New York Citywith goalkeeper Matt Freese as a figure, eliminated this Saturday Cincinnati in the first round of the ‘playoff’ of the MLS by winning a penalty shootout 5-6 after drawing 0-0 in regulation time, and will meet in the Eastern semifinals with the New York Red Bulls in a New York derby. In this MLS ‘playoff’ with many surprises, New York City (sixth in the East) joined the list of unexpected results by sending Cincinnati (third) home in this best-of-three series.
Cincinnati, champion of the MLS Supporters’ Shield last year and with Argentine Luciano Acosta at the helm (MLS MVP in 2023), won the first game in its field 1-0. But New York City, whose figures include the Uruguayan Santiago Rodríguez and the Costa Rican Alonso Martínez, responded in the Big Apple 3-1 and this Saturday resisted away to win the series on penalties.
The Eastern semifinals will thus feature a New York duel between New York City and the New York Red Bulls (seventh in the East), who made a splash by eliminating the Columbus Crew of Colombian Juan Camilo ‘Cucho’ Hernández in their series 2-0 (second in the East and current champion of the MLS Cup and the Leagues Cup).
The Red Bulls will come to this match with a thirst for revenge since New York City crushed them the last time they met by a tremendous 1-5 on September 28. Unlike the first round, the rest of the MLS Cup qualifiers are played in one match and with home advantage for the best-placed team in the regular season (in this case New York City).
Cincinnati carried the weight of the game in the first half and had two very clear chances in the boots of Argentine Luca Orellano, who first encountered a save from Freese and then failed to hit the shot after a fantastic ride. The siege of the venue continued after the restart. A shot by DeAndre Yedlin crashed into the side netting.
New York City was clear about its plan: take refuge behind and go on the counterattack when the door opened. And the bet almost didn’t work out as Martínez scored in the 81st minute but the goal was disallowed for offside.
The statistics made clear the dominance during the 90 minutes of Cincinnati, which took 16 shots (7 from New York City) with 4 on goal (only one from the visitors) and which finished with 1.8 expected goals compared to only 0.3 of New Yorkers. But none of that mattered when the time came to play the ticket from eleven meters.
Both teams scored their first three shots, but Freese guessed Czech Pavel Bucha’s shot and put New York City ahead. At 4-4, the responsibility of sealing the pass for the visitors fell to captain Thiago Martins, but the Brazilian center back ran into Roman Celentano and Cincinnati breathed again.
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New York City had another chance on the seventh shot when Freese stopped Gerardo Valenzuela’s attempt, but Celentano saved Cincinnati again by stopping Kevin O’Toole’s shot. It seemed that neither team wanted to qualify and the shootout took on almost comical touches, so much so that in the eighth penalty both Chidozie Awaziem for Cincinnati and Andrés Perea for New York City sent their shots through the roof.
In the ninth the resolution finally came: Freese became huge once again, preventing Teenage Hadebe’s goal and New York City qualified with the goal of the Slovenian Mitja Ilenic.
