Braian Ojeda broke a scoreless stalemate in the 45th minute and his goal stood as the match winner for host Orlando City, which beat New England 1-0 on Saturday on Major League Soccer’s Decision Day.
The victory for the Lions (13-14-7, 46 points) was not enough, however, to vault them into seventh-place and a first-round best-of-three series against state rival No. 2-seed Inter Miami due to Columbus’ 4-3 win over Chicago. Instead, the Crew finished seventh and will play Miami.
Orlando City did earn home field advantage in the Eastern Conference’s wild-card match as it finished eighth and will host No. 9 seed FC Cincinnati, which lost to Nashville on Saturday.
New England (18-12-4, 58 points) finished as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and failed to jump Inter Miami for second as Miami played to a 3-3 draw with Charlotte and finished two points ahead of the Revolution.
New England will host No. 6-seed Philadelphia in the first round.
Braian Ojeda recorded his second goal of the season with a fantastic shot from the top of the box off an attempted clearance by New England defender Ethan Kohler. The chance began when Antoine Griezmann looped a ball into the goal area and Kohler tried to head it out of the box. Ojeda smartly intercepted the clearance and quickly fired a liner past Revolution keeper Matt Turner.
Twice in the second half, New England appeared to have the equalizer. And twice Daniel Gazdag was called offside.
In the 86th minute, Luca Langoni looped a long cross into the box and Gazdag raced in and headed it past Orlando goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau. But the flag immediately went up.
The prior chance came in the 66th minute when Gazdag nearly tapped home the tying goal off another long cross into the box. But after his shot was blocked by Crepeau and a follow-up shot went over the goal, the flag went up ruling Gazdag offside.
Crepeau recorded his sixth clean sheet of the season.
Martin Ojeda nearly made it a two-goal lead for the Lions in the 52nd minute but his crossing shot missed wide by a few feet.
–Field Level Media
