The New York Red Bulls prevailed (5-4) in a hard-fought shootout to eliminate the Columbus Crew from the MLS playoffs on Sunday.
Carlos Coronel made three penalty saves to lift his club to the Eastern semifinals and show the defending MLS Cup champions the door.
Already, New York had taken an option on victory in this best-of-three match confrontation by signing a victory on the Crew pitch on Tuesday evening.
The Red Bulls will face either FC Cincinnati or their neighbors New York City FC in the next stage.
After a scoreless first half, Max Arfsten opened the scoring for Columbus in the 55th minute.
The New Yorkers’ response came from the foot of Dante Vanzeir, nine minutes later. Then a penalty awarded to the locals allowed Emil Forsberg to execute and put the Red Bulls in control, in the 80th.
The Crew was able to continue to hope when Christian Ramirez reset the counters when the clock was getting serious, that is to say in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
Roldan breathes better
Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei stopped Houston’s Tate Schmitt in the seventh round of a penalty shootout to allow the Sounders to advance to the next round by eliminating the Houston Dynamo.
With a score of 1-1 after 90 minutes, Seattle finally had the last word 7-6 on penalties to advance to the second round.
The Sounders, seeded fourth in the West, will face either top-seeded Los Angeles FC or eighth-seeded Vancouver in the conference semifinals.
Cristian Roldan of the Sounders strangely scored both goals in regulation time. Taking advantage of a numerical advantage following a red card awarded to Hector Herrera in the 66th minute, Roldan gave Seattle the lead in the 87th minute.
But the same Roldan was unlucky and scored against his side in stoppage time at the end of the game to force a penalty shootout. A pass from Houston’s Griffin Dorsey deflected off Roldan into his own net.
Roldan, Jackson Ragen, Alex Roldan, Danny Leyva, Raul Ruidiaz, Georgi Minoungou and Obed Vargas all converted their penalty shots against Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark. Ezequiel Ponce, Dorsey, Sebastian Kowalczyk, Sebastian Ferreira, Daniel Steres and Brooklyn Raines were successful against Frei for Houston.
Vargas’ goal made the difference when Frei beat Schmitt.
Dynamo started the match aggressively, producing four shots on target in the first 45 minutes after having had none in the series opener. Houston’s best scoring opportunity of the first half came in the 41st minute. Ponce took a left-footed shot from just inside the penalty area, but it was saved by the Sounders goalkeeper.
Dynamo continued to pepper Frei at the start of the second half. Ponce, Herrera then Ibrahim Aliy shot on goal in the 53rd, 58th and 62nd minutes respectively.
The match changed dramatically in the 66th minute when Herrera was sent off for poor sportsmanship after spitting in the direction of referee Armando Villarreal. Villarreal had his back turned to Herrera after giving the Houston captain a yellow card for a foul and turned to VAR to determine whether Herrera’s subsequent actions were sufficient for a sending-off.
