New York Red Bulls (22-7-5) – 71 points @ Columbus Crew (15-11-9 overall) – 54 points
“We’ve had a lot of adversity to deal with, and I think we’ve shown that we’re strong, mentally and physically,” Zack Steffen said. “This is the best time of year, and we all love it.”
If you go by record (which you should as it’s a factual statistic) New York Red Bulls are the best team in Major League Soccer history.
However, Columbus should be currently on quite a confidence high after defeating DC United on the road. DC United were undefeated in the previous seven games and only 17% of fans on mlssoccer.com expected Columbus to win Thursday.
Hyped for Sunday? Hell yes. pic.twitter.com/PKMb7oJ0Bb
— CREWTURE.NET (@crewture) November 2, 2018
But they did. Columbus additionally should feel very confident at home, in the last five home playoff appearances the Crew are 3-1-1.
Last year in the same series Columbus got up by three goals at home against NYCFC and held on. Similarly, Columbus needs to win by 2 or 3 goals tomorrow to give themselves a chance in the overall series.
A tie or loss won’t cut it.
Columbus are likely without Pedro Santos as he was stamped on pretty hard at DCU and left the game early.
Niko Hansen won’t be much of a let off and actually most Crew fans, that haven’t been overwhelmed with Santos, will likely be fine with the switch.
Bradley Wright-Phillips added another 20 goals to his New York Red Bull total tally this year.
Along with that the Red Bulls has the best defense in Major League Soccer this year allowing only 33 goals.
PREDICTION: 4-0 Columbus. Because they’ll need to really win this one as it will be tougher on the road in NYRB this year then it was against NYCFC last year.
