Here are the ten things we learned on Decision Day as the 2016 MLS regular season drew to a close.

1. The Timbers’ Title Defense Goes Up In Flames

Despite enduring a 2016 season with more turbulence than anyone in Portland could have imagined, the defending champion Timbers entered the final day of the MLS regular season in an excellent position: Beat Vancouver, make the playoffs.

It wasn’t an unreasonable ask. The ‘Caps, long since eliminated from postseason contention, were playing just for pride. The major news from their camp in the buildup was a fistfight in training between Pedro Morales and David Ousted.

This was this kind of game over the last three years where Caleb Porter made his money. In fact, the Timbers outscored their opponents 12-2 in their previous three road finales under Porter’s direction.

So what happened on Sunday afternoon at BC Place qualifies as the shock of the season.

Vancouver ran the Timbers off the field. It was 4-0 Whitecaps at the hour mark, with Giles Barnes, Pedro Morales, and Nico Mezquida all showing up for what felt like the first time all season.

Portland, meanwhile, simply fell apart. They were overrun in midfield, a mess on the wings, and a carnival in central defense. The reward? The Timbers are just the third team in league history to miss the playoffs the year after winning MLS Cup.

Throw in the team’s exit from the CONCACAF Champions League on Wednesday night, and you have a fairly nightmarish season. The Timbers had their moments in 2016, but this year was a mess.

Too many injuries, too many players from the championship team gone, and too many average and soft players brought in to replace them.

When push came to shove, this team collapsed. It’s going to be a long, hard offseason in the Rose City.

2. Dallas Wins The Shield

Dallas on Sunday afternoon became just the third team in league history to win the US Open Cup – Supporters’ Shield double, drawing the LA Galaxy at the StubHub Center.

Without both Mauro Diaz and Fabian Castillo, Dallas’ MLS Cup and treble hopes have faded considerably – though, who exactly is going to beat them in the West? – but whatever happens from here on out shouldn’t take away anything from a club that quietly put together an extraordinarily impressive season.

In addition to winning the Open Cup and the Shield, Dallas also advanced from their group in CONCACAF Champions League play, won numerous youth titles, and did it all on a shoestring budget.

For building a club for on-field success, Dallas has to be considered the league’s current model. They should be very good for a long, long time.

3. Seattle Completes Their Return From The Dead

The Seattle Sounders, dead, buried, and without a permanent manager since July, will head to the postseason for the eighth consecutive season.

The Sounders punched their ticket with a 2-1 home win over Real Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon, and in doing so, leapfrogged RSL to finish fourth in the Western Conference and win the rights to a home Wild Card game. They’ll get Sporting Kansas City on Thursday.

The Sounders finally got some wing production on Sunday, which is an encouraging sign heading into a postseason without Clint Dempsey. Alvaro Fernandez had one of his best games since returning to the club in the summer, while Cristian Roldan bagged the winner off of a set-piece.

The question for Brian Schmetzer heading into Thursday will be where he plays Roldan. He can either play centrally next to Ozzie Alonso with Brad Evans wide, or keep Eric Friberg next to Alonso with Roldan on the wing.

These are big calls for Schmetzer, who likely needs a deep playoff run to lock down the managerial job. In any case, the Sounders’ staple has done an admirable job since taking over for Sigi Schmid. This is very much a team to fear in the playoffs.

4. Wright-Phillips Wins The Golden Boot

He needed every last goal to hold off David Villa, but for the second time in his career, Bradley Wright-Phillips has won the MLS Golden Boot.

Wright-Phillips scored early on Sunday afternoon for the Red Bulls in Chester in what would finish as a 2-0 win over the Philadelphia Union, putting him on 24 goals to finish the season.

It seems like a long time ago that everyone thought Wright-Phillips would fade away after the retirement of Thierry Henry. The opposite has happened. The Englishman has just gotten better.

And the Red Bulls, make no mistake, are heavy favorites to win MLS Cup. This team is unbeaten in their last sixteen games, a run stretching back to July 3rd. They’ve also won their last four.

Sacha Kljestan, it’s worth noting, was only denied his 20th assist of the season on Sunday by way of a scoring decision. These Red Bulls are healthy, happy, and the team to beat.

5. NYCFC Stays Hot

All the credit in the world to Patrick Vieira, David Villa, and an NYCFC team that has played some pretty remarkable soccer since the beginning of the summer and came in just three points behind the Red Bulls in the East.

