The New York Red Bulls became the third Eastern Conference team to secure their place in the Major League Soccer (MLS) playoffs on Wednesday with Atlanta United’s victory over Orlando City SC.
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Without playing, the New Jersey team joined the Philadelphia Union and CF Montreal among the teams that got their ticket to the post-season tournament. At 50 points and with three games to go, they had to hope for an Orlando loss to qualify.
The “Lions” are fifth in the East with 42 points, but still have four games to complete. Atlanta, which is fighting for a place among the first seven clubs in the association, carried out a good operation by winning 1-0 in Florida.
Thiago Almada was the only scorer of the match, in the 72nd minute of play. The Argentine midfielder went for a clever “one-two” with his teammate Andrew Gutman before avoiding the diving tackle of Antonio Carlos to find himself alone against Pedro Gallese. The 21-year-old beat the Peruvian keeper to his right with a cross shot.
Thanks to this goal, Atlanta signed a second consecutive victory, after defeating Toronto FC 4 to 2 last Saturday.
Head coach Gonzalo Pineda’s men are ninth with 39 points, two points behind the Columbus Crew in seventh place.