Six of seven champagne bottles cooling in a locker room metal tub went unopened after Minnesota United clinched a playoff spot on Sunday's MLS Decision Day.
The Loons' 2-0 victory over Western Conference rival Vancouver came before a record Allianz Field crowd and brought relief as much as it did exuberance for a team that ended a six-game winless streak when it mattered the most.
"I popped one," Loons veteran midfielder and captain Wil Trapp said. "I'm not sure all the guys understand the tradition."
The Loons advance to the postseason for a fourth consecutive year, doing so on the regular season's final day just as they did in the final ticking moments at L.A. Galaxy last year.
Sixth place when Sunday afternoon's action around the league was all over, the Loons play at third-place Dallas at 8:30 p.m. next Monday.
"I'm just so pleased for the players," Loons coach Adrian Heath said. "I think sometimes people think people don't care and they do care and I thought they showed that today."
Loons left-side attacker Franco Fragapane scored the game's first goal in the 17th minute while newcomer and second-half sub Jonathan Gonzalez added a second with his first MLS goal in the 77th minute.
Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair then delivered the team's first clean sheet since July 16 by making a stunning save late in the game.
Trapp called it a team that remembered what it was, that found its "energy, intensity and focus" on the regular season's final day. It did so on a day a crowd announced at a stadium record 19,941 fans arrived festive and early, many wearing black at the club's urging to create a "blackout" in the stands.
"Look, we expected to make the playoffs," Trapp said. "It's maybe a little unfortunate that it took us until the last day to do it. But when you have to play meaningful games at the end of the season before you get to the playoffs, you start to understand what that looks like. For us, this was huge."
Loons supporters drummed and cheered and chanted all afternoon, perhaps even a bit louder and longer than they normally do.
"I knew our support would be unbelievable," Heath said. "I knew they'd show up and I just want to be sure we did."
Some Loons players — including Trapp, Gonzalez and St. Clair — wore black coming and going from Allianz Sunday.
"I mean, if the fans are going to wear it, we can as well," said St. Clair, a Canadian from Toronto. "I wanted to put Vancouver away and have a funeral for them. That's the way I look at it."
Or it could have been in mourning for a season lost in its final seven games if the Loons hadn't won or drawn on Sunday.
Afterward, Heath said the regular season should be seen as a body of work in which they lost just once in 11 games mid-summer before going 0-5-1, being outscored 14-2 along the way.
Heath is one of only two active coaches whose team has made the playoffs each of the last four seasons. Philadelphia's Jim Curtin is the other.
"The six games prior don't define the season," Heath said. "The reason we were in a position if we won today is what has gone on since February. As much as everybody gets doom and gloom, I can't let that affect the way I do my job. We tried to accentuate the positive of what the team has done this year."
They won, but much of the soaking champagne sat there.
"Champagne is good, but we've got work to do, man," Trapp said. "We've got a big game against a good team. This is something we should take a lot of confidence from, that our back was against the wall and we responded. Let's go to the next game.
"It's four games to win MLS Cup. Let's go do it."