A deluge of late goals on Sunday took Vieira’s men past Columbus, with four different players getting on the score-sheet and Frank Lampard influential in his return from injury off the bench.

The win locked up the second seed and, considering the average age of their squad, a crucial bye for NYC.

The club also finished with the most goals scored in the league, and, after all the early hysteria about their home form, no losses at Yankee Stadium since early June. It’s been as impressive a turnaround as Colorado’s.

6. Sporting Clinches Playoff Spot With Win

There was no team in the league as moribund as San Jose was over the last month, and the ‘Quakes rolled over for Sporting Kansas City to get the 2-0 win they needed to punch their postseason ticket at Sporting Park.

Benny Feilhaber scored an early penalty, with Graham Zusi icing the game late, and, with Matt Besler and Kevin Ellis starting together in central defense, it felt an awful lot like the 2015 band with getting back together for Peter Vermes.

Feilhaber is likely gone at the end of the year, and SKC should see their biggest makeover since the transition to Children’s Mercy Park some six years ago. For the moment, though, Sporting is still kicking.

It’s a prideful team. They won’t make it easy for Seattle on Thursday, even if it’s tough to see how they can generate enough offense to win – especially if Roger Espinoza continues to play out wide.

7. Toronto Finally Wins At Home

TFC should have been in the Supporters’ Shield mix on Sunday; instead, after failing to win in five consecutive home games since the end of August, Toronto needed help on Sunday just to finish in second place in the East.

They didn’t get, as NYCFC crushed Columbus in the Big Apple, but they did finally get a home win ahead of what will be their first home playoff game in club history on Wednesday night at BMO Field against the Philadelphia Union.

The Reds beat Chicago 3-2, in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score-line suggested. Sebastian Giovinco was dazzling, and Toronto’s offense looked as healthy as it has in weeks.

But TFC still doesn’t fill you with confidence. Even forgetting their well-established history, for a moment, the defense is a mess. Toronto has missed Will Johnson, and I’m still not sold on the 5-3-2 that Greg Vanney seems to have settled on. We’ll see what happens.

8. Drogba Remains MIA

Joey Saputo held a press conference at the beginning of the week announcing the conclusion of the Didier Drogba saga. It was a false alarm.

Drogba was not in the lineup or on the bench for Montreal in New England, with Anthony Jackson-Hamel starting up top. The Impact cited that pesky old back injury for Drogba’s absence, but the rumors continue to swirl over his whereabouts and intentions for the rest of the season.

All told, it seems unlikely that Drogba will be involved in Montreal’s Wild Card game at DC United on Thursday night, and just as unlikely that he’ll ever play again for the club.

If this is it for Drogba as a professional soccer player, he’s headed for an ignominious end to his career. Of course, had Drogba retired last season – as it seems like he flirted with doing – he would have gone out virtually on top.

Drogba’s time in Montreal was indicative of his entire career: Plenty of great moments, plenty of sour ones, and never a dull moment.

9. The Fans Turn Out For Decision Day

By virtue of having all twenty teams play simultaneously, MLS broke its record for attendance in a single day on Sunday – with 283,807 fans attending matches across ten of the league’s venues.

That number included a crowd of more than 50,000 in Seattle, a crowd of almost 40,000 for a virtually eliminated New England Revolution team in Foxborough, and crowds of 30,000 in the Bronx and Orlando.

The final day surge in attendance pushed the league’s average gate this year to 21,690 – also a new record – and places it seventh in the world in attendance per game.

MLS’ attendance has now increased by 40% over the last ten years. The league continues to be trending the right direction.

10. The Wild Card Games

An early read on the four Wild Card games, which will be played on Wednesday night and Thursday night across ESPN, FS1, and UniMas.

I think Toronto does get past Philadelphia at BMO on Wednesday. The Union have been poor of late, especially defensively, and they have even fewer big game chops collectively than TFC does.

I also like Seattle over Sporting, though that game could be a war. DC rested its starters in Orlando and still got the fourth seed on Sunday, and they’ll use that home-field advantage to beat a Montreal team that can’t be fully focused right now.

Neither LA nor Real Salt Lake looks particularly good, with the statuses of Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard unclear for a Galaxy team that is laboring to create offense and RSL without a win in its last seven.

What LA does still do very well is defend, and they don’t lose at the StubHub Center. Just ask Salt Lake what happened the last time they faced Landon Donovan in a playoff game.

With that, the regular season is over – and the second season is set to begin.