New England and Columbus win, advance to MLS Eastern Conference final

The Associated Press
November 30, 2020 at 4:22AM
Orlando City's Junior Urso, left, headed the ball past New England forward Teal Bunbury, who grew up in Prior Lake, in their Eastern Conference semifinal.
Orlando City’s Junior Urso, left, headed the ball past New England forward Teal Bunbury, who grew up in Prior Lake, in their Eastern Conference semifinal. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Gustavo Bou scored his second goal of the game in the 86th minute to help the New England Revolution beat 10-man Orlando City 3-1 on Sunday in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

New England will play the Columbus Crew, a 2-0 overtime winner over Nashville, next Sunday for a spot in the MLS Cup final.

Orlando City had a chance to tie it at 2 in the 74th minute, but Matt Turner stopped Nani on a penalty kick. Twelve minutes later, Bou ran to Carles Gil's through ball and sent it between goalkeeper Brian Rowe's legs for a 3-1 lead.

"It wasn't pretty," Revolution coach Bruce Arena said. "We had to work real hard. That was a real good team. … We made some mistakes in this game, and we've got to get it better for next week."

The teams combined for three goals in the opening 33 minutes. Gil opened the scoring in the 17th minute on a penalty kick. Bou made it 2-0 in the 26th off a rebound, and Orlando City's Junior Urso scored in the 33rd.

Columbus 2, Nashville 0 (OT): Pedros Santos and Gyasi Zardes scored three minutes apart early in overtime, and the host Crew beat Nashville to advance to the MLS Eastern Conference finals.

Santos scored in the 99th minute, taking a feed from Zardes and scoring a goal that ended seventh-seeded Nashville's shutout streak at more than 200 minutes. Zardes struck in the 102nd on a breakaway. Nashville was the second expansion team in league history to reach the conference semifinals. The first was the Chicago Fire in 1998.

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