After barely sneaking into the Major League
Soccer playoffs as the last overall seed, forced into the Western Conference
bracket as a wild card team, the New York Red Bulls pulled their second-
straight road upset of a Western Conference opponent. This time a dramatic 1-0
victory against Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium in the Western Conference
final on Saturday night was enough for New York (2-0-1) to advance to it's
first ever MLS Cup title game.
The Red Bulls, who upset the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo in the
Western semis, will now square off against the top seed in the playoffs - the
Eastern Champion Columbus Crew - in the MLS Cup Championship on Nov. 23 at The
Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
New York left winger Dave van den Bergh was the hero on Saturday, scoring the
game's only goal in the 28th minute after Red Bulls' forward John Wolyniec
outraced RSL defender Jamison Olave on the left side and fired a low cross
into the penalty area. RSL goalkeeper Nick Rimando was distracted by Juan
Pablo Angel breaking in front of him, just behind the ball, and he punched it
right to Van den Bergh, who buried the shot into an open net.
RSL (1-1-1), which outshot the Red Bulls 24-11 in the match, had plenty of
chances to equalize, but hit the post at least three times in the game and was
unable to beat New York goalkeeper Danny Cepero, who recorded four saves for
his second-straight playoff clean sheet.
About 10 minutes after Van den Bergh's goal, RSL's Javier Morales almost put a
free-kick in, but rang it off the right post.
Defender Jamison Olave pushed a shot over the net from 10 yards out after a
good buildup from RSL in the 67th minute to kill another surge from the home
team before New York right winger Dane Richards missed badly two minutes
later.
The speedy Jamaican, who had a goal and an assist as well a drawing a penalty
kick last week against Houston, found daylight in the RSL third of the field
and raced toward Rimando, but took a bad touch and fired a shot wide-right
just before the 70 minute mark.
Cepero got a hand on a Yura Movsisyan shot from point blank a minute later to
preserve the one-goal advantage before RSL saw it's best opportunity of the
game ring off the post in the 80th minute.
Second-half substitute Robbie Findley collected a ball on the right side of
the New York penalty area and played a diagonal ball across the six-yard box,
past an onrushing Cepero, to Will Johnson. But Johnson's sliding shot right at
the endline deflected off the post and was cleared by the defense.
Morales hit RSL's third post of the match four minutes into stoppage time as
destiny seemed to be on the Red Bulls' side. Referee Jair Marrufo blew the
final whistle seconds later to end the game.
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