After a 34-week regular season campaign that saw the New York Red Bulls winning the Supporters’ Shield, the scene shifts to the MLS Cup Playoffs. Twelve teams - six from each conference - hope to hoist the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy on Saturday, December 8. Atlanta United fans will be keeping a close eye on the match that will start the playoffs: an Eastern Conference knockout round game this evening that pits third-seeded New York City FC against the sixth-seeded Philadelphia Union at Yankee Stadium for the second time in four days. And by the end of the night, the Five Stripes may know where they’ll be headed on Sunday to play the away leg of its Eastern Conference semifinal matchup. If NYCFC defeat Philadelphia, Atlanta will face NYCFC. If Philadelphia win, it will draw the top-seeded New York Red Bulls as the lowest possible seed in the East, meaning that Atlanta will get the winner of Thursday’s contest between fourth-seeded Columbus Crew and fifth-seeded D.C. United. How To Watch New York City FC vs. Philadelphia Union In the MLS Cup Playoffs When: October 31, 2018 Time: 7 p.m. Venue: Yankee Stadium, New York TV: FS1; UniMas and UDN (in Spanish) Streaming: FOX Sports app; FOX Sports GO Regular season matchups: PHI 2-0 NYC (8/18); NYC 3-1 PHI (10/28)<doc-sep>Don’t make any Halloween plans just yet. The Philadelphia Union have finished sixth in the Eastern Conference, meaning they’ll head back up I-95 to Yankees Stadium to face New York City FC on Wednesday or Thursday. UPDATE: the game will be played on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Going into today, the Union could have finished as high as third, ensuring a playoff game at Talen Energy Stadium. That hope was dashed by a lackluster performance against NYCFC, losing 3-1 in the Bronx thanks to a disjointed performance. The loss was the Union’s second straight. The Union could have finished as high as fifth with a loss, but D.C. United‘s draw against Chicago Fire and Columbus Crew SC‘s nail-biting win against Minnesota United FC pushed them down to sixth. The good news is that the Union know their foe. They looked decent in the second half of the game, and will have enough time to make some adjustments to come back stronger against NYCFC. They’ll also have a score to settle with David Villa and company, which should motivate the club to perform better than they did today.<doc-sep>New York City FC have the blueprint to beat the Union. Now, they’ll just have to execute it again. Just three days after beating Philadelphia in a contest they heavily dominated at Yankee Stadium, NYCFC will get another chance where it really matters — in the knockout round of MLS Cup Playoffs — on Wednesday night (7 p.m.; FS1) in The Bronx. “We have to play like [it’s] a final,” coach Domenec Torrent said Monday. “It’s about one game. … The most important thing is to keep calm, play with desire and with good mentality, but don’t lose control.” Here are four things to watch for in Wednesday’s match. Yangel Herrera’s return NYCFC will continue to rely on David Villa & Co. for their offensive production as they will need goals in order to advance, but Herrera’s return to the midfield might be instrumental. The 20-year-old Venezuelan was initially ruled out for the season after he broke his ankle on a nasty challenge against the Houston Dynamo in May. But Herrera continued to rehab and miraculously returned to NYCFC earlier this month, first in a 20-minute cameo against DC United on Oct. 21 before logging 90 minutes in the 3-1 win against the Union on Sunday, a decision made by Herrera, according to Torrent. It was the first time that NYCFC had Maxi Moralez, Alex Ring and Herrera all together in the midfield since May 25. Having Herrera back relieves the duties of both Moralez and Ring. Offensively, he’s an able passer who’ll shade forward but provide enough defensive coverage to let Moralez float higher and perhaps help create more dangerous scoring opportunities. On the defensive end, Herrera diffuses some of Ring’s responsibilities and offers an athletic combination to disrupt play centrally and out wide. Herrera was NYCFC’s most active player Sunday, touching the ball 97 times, but he’s had just two full days to fully recover from Sunday. It remains to be seen whether the decision to play him the entire match, especially considering the short turnaround, will haunt Torrent. No place like home The Union have never been able to figure out Yankee Stadium. They are winless in four matches, and Sunday’s installment showed they could operate within Yankee Stadium’s crowded dimensions. Although NYCFC won just two of their final 10 matches, they finished with an 11-1-4 record at home this season. The crowded dimensions proved too much in the 3-1 victory, where Union coach Jim