The Columbus Crew advanced to the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday night with a 2-0 victory in extra time over Nashville SC at MAPFRE Stadium.
The Crew will host the New England Revolution next weekend, after the Revs downed Orlando City at Exploria Stadium.
The match was tightly contested for the 90 minutes, with neither side able to break the deadlock.
It was in the 99th minute, when Gyasi Zardes cut back a cross for Pedro Santos that the scoring began. Zardes sealed the game in the 103rd minute in a one-on-one with Nashville goalkeeper Joe Willis.
Nashville proved a threat on counters and set pieces, and nearly opened the scoring after 20 minutes from a corner kick, but Andrew Tarbell was quick to get down and smother the Jhonder Cadiz header.
Just seven minutes later, from another Daniel Lovitz corner kick, Dax McCarty connected with a header at the near post, rattling the crossbar.
While Columbus held most of the possession at 54 percent, it wasn’t until the 80th minute when the Crew finally put a real threat on Joe Willis’ net.
Luis Diaz flashed a low cross behind the Nashville defense, and Gyasi Zardes from close range couldn’t beat Willis, who made a big stop to keep his team in the game going into extra time.
Nashville put together a fantastic run in its expansion season in 2020, but end just short.
It was first the play-in game against fellow expansion side, Inter Miami, where Nashville cruised in a 3-0 victory, and then against second placed Toronto FC, Nashville that time won in extra time.
It was almost another upset in extra time for the new boys in the south, but the Crew had the extra bit of skill, and extra bit left in the tank to flip the narrative on Nashville.
The Crew advance to face New England on Sunday, December 6. One more win would put Columbus in the MLS Cup Finals for the first time since 2015.
