Saturday was Major League Soccer’s Decision Day. On the last matchday of the 2024 MLS season, teams had the opportunity to pursue a playoff spot or a higher seed. The New York Red Bulls found themselves facing the tall task of taking on the defending MLS Cup champions, the Columbus Crew.
Going into the game, the Red Bulls were in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings and had already clinched a playoff berth. Meanwhile, the Crew had locked down second place.
The visitors got the scoring started in the second minute. Cucho delivered a perfect cross from the left side of the field to Aziel Jackson, who headed it past a diving Carlos Coronel. A minute later, the Crew nearly went up by two when Jackson volleyed a cross that Coronel dove and kept out.
In the 12th minute, the defending champs went up 2-0. Jackson played Yevhen Cheberko into the Red Bulls’ 18-yard box with a through ball, and the Ukrainian took a left-footed effort that Coronel was able to make contact with, but it deflected off of his body and into the net.
In the 29th minute, the Red Bulls finally got some offense going. Captain Emil Forsberg played his team’s leading goal scorer, Lewis Morgan, one-on-one with Columbus goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen, but Hagen rushed out to cut off Morgan’s angle and made a sliding save.
Eight minutes later, the Crew were again knocking on New York’s door. This time they sent a looping cross into the Red Bulls box, which was headed clear by a Red Bull defender. The header, however, went right to Cucho, who took a one-time volley that would’ve crashed into the lower left corner of the net if not for a great diving save from Coronel.
The Red Bulls had another one-on-one chance against Hagen right before halftime, but again the Crew goalkeeper was equal to the task.
Five minutes into the second half, the Red Bulls continued creating offense. This time, a cross sent into the Crew 18-yard box by Peter Stroud was headed goalwards by Cameron Harper, but his effort went off the woodwork. Ten minutes later, Forsberg received a pass from Morgan on the edge of the 18-yard box and, with space to shoot, ripped a left-footed effort off the woodwork.
In the 77th minute, the hosts broke through. Morgan led the counter-attack deep into Columbus territory before passing to Forsberg, who was on the edge of the 18. The Red Bull captain then dribbled into the 18, faked a shot to send two defenders sliding in the wrong direction, and scored high over Hagen to cut the deficit in half.
The hosts weren’t done there. In the 85th minute, they were awarded a penalty when Elias Manoel tried to control the ball with his back to goal and was dragged down by a Columbus defender. Forsberg slotted the penalty into the bottom right corner of the net on the floor to tie the game at 2-2.
Forsberg’s eighth and ninth goals of the season had completed a two-goal comeback for Red Bull, but it did not end well at Red Bull Arena. The referee allowed a whopping nine minutes of stoppage time, and in the 97th minute, Columbus was controlling the ball inside the Red Bulls half of the field. What looked like a nothing play became a goal when former NYCFC defender Malte Amundsen dribbled confidently forward towards the Red Bulls’ 18-yard box. Amundsen unleashed a right-footed strike that skidded off the ground and past a diving Coronel to give Columbus the 3-2 advantage that they would see through to the end of this game.
Red Bulls Fall to Seventh Place
With the defeat, the New York Red Bulls fell from sixth to seventh place in the Eastern Conference. For the first time since 2020, the Red Bulls will face the Crew in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs.
After the game, Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz spoke about his takeaways from the match.
“When you make simple mistakes individually in our defense, then we will have no chance against Columbus. Because of the quality individually, they can punish directly these moments. But on the other side… when we are active, when we play intense, when we play strong in these duels when we play forward, and when we use our dynamic actions, with the ball, against the ball, then I would say we are able, also, to have a chance against Columbus. Now at this moment, it’s good and after this, 2-2 was also not our feeling to save and secure this point because we have known, also, the results from the other stadiums. So it was clear only for us the feeling now and it was more important today to have this feeling against Columbus to create this feeling. The game starts next week 0-0 and hopefully, after 50 minutes, it’s also 0-0, and then I think we will have a good chance.”
Sean Nealis has been a leader for the New York Red Bulls since 2023 when he served as captain. He discussed the Red Bulls’ response in the second half.
“We showed a lot of resilience, showed a lot of fight in that second half. We had a lot of chances. We had chances in the first half, too. I think if we just minimize our mistakes in the back and minimize giving them chances, we should be feeling good, feeling confident about ourselves going into playoffs and hopefully making a run there.”
Red Bulls captain Emil Forsberg led the charge on a two-goal comeback for the Red Bulls in the second half. He touched on what his team needs to do against Columbus in the playoffs.
“It’s a team that likes to have the ball and likes to play, but they also make mistakes, as we could see if we can be a little bit clearer on the ball, good in those situations to create even more chances. I think we can hurt them more. Of course, it’s a good team. But we’re a good team as well so I’m confident, I’m going to Columbus confident.”
