All the qualified 16 teams playing a best of three games .
With no aggregate score in the Best-of-three postseason series , there is an opportunity to put the setback behind and start fresh on Game 2 . Each team can go unaffected by the score loss . The rule is to win two out of three games to advance to the next Round .
The Revs fell to a 3 x 1 reverse at Subaru Park in Game 1 , as the hosts raced into a 3 x 0 halftime lead through a Dániel Gazdag penalty , plus goals from Mikael Uhre and Nathan Harriel . After the PK , the Revs lost Carles Gil , captain , going down with an injury , frustratingly forced off early in the first half .
However , the visitors produced an improved second half showing as Gustavo Bou reduced the deficit with a superbly-taken solo effort – his third goal against the Union in the last seven days .
Atlanta United cannot stop the Columbus Crew ’ s attack . After starting in a 5-3-2 formation without Thiago Almada ( red card ) in Game 1 , Atlanta still found their box under real , consistent pressure at Lower . com Field . Things aren ’ t likely to get better on the defensive end when Almada don ’ t return for Game 2 . Atlanta have to find Giakoumakis ’ vertical runs as often as possible .
Without Almada to play the final pass , Giakoumakis was isolated .
If Nashville can find Hany Mukhtar up front and can get their wingers running downhill and hitting cutbacks to Sam Surridge on the edge of the six-yard box , they ’ ll have some joy .
After losing a tight game at Orlando to start this series , Nashville will likely have to drive more of the attacking flow . Gary Smith ’ s team has been hurting for goals for weeks now , either due to poor finishing , poor chance creation , or some
combination of the two . Now , they ' re trying to find lanes to break through what could end up being a fairly conservative 4-4-2 block from Oscar Pareja ’ s team .
Cincinnati had more possession and created basically no “ gimmes ” with it . Both of those things are positives for RBNY . That ’ s where the positives end , though . New York did a poor job of getting pressure to and winning the ball in Zone 14 in key moments – and they made mincemeat of their transition defending on Luciano Acosta ’ s longrange strike into an empty net 10 minutes before
halftime .
Those issues aren ’ t very Red Bull-y , based on what we know about this club . If they can help manufacture a similar flow to Game 2 while cleaning up those uncharacteristic mistakes , they can turn things around in this series .
GOALNEWS 25