Matt "the Armchair Analyst" Doyle breaks down all of Sunday's second legs of the Conference Semifinals of the Audi 2015 MLS Cup Playoffs. Check them all out.
EAST: New York-DC | Columbus-Montreal | WEST:Vancouver-Portland|Dallas-Seattle
The Red Bulls took a bigger, more impressive step toward the conference championship last week than any of their competitors. They drilled D.C. United pretty comprehensively in a 1-0 win at RFK Stadium, giving them both a road win and sweet, sweet momentum.
RBNY suffocated D.C. with their high press, denying the hosts so much as a single shot on target. That had never been done before in MLS playoff history, so it should give you some idea of how much more lopsided the game was than the scoreline indicates.
For the second leg, United will hop on I-95 and truck on up to Red Bull Arena on Sunday (3 pm ET; ESPN | ESPN Deportes). When they get there, they will have a mountain to climb.
The Trends: RBNY are 9-1-0 in their last 10 at home, a streak that stretches back to the end of June.
United haven't scored multiple goals away from RFK in MLS play since a 2-1 win over Vancouver in late April, a span of 14 games. They went 2-9-3 in that stretch.
What RBNY Will Do: Attack the left back
Here's a look at where RBNY's key passes (passes that lead to a shot) and one assist came from last week:
Matt Miazga can still be pushed around in the air, and Ronald Zubar is mistake-prone.
One way or another, Sabo will be heard from.
How to solve it: Shut down the cross
United's passing numbers were ghastly last week -- they only completed 54% of their passes, which is the second-lowest percentage in any MLS game since 2010.
But there was one place RBNY struggled to shut them down, and that was on the cross. D.C. connected on seven of them, and at least one (that Saborio header above) should have been a goal.
The New York fullbacks and wingers have to do a better job of preventing early service, or Miazga and Zubar will end up having a pretty busy day.
What's it all mean?
Two Supporters' Shields in three years, last year's first-ever playoff series win over United and last week's first-ever playoff game win at RFK means there's no more Curse of Caricola to fret about. D.C. will make this one ugly, but RBNY have too much talent and too much momentum to give this lead away.
They'll advance to their second straight Eastern Conference championship appearance.
