The Columbus Crew’s MLS Cup title defence got here crashing to a halt as they have been eradicated from the playoffs following a penalty shoot-out defeat to the New York Pink Bulls.
Following a shock dwelling defeat in Recreation 1, Wilfried Nancy’s champions wanted a street win in Recreation 2 to maintain their season alive, however Yevhen Cheberko, Max Arfsten and Alexandru Matan all noticed their spot-kicks repelled by Carlos Coronel following a pulsating 2-2 draw.
Arfsten had earlier given Columbus a Fifty fifth-minute lead moments after stepping off the bench, just for Dante Vanzeir to drill dwelling a swift equaliser.
New York appeared set to advance when Emil Forsberg’s Eightieth-minute penalty accomplished the turnaround, however one other Crew substitute, Christian Ramirez, headed dwelling six minutes into second-half stoppage time to power the shoot-out.
Columbus couldn’t sustain their momentum from 12 yards, although, with Colonel’s three saves proving very important as New York gained it on the second time of asking, Daniel Edelman scoring the decisive kick after Sean Nealis had failed to take action.
Elsewhere, the Seattle Sounders additionally wanted penalties to dump the Houston Dynamo out in spherical one, prevailing from the spot for the second recreation in a row.
Seattle’s Cristian Roldan scored at each ends, slotting dwelling an 87th-minute opener solely to place by way of his personal web three minutes into stoppage time, delivering Griffin Dorsey’s cross.
The primary 13 penalties within the shoot-out have been all scored, however Tate Schmitt was the unlucky man to see his spot-kick saved, Seattle goalkeeper Stefan Frei pushing it away to ship his group to the Western Convention semifinals.
Lastly, Ryan Gauld scored and compelled two personal objectives because the Vancouver Whitecaps saved their best-of-three sequence towards Los Angeles FC alive with a 3-0 triumph at BC Place.
The Scotland midfielder powered dwelling after 10 minutes and, simply 180 seconds later, noticed his long-range effort deflected previous Hugo Lloris by the unwitting Ryan Hollingshead.
Denis Bouanga twice went shut for the Western Convention’s prime seeds after the break earlier than Gauld was concerned once more in Vancouver’s third purpose, seeing a cross go in off the heel of Eddie Segura.
The groups will now reconvene for a 3rd match subsequent week, with the victors set to face Seattle within the subsequent spherical.
