The hill was too big to climb for the New York Red Bulls.
Entering Thursday night's second leg against Atlanta United down 3-0, the Red Bulls applied pressure but were unable to breakthrough the Atlanta defense until the very end of the match. The Five Stripes locked down the RBNY attack and locked up their trip to MLS Cup. They will host the final on Dec. 8 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (8 pm ET; FOX, UniMás, TSN, TVAS).
Tata Martino came into the second leg with a clear plan for his team. They were to sit back and not allow the RBNY attack any space. This resulted in the home team controlling the balance of play but unable to create any big chances. Aaron Long managed to score one in the 79th minute off a corner kick, but it was disallowed after Tim Parker was judged to have fouled Brad Guzan after Video Review. Parker did manage to redeem himself a bit, scoring one in stoppage time after a scramble in the box off a corner kick.
Josef Martinez had a huge opportunity moments into the match as he was able to get in behind the backline and end up 1v1 against Luis Robles. The 'keeper made the save to keep RBNY's hopes alive, but from there the Five Stripes were able to manage the rest of the match. The road team completed just 45.7 percent of their passes, by far the lowest percentage any team has had in a match since Opta began tracking the statistic in 2010.
Goals
- 90+4' — RBNY — Tim Parker
