It took a week. But the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs have now served up one of the shock results that make them such a riveting autumn spectacle.
There was ample justification for discounting the New York Red Bulls’ prospects in the countdown to their Round One Best-of-3 Series vs. the Columbus Crew. RBNY entered the postseason as one of the league’s coldest teams, winning just two of their last 16 games across MLS and Leagues Cup play. They’d lost both of their 2024 meetings with the Crew, the defending champions scoring three goals on both occasions, the most recent a 3-2 win at Red Bull Arena on Decision Day.
A familiar refrain had already begun: That RBNY lacked the commitment to take the next step as a club, with insufficient ambition in the summer transfer window surely a prelude to another also-ran outing in the playoffs.
Emil Forsberg and his teammates saw it differently, though. And head coach Sandro Schwarz had a plan.
“OK, we’re playing Columbus. It’s a good team, but f**k it, we can win. Why can’t we?” the Swedish Designated Player told AMNY this week. “We have a fantastic team, fantastic coaches. We just have to believe.”
And so it was at Lower.com Field Tuesday night, where a tactical masterclass from Schwarz set the stage for a major upset — and an opportunistic early set-piece goal from summer signing Felipe Carballo, combined with a superb shot-stopping from Carlos Coronel, delivered it.
A formation tweak (RBNY trotted out a rare 3-5-2/5-3-2 look) and a clever blend of high pressing with deep-set defending frustrated the Crew on their own pitch, en route to a stunning 1-0 win that leaves Columbus fighting for their lives in hostile territory next weekend.
“I would say that we defend very well most of the time, that we find a good switch to be aggressive in our pressing, to find the right moments. And this is the main part when we are looking to the difference to the game last week — to find the right moment for our pressing, and not only to stay in a deep block,” Schwarz explained in his postgame press conference. “We wanted to play very dominant against the ball.
“And then we had some moments where we defend deep, but all together. That's the key when you play against such a good team, especially in ball possession, then it's the key that you have to do everything against the ball together. If you do this alone and as a single player, then it's very difficult. And yeah, that was good today.”
The Red Bulls hadn’t posted a clean sheet in a league match since July 6, a span of 12 games. Slick-passing Columbus had only been shut out five times in 34 league matches. An observer would hardly have guessed as much, however, as the central-midfield pair of Carballo and Daniel Edelman tracked and harried their Crew counterparts relentlessly, while Lewis Morgan provided a vital outlet with endless work rate up top.
Carballo’s quick reaction to a Dylan Nealis flicked header on a 25th-minute corner kick proved the game-winner, a timely moment for his first goal contribution at his new club yet just one element of his contributions.
“[He has] great experience, and he showed this today on the pitch,” said Schwarz of the Uruguayan. “Very intensive with Danny Edelman, both [No.] 6 positions to be very aggressive and also to find the right moment when we have to attack or when we have to stay in our block. And on top, he scored. So it's a very good moment for the first goal now in the first playoff game, and it's a very important player for us.”
Backline brilliance
Meanwhile, Coronel shook off both the individual and collective struggles of the past several months with perhaps his finest outing in RBNY colors, a man-of-the-match performance highlighted by a point-blank denial of DeJuan Jones at the back post deep into the second half.
“The whole team give their best today in this game, and we invest a lot also, we made a great week before this game,” said Coronel postgame. “I think we played the 90 minutes with a high focus, because we know any mistakes against these teams, they have quality to score. And then I think this was the big key today, how we play together, the focus and also the communication on the field.
“I was not in my best form, I think, before the playoffs,” added the Paraguay international, “and this week I really worked very hard, and also this was the key for me to help my team today also, and then for sure, I'm very happy with my performance, but we know this is only the first step. We have another big game on Sunday.”
Can the Crew respond?
Crew boss Wilfried Nancy presented composure afterwards, defending his team’s performance and urging them “to accept this challenge” of needing a road victory to push the series to a third match when they meet again on Sunday (4:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
“We had many, many chances, so we should score at least one goal. I don't forget that they are also running [in] behind, it was clear maybe they can score [another], but I think that we can score minimum one goal; after that, we'll see,” said the Frenchman. “We attacked the box, they defended well. I think that in terms of finishing, could have been better at certain moments.
“They're all competitors and that's why I told them to stay calm, because obviously we wanted to win, and when we don't win, we are all disappointed,” he added of his team’s reactions to the gut-punch result. “Me, I don't think that I'm going to sleep, I'm going to think about the game. It's normal. So now the idea is, it's football. It's football. And again, I insist we did a good game. Now we have to adjust certain things, but we were missing one goal, and we're going to try to be good over there.”
