When Major League Soccer officials finally made the decision to hold all 10 regular-season finale matches on the same day, the hope was to have the final day mirror the drama that could be found on final days in leagues around the world.

The first 'Decision Day' was born, and the early verdict is the experiment was a huge hit, with the slate of matches creating plenty of drama and suspense, while producing some unforgettable team and individual performances.

Teams like the Columbus Crew and Portland Timbers closed their seasons out in style, capping off strong finishes to the regular season, while stars like Didier Drogba and Darlington Nagbe stepped up with the kind of individual efforts that will go down in their clubs' histories.

Credit MLS for taking the final day schedule a step further by moving the New York Red Bulls' match against the Chicago Fire back two hours so that it would be played at the same time as FC Dallas' match against the San Jose Earthquakes. The Red Bulls and FC Dallas took their battle for the Supporters' Shield right down to stoppage time, with FC Dallas simply needing the Fire to find a late equalizer against the Red Bulls. That goal never came, but the suspense waiting for the final results to play out provided a perfect cap to a thrilling day in MLS.

The display provided some level of vindication for a league that took plenty of flack for increasing the playoff field to 12 teams. As much as it might seem like overkill to have 12 of 20 teams reach the playoffs, the new format helped provide plenty of late-season drama, and now we have been left with a set of first-round playoff matches packed with subplots and rivalries.

Here is a look at some key takeaways from MLS Week 34:

RED BULLS REWARDED FOR REGIME CHANGE

Jesse Marsch and Ali Curtis stood in front of a crowd of angry Red Bulls supporters at a town-hall style meeting iast January and tried stating their case for why the Red Bulls were in good hands after firing popular and successful head coach Mike Petke. Despite Marsch's impressive showing that night, the general sentiment in Red Bulls circles after that town hall meeting was that the club had made a disastrous mistake and was doomed to pay the price for that mistake.

Nine months later, in a Chicago suburb, a collection of Red Bulls supporters wore wide smiles and posed with Marsch as they took pictures with the Supporters' Shield Marsch helped their club win. The piece of silverware, the team's second in three years, provided a measure of vindication for the same leadership that had so many doubters questioning them back in January.

"This group deserved the Supporters' Shield," Marsch said after Sunday's win. "I think that, in a lot of ways, they were the best team throughout the season. They showed that, I think, game in and game out,

"In life you don't always get what you deserve, but I think they got what they deserved."

Marsch and Curtis were the lead orchestrators of a season few could have imagined for the Red Bulls. Curtis rebuilt a roster after the retirement of Thierry Henry and departure of Tim Cahill, pulling off a big trade to land Felipe and pave the way for the signing of Sacha Kljestan, along with signing the likes of Mike Grella and Kemar Lawrence. Marsch took the roster he and Curtis constructed and molded a tenacious team with balance and depth. A team without multi-million-dollar superstars, but one good enough to win games on a consisted basis. One capable of stifling teams with a high-pressing style, but also capable of scoring goals in bunches.

The 2015 Red Bulls led MLS in goals scored (62) and boasted the stingiest defense in the Eastern Conference. And when they held on for a 2-1 victory against the Chicago Fire on Sunday, they helped show Red Bulls fans, and the rest of the league, that the club's new leadership knew what it was doing when it took charge last winter.

"A lot of these guys, I think, wanted to prove that it wasn't about Thierry Henry, and it wasn't about whatever was going on in the offseason," Marsch said. "That there was talent here and they believed in themselves, and they put it all together for a pretty complete season.

"Now we start from scratch come Monday."

The Red Bulls still have work to do. Winning another Supporters' Shield was impressive, but the club is still searching for its first MLS Cup. That one title has eluded the Red Bulls, but in a season without a runaway favorite, they have as good a chance to win an MLS Cup as ever before. If they succeed in capturing that elusive piece of hardware, Red Bulls fans will spend the winter celebrating a dream season just a year after many of them thought they were living a nightmare.

GALAXY STARS NEED TO INCORPORATE TEAMMATES MORE

When the LA Galaxy added Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos during the summer, it was seen as a clear-cut case of the rich getting richer, and a reigning champion pushing itself into rarified air.

Things haven't quite worked out that way.

After what was a promising start for the team's new stars, we have watched the Galaxy morph into an inconsistent team that rarely shows the overwhelming dominance we've grown accustomed to. The result has been a close to the regular season that saw the Galaxy finish the regular season 1-4-2 and go from first place in the West to fifth, and from comfortable in position to earn a first-round bye to having to travel to Seattle for a single-elimination match.

So what is wrong with the Galaxy?

Gerrard has been the target of plenty of criticism for not providing the level of impact expected of a player of his stature, but pinning the team's struggles solely on him is extremely short-sighted. The reality is the group isn't clicking well as a whole with Gerrard and Dos Santos in the lineup. That isn't to say that the Galaxy can't play well with those two. We saw the Galaxy dominate when the pair first arrived, but the team has become over-reliant on Gerrard and Dos Santos to provide Keane with service, diminishing the roles of players such as Sebastian Lletget and Juninho, who have seen their contributions reduced in the past month.

When the Galaxy have been at their best in recent years, they have worked as a fluid unit, capable of beating you from anywhere on the field. The past two months have seen the Galaxy become predictable and nowhere near the dynamic team we saw this summer. If the Galaxy are going to repeat as champions, they need to involve Lletget, Juninho and even Robbie Rogers into the attack more. We will find out on Wednesday night in Seattle if the Galaxy are capable of recapturing that championship flow that has gone missing lately.

