Felipe Carballo scored in the 25th minute, Carlos Coronel made eight saves and the visiting New York Red Bulls moved within one match of eliminating the defending MLS Cup champions with a stunning 1-0 victory over the Columbus Crew in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Round 1 series on Tuesday.
The No. 2 seed Crew not only had 19 more points in the regular season than the No. 7 Red Bulls, but their 66 points were second in MLS to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.
Game 2 in the best-of-three series is Sunday in Harrison, N.J. The third, if necessary, will be in Columbus on Nov. 10.
Coronel made an amazing left-handed save on DeJuan Jones in the 83rd minute as the Crew pushed for the equalizer.
New York had lost all four previous playoff matches in Columbus but improved to 3-5-1 all-time in postseason matches vs. the Crew.
Carballo scored off a set piece situation when the Crew were caught ball-watching and he struck from the center of the box off a flick by Dylan Nealis.
It was a deserved lead as the Red Bulls’ high pressure stymied the usually dynamic Crew attack that has scored more goals in the past two seasons than any club in MLS.
Columbus’ second-leading contributor Diego Rossi (12 goals, 11 assists) was unavailable because of back issues.
Coronel came up big with saves on Christian Ramirez and Cucho Hernandez early in the second half.
The Crew had 73 percent of the possession for the match but was either thwarted by Coronel or poor in finishing.
Columbus defeated the Red Bulls twice in the regular season. Most recently, they edged the host New York 3-2 on a 97th-minute goal by Malte Amundsen in the Oct. 19 regular-season finale.
Amundsen was unavailable Tuesday because of an injury.
The Crew were extended to three matches by Atlanta United in the 2023 Round 1, although in that case they won the first match.
They seek to join the Los Angeles Galaxy (2011-12), Houston Dynamo (2006-07) and D.C. United (1996-97) as repeat champions.
–Field Level Media
