It took the maximum three games and the maximum amount of stress, but New York City FC got past Charlotte FC and are heading to the MLS Eastern Conference Semifinals.
They got there by winning Game 3 of their best-of-three Round One series at Bank of America Stadium, beating Charlotte 3-1 in a game that was nervy until the final seconds and a game that was somewhat overshadowed by a gruesome ankle injury suffered by New York City midfielder Andrés Perea.
Matthew Mangam
New York City will face the Supporters' Shield-winning Philadelphia Union on the road at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania. The match will take place on either Saturday, November 22 or Sunday, November 23, pending Major League Soccer finalizing the schedule for each conference's round of semifinals.
NYCFC and the Union split the regular-season series, with New York City winning 1-0 at home at Citi Field on April 12, then with Philadelphia winning 1-0 at home at Subaru Park on October 4.
This will be the fourth time New York City and Philadelphia meet in the MLS Cup Playoffs. NYCFC won the first-ever playoff meeting between the two teams in the single-elimination knockout round of the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs, beating Jim Curtin's Union 3-1 at Yankee Stadium on Halloween night.
Hudson River Blue Staff
The 2021 Eastern Conference Final in Chester, PA, still lives in infamy in DOOP circles, with New York City beating a Covid-depleted Union side to win the team's first piece of silverware and to reach MLS Cup. Philadelphia got a modicum of revenge by winning the 2022 Eastern Conference Final, also back in Chester, though the Union came up short in that year's MLS Cup when they lost to Gareth Bale and LAFC.
Now, Bradley Carnell's Philadelphia team is fresh off winning that Supporters' Shield, with Carnell named MLS Coach of the Year. They ran right through Chicago Fire FC in their best-of-three Round One series, sweeping the Fire in two games after surviving a topsy-turvy Game 1 that came down to penalty kicks after Chicago scored an equalizer at 90'+3' to force a shootout.
New York City will head to Philadelphia without Aiden O'Neill, suspended for the Semifinal after picking up three yellow cards across the three matches vs Charlotte. They also will very likely (almost certainly, really) be without Andrés Perea, who suffered that ugly ankle injury that required him to be carted off the field.
It will be a shorthanded New York City FC team, but that won't matter, as they'll still get a chance to pull off a road upset against the No 1 seed from Philadelphia.
This is the fourth time in five seasons that NYCFC reached this stage of the MLS Cup Playoffs, so it's nothing more than a welcome back to the Eastern Conference Semifinals – now we just have to wait through the international break to get to the main event.
