff in the final regular-season match of his storied career, a 3-1 victory at Lower.com Field.

“Obviously,” said Nancy postgame, “the emotion was huge.”

Their reward: a rousing Round One faceoff with their heated in-state rivals, FC Cincinnati, who are unbeaten in five after Saturday's 3-0 win over CF Montréal and boast an MVP-caliber talent in Evander.

Three games of playoff-intensity Hell is Real? Yes, please.

Orlando City started the day in the No. 7 spot, only to faceplant badly in their visit to cellar dwellers Toronto FC, dropping a 4-2 scoreline that extends the Lions’ autumn swoon (1W-3L-3D in their last seven). And that aforementioned Fire howler in Foxborough proved damaging to Chicago’s hopes, pushing Gregg Berhalter’s boys behind the eight-ball all night; CF97 could only scratch out a 2-2 draw against the Revs via a 99th-minute (!) own goal by Dor Turgeman.

That late twist still matters, though: It earned Chicago hosting rights for their midweek duel with Orlando.

A to Zaha in Carolina

What a night for Charlotte FC, eh?

The Crown enjoyed an entertaining 2-0 win over the Supporters’ Shield-winning Philadelphia Union in front of more than 31,000 noisy Carolina blue partisans, with slick goals netted by Wilfried Zaha and Kerwin Vargas that clinch fourth place for CLTFC and home-field advantage vs. New York City FC in Round One of the playoffs.

Actually, it wasn’t as great as it could have been, because Zaha had to go and do this, in the LAST MINUTE of regulation time, to draw an inevitable red card from referee Tori Penso and rule himself out of at least one playoff game due to suspension:

That’s a huge loss, and a self-inflicted wound, even if head coach Dean Smith made some valid postgame points about the physical treatment constantly meted out to the Anglo-Ivorian star, who is the most fouled player in MLS by some margin.

Time will tell just how much Charlotte – who were shaping into a real dark-horse MLS Cup threat – will miss their biggest name, who finished his first year in North America with double digits in both goals and assists.

“Sometimes the red mist will come down on you,” said Smith. “He’s human.”