Curtain basically torched his team in a warmup to Wednesday’s game. “You can take formations, you can talk about tactics — today, they out-competed us from the opening whistle,” Curtin said, via Philly.com. “We’ll learn from this game, maybe make an adjustment or two, there could be a change in the lineup. But again, overall, today was about competing and we fell short in the competing aspect of things. You don’t want to get out-competed, and I thought today we were.” No more excuses for Torrent For the first time since taking over at NYCFC, Torrent will have a fully stocked team at his disposal. If it doesn’t work out by now, when will it? His injury excuse won’t hold weight with everyone back, and he’s had months to prepare for the playoffs. It’s long been the stretch of play that he’s said he’s been concentrated on. He’s learning just how difficult MLS can be, but at this point, he should have an idea of his best starting XI and work from there. In truth, Torrent likely needs another season at NYCFC before he can be properly judged. He has stressed he might need new players and an offseason to truly implement his system. Sporting Director Claudio Reyna recently gave Torrent his approval when he defended Pep Guardiola’s right-hand man, saying he’s been “very happy” with the transition from Patrick Vieira, who left to coach Nice in France in June, to Torrent. Still, after a year that started with Supporters Shield and MLS Cup in close grasp, anything but a title would largely be a failure. Still, a win against the Union would help Torrent’s head. Villa’s future? Wednesday night could very well be David Villa’s final game at NYCFC. Villa’s future is unknown despite a report earlier this year suggesting the 36-year-old would retire and accept a job at NYCFC. (He called it “fake news.”) Still, he left his future a mystery on Sunday when he could have answered it. “That is not important right now,” Villa said about his future. “The most important is the team and for this I didn’t talk a lot these last few months.” He’s scored 77 goals in 117 total games in four years at NYCFC.<doc-sep>
There will be no playoff game in Chester this week after the Philadelphia Union fell 3-1 to New York City FC at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Needing a win to clinch third place and a home playoff game, the blue and gold fell behind 2-0 in the first 10 minutes on a Maxime Chanot goal and an own goal from Auston Trusty. Disorganized and disoriented after Trusty’s own goal on an attempted clearance from a cross into the box from former Reading United defender Ben Sweat, Cory Burke was able to get the U back into the game when Borek Dockal found the Jamaica international all alone behind the defense in the 14th minute. The goal tied Burke with Fafa Picault for the team lead with 10 on the season, his first in MLS. The Pigeons restored their two-goal lead in the 34th minute on another near own goal from Trusty, who slid in to try to clear a ball out of danger but ended up hitting it off of Ray Gaddis, whose poor clearance eventually ended up at the foot of David Villa for a finish inside the box. Head coach Jim Curtin went to his bench at halftime, switching Burke — who was on a yellow — for Ilsinho and putting CJ Sapong up top. The move almost paid off for Curtin when Sapong was taken down by a silly foul by NYC goalkeeper Sean Johnson, who recovered from what could have potentially been a red card offense to make a diving save on Picault’s penalty attempt. Johnson ended up making three of his four saves in the second half to deny the Union’s comeback attempt. In the opposite goal, Blake registered five saves on the day, including one on the initial shot from Villa off Gaddis’ turnover that he followed up for his goal. Curtin used his other two subs to bring in Fabinho for Keegan Rosenberry and swap him with Gaddis at outside back and brought in Jay Simpson for Sapong. Neither move brought the Union back in a game they’ll have a chance to avenge in the knockout round of the playoffs on Wednesday in the Bronx. Though the game was touted by some as the Union’s biggest game of the season, traveling back to the Bronx for a rematch in the knockout round of the playoffs may still end up being a preferred scenario to playing D.C. United on the road. Another dismal performance at Yankee Stadium would make fans quickly forget that coming into today’s game the Union had a chance to claim third place in the Eastern Conference and host a playoff game for the second time in franchise history. They certainly looked a long way from being that team on Sunday. Rather than riding high into the postseason today’s loss means the Union will end up finishing only four points clear of seventh place Montreal Impact after dropping their final two games to their New York rivals.