Red Bulls, Minnesota take 1-0 lead
New York stunned Columbus in a 1-0 road win last night, while Minnesota United went into RSL’s house and walked out with a win in penalties. The first two road wins of Round One came on the same night. Columbus and RSL have to win twice in a row now to survive.
Round One resumes on Friday
You get a couple of days off to recover. Then it’s right back to it with Charlotte hosting Orlando and Colorado welcoming the Galaxy on Friday night. Check out the full schedule here.
I almost tricked myself into thinking Round One might not be interesting. Well…
Let’s talk it out.
Man…what?
It’s about the most surprising Round One result you could come up with. The Red Bulls averaged 0.67 points per game post-Leagues Cup. Only Chicago had a worse record over that span. And yet…
I messaged The Group Chat about 15 minutes into this one that something felt off for Columbus. It started with the release of the starting lineups. Missing Diego Rossi caused some concern, but it’s nothing the Crew haven’t dealt with before. But then it became apparent that Red Bulls were making Columbus uncomfortable. They switched to five at the back, focused on getting Emil Forsberg and Lewis Morgan out in transition, and, most importantly, found a way to make the Crew look unsure of themselves in buildup play.
Do you know how many teams have tried to make the Crew hesitant in buildup over the last year and failed? Like…all of them. I’m pretty sure it’s all of them. Last night though, the Red Bulls found a way. And then they found a goal from Felipe Carballo off a corner. And then they found a way to hang on for the first true upset of Round One.
The question now is if they can do it one more time. Frankly, this is where I like the Best of Three format in Round One. You can’t just catch a great team off guard at the start and get rid of them. Great teams should be allowed to be horror movie villains. You have to really earn it if you’re going to escape.
The Red Bulls have a genuine shot here though. Despite a terrible record over the last few months, they’ve had outstanding underlying numbers. Emil Forsberg is healthy. And now they’re going back home needing to just earn a draw and win a penalty shootout. It’s not farfetched.
We know the Crew will adjust. New York threw a curveball and Columbus whiffed. That doesn’t happen often. It’s going to take a heckuva performance from the Red Bulls to make it happen again.
But they have momentum and confidence for the first time in a long time now. We’re on the verge of something special…Just don’t forget the Crew don’t die easy.
It seemed for a while that we might not get any road wins in the first slate of Round One games. Then we got two in one night.
This one didn’t surprise as many folks as the Columbus-New York result though. Minnesota have been doing the dang thing for a couple of months now. RSL has struggled to look like the early-season version of themselves.
Those flaws we’ve seen since Andrés Goméz left were apparent in small ways last night. Namely in the simple fact that RSL just couldn’t find a breakthrough in attack. There were chances still, but they couldn’t and didn’t overwhelm the Loons.
A few missed opportunities and a few saves from Dayne St. Clair later and Minnesota are heading back home with a 1-0 lead. RSL still have a chance to recover, of course, it’s just really hard to bet against the Loons right now. Everything seems to be going their way at the right time. Don’t be surprised if this ends like a party where someone breaks out an acoustic guitar: With “Wonderwall” playing right before everyone leaves.
- New York delivered the first shock of the playoffs.
- Minnesota United "justified the work" in their gritty win over Real Salt Lake.
Good luck out there. Make each day of the week better than the last.
