The Eastern Conference regular season champion New York Red Bulls will face the San Jose Earthquakes in the teams’ two-leg, aggregate goal Eastern Conference Semifinal Series. New York will travel to Buck Shaw Stadium to take on San Jose in the first leg on Saturday, Oct. 30 at a time to be determined before the teams head to Red Bull Arena on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 8:00 PM ET for the second leg (TV: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3). Tickets for the Red Bulls’ home leg are on sale now by calling 1.877.RBSOCCER or CLICKING HERE. The winner of the series will take on the victor of the Columbus Crew-Colorado Rapids match-up in the Eastern Conference Final.
Under the semifinal series format, the team
that scores the most goals over the two legs will advance to the Eastern
Conference Final. By virtue of being the top seed in the East, the Red
Bulls, which underwent one of the most significant one-year turnarounds
in MLS history and finished with 15 wins - 10 more than a season before -
have home field advantage throughout the playoffs and would host a
potential Eastern Conference Final at Red Bull Arena.
This season, San Jose was one of six Western
Conference teams to book its ticket for the postseason. With the top
two clubs in the Eastern and Western Conferences automatically
qualifying, four Western Conference Wild Card teams also clinched berths
and the fifth and sixth placed clubs – Colorado and San Jose,
respectively – moved to the Eastern bracket.
New York is 1-1-0 against San Jose this
season. In the teams’ most recent match on Aug. 28, the Red Bulls
defeated the Earthquakes, 2-0, at Red Bull Arena behind goals from Dane
Richards and Thierry Henry. On May 8, the Earthquakes beat the Red
Bulls, 4-0, at Buck Shaw Stadium with New York playing most of the match
down a man. San Jose is led by MLS Most Valuable Player candidate Chris
Wondolowski, who has a MLS-high 18 goals this season. The teams have
never faced each other in the postseason.