GIOVINCO WILL BE MVP, BUT NOBODY HAS BEEN BETTER THAN DROGBA LATELY

In terms of the history of MLS, it can certainly be argued that Sebastian Giovinco just finished one of the best, if not the best, regular season in league history. His 22 goals and 16 assists were both league-leading totals and allowed him to set a new MLS record for goals contributed in a single season. Along the way, Giovinco helped push Toronto FC to the club's first playoff berth.

All of that should make Giovinco the runaway choice for MLS MVP, but that still doesn't make him the best or most dangerous player heading into the playoffs. That distinction goes to Didier Drogba.

The Montreal Impact striker continued his torrid run through the league with two goals on Sunday to lift Montreal past Giovinco's Toronto FC, giving him a jaw-dropping 11 goals and an assist in 11 matches. His ability to punish mistakes and consistently put himself into good spots to finish off service have made him a dream signing for a Montreal side that went from hoping it could squeak into the playoffs to grabbing the No. 3 seed in the East.

Just how valuable is Drogba? It isn't a stretch to say the Impact might have missed the playoff without him. He has scored goals in seven of his past 10 matches, leading the team to six wins during that span. It probably isn't enough to generate realistic MVP consideration for Drogba, but you can argue he's had the best second half of a season by a summer signing in the history of the league.

Where Drogba and Giovinco differ is in the support they are receiving defensively. Where Drogba's goals are standing up courtesy of the Impact stingy defense, Toronto FC's defense has become a liablility that has blown its share of leads handed to TFC by Giovinco's heroics.

Now, with the Impact and Toronto FC facing off on Thursday in a winner-take-all first-round playoff match, it will be Drogba and his considerable championship experience facing Giovinco and his seemingly bottomless bag of tricks. The winner of the first all-Canada playoff matchup in MLS history will come down to which team gives its superstar more support. On Sunday, the Impact gave Drogba enough support to earn a vital victory. If Giovincio's teammates don't step up on Thursday, the only heading to TFC's sparse trophy collection will be Giovinco's MVP award.

CREW DELIVER MAJOR STATEMENT

There probably weren't a ton of people pegging the Columbus Crew as a strong MLS Cup pick before the weekend, but their thorough domination of D.C. United served as a reminder that any list of top title contenders had better include the Crew.

Not only did the Crew demolish a D.C. United side that could have jumped into second place with a victory, but they did so without the services of MLS goal-scoring co-leader Kei Kamara and standout playmaker Federico Higuain. Those absences didnt't stop Columbus from putting up five goals on a D.C. side that looked lethargic throughout.

The Crew have stayed just below the title contender radar for much of the season, in part because of an inability to get on the kind of hot streak top teams tend to find at some point in the season. In fact, the Crew are the only team in the 12-team playoff field not to have a winning streak longer than two matches all season, and they're one of only three playoff teams not to have an unbeaten streak longer than four matches (Portland and TFC being the others).

Columbus has been a much better team in the second half of the season, thanks in large part to the return of ace midfielder Wil Trapp from concussion issues. The Crew are 9-3-2 with Trapp in the starting lineup since he was sidelined. The acquisition of Ghanaian right back Harrison Afful has also helped make the Crew dynamic on both flanks, and Afful has helped provide support on the right for MLS Best XI candidate Ethan Finlay, who is in the midst of a dream season.

The two biggest differences between the 2015 Crew and 2014 Crew side that crashed out of the playoffs in the conference semifinals? First, the Crew gained valuable experience in last year's playoffs, and though they lost by a wide margin to New England, the Crew received a much-needed lesson. Second, the Crew didn't have Kamara up top in 2014, The former Sporting KC forward has been the perfect target for the team's high-octane attack, and he is no stranger to playoff soccer.

Sunday's win against D.C. United sent a strong statement across the country that the Crew are to be taken seriously, and after a year spent learning a harsh lesson in playoff soccer, the Crew look poised to be the team teaching the lessons in 2015.

EARTHQUAKES FALL SHORT, BUT 2015 IS A SEASON TO BUILD ON

It is rare when a season that ends without a playoff berth can be considered a strong one to build on, but the 2014 season is exactly that for the San Jose Earthquakes, who fell short in their chase for a postseason berth. San Jose wound up generating the most points of any team that missed the playoffs, which may sound like small consolation until you consider where San Jose came from.

The Earthquakes were atrocious in 2014, finishing dead last in the Western Conference. In 2015, with Dom Kinnear taking over as coach, San Jose enjoyed a 17-point improvement, with only Montreal enjoying a better improvement (23 points). Kinnear turned San Jose into a contender in the same season the club opened up brand new Avaya Stadium, a beautiful new stadium that has helped attract larger crowds. Kinnear also worked on developing young talent, with rookie Fatai Alashe figuring prominently this season, as did first-year starter David Bingham in goal and Marc Pelosi as a second-half acquisition. That trio should form the long-term nucleus of an Earthquakes side that should have the resources to revamp its roster in 2016.

Kinnear figured to turn things around in San Jose, but he is well ahead of schedule. And though he won't receive much consideration for MLS Coach of the Year, there is no denying he did an excellent job in his first season back in San Jose.