The MLS Cup Playoff semifinals have seen a few surprises so far, but perhaps none was bigger than the long-unbeaten New York Red Bulls falling 1-0 to the Montreal Impact in the first leg of their tie. The Impact hold that crucial lead thanks to a huge goal from Matteo Mancosu in front of their home crowd a week ago, but now they have to head to the U.S. and find a way to protect that lead in order to advance to the conference final.
NY Red Bulls vs. Montreal Impact 2016: Start time, live stream, TV schedule, and 3 things to know
Montreal have a surprising 1-0 lead in this tie, but now must defend it away from home.
Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports
To do that, though, they have to hold back one of the most prolific attacks in Major League Soccer, and one that features the reigning Golden Boot winner in Bradley Wright-Phillips. Montreal held him in check in the first leg, but doing that at home and doing that away from home with the Red Bull faithful fueling him are two different propositions — especially since Montreal can’t get too over-the-top in defending against New York’s attack, as they need to be looking to score a goal of their own to get the away goal tiebreaker.
This is going to be a close, intense match. Don’t look away for a second, because you could miss a lot even in such a short time.
TV: ESPN (U.S. - English), ESPN Deportes (U.S. - Spanish), TSN5 (Canada)
Online: WatchESPN (U.S.), TSN Go (Canada)
Match Date/Time: Sunday, 4 p.m. ET
Venue: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, N.J.
Three big things to know
- Didier who? Many people thought that Montreal’s playoff hopes would be dashed without the power of Didier Drogba up top, but their attack has rolled on just fine without him. A lot of that has been down to Mancosu exploding into otherworldly form over the past few weeks, scoring three goals in Montreal’s two playoff matches so far, not to mention constantly popping up all over the final third to do his best to wreak havoc. Add in the playmaking of Ignacio Piatti and the speed of Ambroise Oyongo and Dominic Oduro, and the full team attack of Montreal seems to be doing just fine without their departed star.
- The Red Bulls aren’t just coming into this match trailing a goal in the playoff tie — they’re coming off their first loss since the first week of July. That’s a much bigger deal than some might think it is — going from the incredible confidence of such a long undefeated run to taking an important loss in an elimination scenario can be demoralizing, and New York will have to answer a lot of questions for themselves just to be able to stay in this match and have a chance at winning.
- And in order to win, New York needs to get a lot more out of their attack than they did last weekend. Montreal managed to completely shut down the offensive powerhouse duo of Sacha Kljestan and Wright-Phillips, who led MLS in assists and goalscoring this past season, respectively. Last Sunday, though, they looked hapless and unable to cope. Even when Wright-Phillips was able to get chances in front of goal, he couldn’t make the most of them, too often appearing to lack calm or confidence under the harrowing barrage of defensive pressure Montreal put on. If those two can’t get back to form, it might be too easy for the Impact to shut the rest of New York’s attack down and walk away with this match.
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