Alonso Martinez scored a wonderful individual goal in the 34th minute and visiting New York City FC earned a 1-0 victory over Charlotte FC on Tuesday night in the opener of their Round One MLS Cup Playoff series.
Martinez’s second-career playoff goal helped NYCFC, the Eastern Conference fifth seed, become the first away side to win in any of the league’s first seven best-of-three series in this round.
Matt Freese made four stops to shut out fourth seed Charlotte and keep his second career playoff clean sheet. It was his first in seven total appearances, the previous one coming in a 2-0 league home win over Charlotte on Sept. 20
Charlotte will head to the second game of the series in New York on Saturday still searching for its first all-time playoff regulation win.
The Crown were short-handed in their fifth attempt at that elusive first victory on Tuesday, with regular-season 10-goal scorer Wilfried Zaha serving a suspension after earning a red card in the regular-season finale.
New York was the dominant team before halftime, outshooting Charlotte 8-3 overall and 4-1 in efforts on target in the opening 45 minutes.
After one of several Charlotte turnovers in its own half, NYCFC’s Andres Perea nearly gave the visitors the lead when his effort struck the crossbar in the 31st minute.
Three minutes later, Martinez broke through via a stunning, slaloming individual run.
Charlotte’s defensive pressure was soft as the Costa Rican cut in from the right and eventually worked his way into the box.
Even so, his touch was excellent as he played the ball through the legs of defender Adilson Malanda’s legs, then dispatched a cool finish beyond Kristijan Kahlina and inside the far right post.
Charlotte improved after halftime but it rarely translated into clear efforts on Freese’s goal. Ashley Westwood’s 88th-minute header forced only a routine save from the NYCFC ‘keeper, and Archie Goodwin missed wide of his near post from inside the box deep in second-half stoppage time.
Before that, Perea nearly put the game out of reach, his 86th-minute header from close range forcing Kahlina into a sprawling stop.
Game 2 is set for Saturday in New York, and the if-necessary third game would be held on Nov. 7 back in Charlotte.
–Field Level Media
