MLS Cup Playoffs: Philadelphia, New York set for ECF rematch
By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports Soccer Writer
The MLS Cup playoffs are down to the final four teams after Austin FC and defending champion New York City FC advanced Sunday, joining the Philadelphia Union and LAFC in the conference finals.
Austin dispatched in-state rival FC Dallas 2-1 Sunday night and will travel to Los Angeles to face the Supporters Shield winners next week. NYCFC's 3-1 win at CF Montreal sets up a can't-miss rematch with the Philadelphia Union, which lost in controversial fashion to the eventual 2021 champs at the same stage last year.
Here are a few quick thoughts on Sunday's games and how the semis could shake out.
The Philadelphia Union-NYCFC rematch is must-watch
City went into Sunday's matinee as the underdog. They also went in with the swagger of a side that knows what it takes to win when it counts.
"I don't see us as underdogs," Pigeons keeper Sean Johnson, who made two acrobatic first half saves to maintain the visitors' lead, told FOX Sports afterward.
The visitors scored twice on clinically executed counterattacks. The first came just six minutes in courtesy of the ageless Maxi Moralez, but the fatal blow arrived off the foot of Heber just before halftime, digging the hosts a hole too big to climb out of.
Talles Magno added NYCFC's third from the penalty spot in the second half. The outcome was beyond doubt by the time Djordje Mihailovic pulled one back for Montreal with five minutes remaining.
It was hugely impressive performance by the visitors. And it sets up a marquee Eastern Conference final between NYCFC and the Philadelphia Union next Sunday in Chester, Pennsylvania — the matchup the Union have been waiting almost 11 months for.
Philly is desperate for revenge after their skeleton squad — nearly a dozen of Jim Curtin's players, including six starters, were sidelined under COVID protocols — lost on Magno's 88th minute strike last December, denying the Union their first MLS Cup trip in club history.
"Everybody knows what happened last year," Curtin told ESPN's broadcast team Sunday night. "They were deserved champion last year for sure, but I also think they didn't get our best punch."
So top-seeded Philadelphia got their wish, and they'll be at or near full strength this time; captain Alejandro Bedoya is questionable because of injury. But this NYCFC team will also relish the challenge to prove that last year's triumph was no fluke. They'd love nothing more than to play the spoiler once again.
"Great place to play, great energy in the stadium," Johnson said of Subaru Park. "We'll be ready."
Austin tops FC Dallas, LAFC up next
It was the same question all year for Austin FC. Are they for real? If finishing second in the Western Conference in the regular season didn't prove that Josh Wolff's side is legit, its run to the final four has.
Don't let the narrow score line fool you – the Verde dominated their fellow Texas in front of another packed house in the capital Sunday night, their 18 shots doubling the visitors' tally. Austin's goals both came in the first half, via Moussa Djitté and Sebastián Driussi. Driussi's solo effort showed why he's a finalist for league MVP:
There's no reason Austin can't go to Banc of California Stadium next week and survive. They've already beaten LAFC home and away this season. And Carlos Vela & Co. were far from convincing in their playoff-opening victory over crosstown nemesis LA Galaxy last Thursday. Can Austin pull off the upset? If Wolff can coax a similar performance from his team next weekend, there's no question about it.
FC Dallas will be back
Sunday's defeat was a bitter one for the lone remaining original MLS club never to have reached an MLS Cup final. Still, 2022 was a step in the right direction for a team that had made it past round one of the playoffs just once in the previous five years.
After missing out on the tournament altogether last year, first-year coach Nico Estévez dragged FCD – which sold U.S. men's national team striker Ricardo Pepi last winter – back into the postseason. He got career seasons out of two other USMNT forwards, winger Paul Arriola and 18 goal-man Jesús Ferreira.He's got a talented young roster that will be better for the experience they got this fall.
That roster will be tweaked at least a little before 2023, no doubt. But the core – including Ferreira, who singed a long-term contract extension earlier this year – should be around long enough to ensure that FC Dallas can build on Estévez's successful maiden campaign at the helm.
A disappointing end for Montreal
Following the best regular season in club history, CF Montreal fans had every reason to believe that the bleu-blanc-noir could become just the second Canadian club to hoist MLS Cup. They'd built a balanced roster of proven MLS veterans, members of the country's World Cup-bound national squad and hungry up-and-comers under Wilfried Nancy, who may yet be named the league's coach of the year.
But they were thin up top, especially with top forward Romell Quioto nursing a sore thigh. There were questions in goal, too. Both issues bit them on Sunday. Montreal had plenty of chances, outshooting NYCFC 18-5, but couldn't find the net until it was too late. Keeper James Pantemis got caught in no man's land in the buildup to Moralez's opener, putting the hosts on the back foot almost from the start.
It's a tough loss to swallow for a city and its long-suffering base of supporters that had dared to dream. Nancy has much to build on, though – even with Mihailovic off to Europe and captain Victor Wanyama also leaving the club. Montreal hadn't made the playoffs since 2016, the pandemic-expanded 2020 postseason aside, and took a big step this year. Sometimes you have to lose to learn how to win.
"They're an exceptional team," NYCFC interim coach Nick Cushing said of Montreal. "It will become a [championship] winning team, I'm sure of that."
One of the leading soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.