QUEENS, NY — New York Red Bulls captain Emil Forsberg kept tabs on practically everything said or written about his team during the latter stages of the 2024 MLS season.
Once a team with a stronghold on fourth place in the Eastern Conference, New York won just three of its final 18 games to sink to seventh and stagger into the playoffs as sizable underdogs against the defending league champion Columbus Crew.
“I mean, we’ve seen everything that’s been written about us, people talking about us,” Forsberg said. “I think even before the Columbus game, I don’t even think they mentioned our name before the game and just went, ‘Yeah, it’s a sweep.'”
Indeed, it was a sweep in the best-of-three first round. But for the first time in six years, the Red Bulls won a first-round playoff matchup, upsetting the Crew in two games. After a three-week layoff, they went into Citi Field on Saturday night and upset an NYCFC squad that beat them twice in the regular season by a combined score of 7-2.
Two first-half goals from Felipe Carballo and Dante Vanzeir punched the Red Bulls’ ticket to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2018 while defeating their arch-rival in the first-ever playoff meeting between the two New York clubs.
They are now just one win away from making their second-ever appearance in the MLS Cup Final and their first since 2008, when they fell to Columbus.
“I think a lot of people should apologize to us now,” Forsberg said. “Before coming into this, I was sure all the time, but some weren’t. I’m happy about the result, but we’re looking forward. We have a big one next week.”
As is the story in any postseason across the major North American sports leagues, sometimes it all comes down to which team gets hot at the right time. The Red Bulls certainly appear to be that. Their big guns are fully healthy after Forsberg recovered from a lower-leg injury that held him out for over two months. Forward Lewis Morgan also got over an injury scare between the first and second rounds of the playoffs to start Saturday night’s game at Citi Field.
It has breathed life into a squad that looked lifeless at times down the stretch of the regular season, specifically a defense that has allowed just two goals in three playoff matches.
“The spirit was always there,” Forsberg said. “That win in Columbus started something in us to say, ‘OK, we can truly do this.’ After that, we just kept our ways working every day, believing in ourselves, believing in what we can do together as a team.”
