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The Columbus Crew will host an MLS Cup playoff game at MAPFRE Stadium on Nov 21 against the New York Red Bulls. The Crew earned a 2-1 victory at home on MLS’s Decision Day against Atlanta United which guaranteed at least one home match for the postseason.
As is custom on Decision Day, chaos and drama went till the last-minute across MLS. Jhonder Cadiz scored in the 90th minute for Nashville SC to secure a 3-2 victory against Orlando City SC. That goal pushed the Black & Gold ahead of Orlando City on the wins tiebreaker to earn the three seed in the Eastern Conference and the right to host the Red Bulls in the No. 3 seed versus No. 6 seed first-round game.
While Columbus sat at the top of the Eastern Conference and MLS standings for much of the 2020 season, a recent run of two wins in nine games heading into Decision Day saw the group fall to fourth place in the East. The win against Atlanta on the final day of the season, as well as the last-second loss by Orlando meant the Black & Gold were able to climb back into third place in the East.
This will be the second meeting in 2020 between the two teams. The Crew and Red Bulls met in the group stage of the MLS is Back Tournament where Columbus won 2-0 on the team’s road to a perfect record in Group E in Orlando. Columbus finished the regular season with a home record of 9-1-0 which will make the team the favorites for the playoff encounter.
The Red Bulls ended the season with a 2-1 victory against second-place Toronto FC to avoid a play-in the MLS Cup playoffs. New York finished on 32 points this season and had a road record of 3-3-4 to make the postseason tournament.
These two MLS originals have had a rich history of memorable playoff matches and will get to add another chapter in 2020. The most recent meeting occurred in the 2018 Eastern Conference semifinals when the Red Bulls knocked off the Crew 3-1 on aggregate in the two-legged tie. Other historic encounters include the 2015 Eastern Conference Final where the Black & Gold held on to advance to MLS Cup and of course, the 2008 MLS Cup final where Columbus defeated the Red Bulls 3-1 to win the team’s lone MLS title.
The match will take place on Saturday Nov 21 at 3 p.m. ET in front of around 1,500 fans at MAPFRE Stadium. The game will be nationally broadcast in Spanish on UniMas and TUDN. English language broadcast will be streamed on MLSsoccer.com and will be on regionally on SportsTime Ohio.