NYCFC Pulls Out Upset of the Year, Moves Onto Eastern Conference Finals
19 de Mayo de 2022 a las 05:22
Photo courtesy of ESPN
Article by Scott Churchson, The Sports Den and Sports Insiders
Host and Journalist, Spaglish World Networks, Spanglish Sports World
FOXBOROUGH. - NYCFC shocked many in the MLS world last night pulling out a 5-3 shootout win on the road against heavily favored New England, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in their history.
On a chilly 29 degree night in Foxboro New York controlled much of the action and missed several scoring chances against a Revolution team that set a league record with points at 73. First it took Santiago Rodriguez all of 3 minutes to open the scoring with a laser to the top left corner getting past goalie Matt Turner for the 1-0 score. The lead stay short lived as Adam Buska in his first match since returning from injury scored in the 10th minute to tie it at 1; a score that would remain all the way to the 110th minute when Golden Boot scorer Taty Castellanos would score on a header to again take a shortly held lead 2-1. However like earlier the lead was short lived as just 9 minutes later Tajon Buchanan would tie it at 2-2 and send it to a shootout.
To me there was a better feeling in this shootout than last year. Last year was a heartbreaking 6-5 shootout loss in Orlando in the first round of the playoffs, this time felt different. And the results were, as Alex Callens scored the final shot securing a 5-3 shootout win.
It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows going into Sunday. Taty Castellanos’s second yellow card of the match in the 113th minute turned into an automatic red card causing him to be suspended in the final, which was partly responsible for the score being tied with NYCFC down a player. As the team plays in the first Eastern Conference Final in their history, it'll be interesting to see how they react without their Golden Boot winner.
3 Notes:
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Taty being out of the lineup creates additional issues for Sunday. With Anton Tinnerholm and Keaton Parks already out of the lineup for the playoffs losing Castellanos puts the Gents in Blue at a further disadvantage as not only was he responsible for 19 of the 56 goals the team scored this season he also had 8 in the past 6 matches, including the postseason.
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Facing off against Philadelphia has been split down the middle in three matches, going 1-1-1 with both the loss & the win on the road at Subaru Park. The Union are known for low scoring tight contests, having only allowed three goals three times this season. Much of that can be attributed to Philadelphia goalkeeper Andre Blake and his 0.92 goals allowed average during the regular season.
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Compared to the weather in Foxboro against the Revs, the weather in Philadelphia is expected to be more acceptable. Several NYCFC players during the New England game suffered cramping late in the game in 29 degree temperatures, however the weather for Sunday's match is expected to be in the mid 40s. Not exactly balmy, but vastly improved.
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