Three more Game 2s tonight:
It’s another massive day. At 4:30 pm ET, New York welcome Columbus to Red Bull Arena in a must-win for the Crew (. Then Houston host Seattle at 6:30 pm ET with the Dynamo needing a win to stay alive (MLS Season Pass). And to close the night at 8:45 pm ET, Vancouver take on LAFC in a must-win for the ‘Caps (.
North Texas SC will host Philadelphia Union II in 2024 MLS NEXT Pro Cup
Cavan Sullivan scored his first professional playoffs goal and Union II will visit Texas on November 9 to decide this year’s champion at Toyota Stadium (8:30 pm ET, MLS Season Pass).
Have we mentioned that you really don’t want to bet against home teams in MLS? Let’s talk it out.
Well, well, well, what do we have here? Is it a team with comically inflated totals relative to their underlying numbers struggling against a team they’ve struggled with all season?
Any notion that this game in particular would be a cakewalk for Inter Miami felt a little silly. Or at least like they were coming from folks not in Atlanta. The buzz for this one started early in the week and 65,000+ showed up to Mercedez-Benz Stadium to make it feel like 2018 again.
That’s not to say this came easy for Atlanta. They needed a stoppage-time stunner from recently subbed Xande Silva to pull out the win. But, the Five Stripes outplayed the Herons here. They were simply the better team on the night. That shouldn’t be that surprising considering how the regular season went and the fact Atlanta United didn’t have to play their third road game in six days this time.
Now they get a shot at an all-time upset. Are they going to pull that off on the road? I don’t know. That’s definitely an uphill task. But this Atlanta United side is playing with a level of confidence and determination we haven’t seen from this team in years. At the very least, they’ve shown proof of concept for 2025. Anything could happen though, right?
It’s been the story all year for New York City FC. After getting overrun in their first meeting with FC Cincinnati, they were just fine once they got back to New York. Alonso Martínez, Thiago and Santiago Rodríguez all found the back of the net in a night and day performance from Game 1. After allowing 3.9 xG to Cincy on Monday, NYCFC put up 3.4 xG of their own.
They were in total control here. And once they got up on Cincinnati, the Garys were going to have a tough time playing catchup with no true No. 9s on the field. Yuya Kubo and Luca Orellano are performing admirably up top, but neither is Brandon Vázquez.
The problem for NYCFC now is they have to go back to Cincinnati. They have four road wins all year. Something will have to change on Saturday.
Another draw, another penalty shootout win for Minnesota United. We’d call it an upset, but the writing has been on the wall for RSL for a while. They never looked like themselves again once Andrés Goméz left and Chicho Arango fell off a cliff. Meanwhile, the Loons are impossibly hot. They simply just keep winning. They’ll have a tough task against a very in-form Riqui Puig-led LA Galaxy, but they keep finding ways to pull out results. It won’t be a surprise at all if they pull off another “upset” in the Conference Semifinals. It’s that straightforward. And that’s the biggest compliment I can give them right now.
Three more Game 2s today. I hope you’ve slept and hydrated after last night.
Hey, remind me what happened in Game 1?
New York straight-up beat Columbus. I know, I know, I’m still having a tough time processing it. But New York came out in a back five, made life difficult for Columbus up and down the pitch, focused on striking in transition moments and executed all of their game plan perfectly in a shocking 1-0 win.
The question now is if they’ll stick with those same ideas or try to keep Columbus off the scent. The risk if they stay put is that the Crew will figure it out. The risk if they change things up is that the new ideas won’t be good ones.
Is there a chance for Game 3?
My gut call here is the Red Bulls take an “if it isn’t broke…” approach until the Crew finally break them down. If they execute as well as they did in Game 1, they obviously have a chance. That’s a really tough ask against an elite side like Columbus, but it’s plausible they come out clean on the other side. The Crew are typically fine in these kinds of scenarios. There’s a ton of work to do here though.
Hey, remind me what happened in Game 1?
So little, but Seattle eventually won in penalties.
Is there a chance for Game 3?
Definitely. This game might finish 0-0 and could come down to another penalty shootout. All Houston has to do is win that shootout and then win the next one after Game 3 finishes 0-0.
Hey, remind me what happened in Game 1?
LAFC out-created Vancouver 2.3 xG to 1.2 and were the better team despite Ryan Gauld scoring late from open play to make the final score look a little closer in a 2-1 Vancouver loss.
Is there a chance for Game 3?
Maybe! But these are traditionally the kinds of games where Vancouver shows a little fight and fails to get the job done in the end. It would be a ton of fun if they were able to pull this out. It just never quite feels like they’re going to pull this out. Maybe today’s the day?
- Atlanta United are playing with no fear.
- Minnesota United took down RSL. They aren’t ready to stop there.
- New York City FC responded in a "do-or-die" Game 2.
Good luck out there. Let them know it’s not over.
