The Columbus Crew — Main League Soccer’s defending champion — crashed out of the 2024 MLS playoffs Sunday evening by the hands of the New York Pink Bulls.
It’s the primary main upset of the playoffs and one with large implications for the remainder of the Jap Convention.
Columbus certified for the playoffs by ending second within the MLS common season. It spent 2024 taking part in the league’s greatest and most stunning soccer, qualifying for 2 main finals: the CONCACAF Champions Cup, which it misplaced to Mexico’s Pachuca, and the Leagues Cup, which it gained over LAFC.
Because the No. 2 seed within the league and the defending MLS Cup champion, Columbus was extensively anticipated to make a deep playoff run. However that expectation proved harmful for the crew in its Spherical 1 best-of-three sequence towards the Pink Bulls.
In Recreation 1, Columbus failed to seek out its rhythm towards the Pink Bulls’ aggressive excessive press. It managed to keep up 78% ball possession all through the sport, however the Pink Bulls expertly pushed Columbus again, guaranteeing that every one its possession occurred in innocent components of the sector.
When Columbus drained and made errors, the Pink Bulls have been there to pounce. Their technique was high-effort, high-intensity and exhausting, nevertheless it labored, and the Pink Bulls claimed a shock 1-0 win.
In Recreation 2, the Pink Bulls knew they couldn’t deploy the identical technique twice: Columbus can be undoubtedly be prepared for it. They met Columbus man-to-man on the sector as a substitute, and whereas they went down 1-0 at the beginning of the second half, they fought again and completed the sport stage at 2-2 and primed for penalties.
The shootout wound up being a showcase for Pink Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel. He made three consecutive saves handy the victory to the Pink Bulls and ship Columbus packing.
Name it complacency, exhaustion or simply unhealthy luck: both approach, Columbus discovered itself on the fallacious finish of a playoff sweep after a dominant regular-season efficiency.
It’s a wildly disappointing outcome for MLS’s most constant crew and one which blows the Jap Convention extensive open. Columbus was backed to go to the convention remaining and face Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami; with Columbus eradicated and Miami pressured right into a Recreation 3 by stoic Atlanta United, the highest two groups within the East might each fall at their first playoff hurdle.
The Pink Bulls had an up-and-down season below new supervisor Sandro Schwarz, however this upset underlines that the crew is on the right track: straight towards the MLS Cup.
The Pink Bulls are the primary crew within the Jap Convention to clinch a spot within the subsequent spherical. They’ll await the winner of the FC Cincinnati-NYCFC sequence in an Jap Convention semifinal sequence later this month.
