New England beats NYCFC to earn MLS playoff spot

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Teal Bunbury and Gustavo Bou scored, Matt Turner had his second consecutive shutout and the New England Revolution beat New York City FC 2-0 on Sunday to earn a playoff spot.

New York City (17-7-10) clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs after the game when the Columbus Crew beat the Philadelphia Union 2-0.

Turner finished with six saves, including a diving stop in the 54th minute, a leaping one-handed save in the 63rd and another diving save in the 85th.

Teal Bunbury gave the Revolution a 1-0 lead in the 66th minute. Penilla cut back to evade a defender on the right side and then rolled a pass to a charging Bunbury who chipped a bending first-timer into the corner of the net. Gustavo Bou lobbed a shot from 30 yards outs over the outstretched hand of goalkeeper Sean Johnson into the net to cap the scoring in the 89th.

New England (11-10-12) has just one loss in its last nine games.

CREW 2, UNION 0

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Pedro Santos had a goal and an assist in the second half and Columbus beat Philadelphia to hand the Eastern Conference’s top seed to New York City FC.

Youness Mokhtar’s first career goal, set up by Luis Diaz and Santos, put Columbus (10-15-8) up in the 69th minute. Four minutes later, Santos’ 11th goal doomed Philadelphia (16-10-7), which fell six points behind NYCFC and into a tie for second with Atlanta United, which holds the tiebreaker with one game to play. Eloy Room made three saves for his first shutout.

The game was delayed by almost an hour as lightning arrived with the start of halftime.

D.C. UNITED 0, RED BULLS 0, TIE

HARRISON, N.J. (AP) — Bill Hamid made a spectacular save in the 61st minute to highlight his 12th shutout and D.C. United played New York to the draw to maintain position for home-field advantage in a possible playoff rematch.

D.C. (13-10-10) ran its unbeaten streak and shutout streak to four matches, its longest since opening the season with three straight shutouts. Hamid was in goal for both streaks.

D.C. stayed in fourth place in the East standings, one point ahead of the Red Bulls (14-13-6), and only needs to beat last-place Cincinnati next weekend to host an opening playoff game. The Red Bulls are one point up on Toronto.

ATLANTA UNITED 1, IMPACT 1, TIE

MONTREAL (AP) — Julian Gressel scored for Atlanta United in the tie with Montreal that ended the Impact’s playoff hopes.

Gressel scored in the 53rd minute, and Bojan Krkic tied it for Montreal in the 81st.

Defending champion Atlanta (17-12-4) has already clinched a playoff spot.

Clement Diop made five saves in his MLS debut for Montreal (11-17-5). Evan Bush was on the bench for the first time since the end of the 2017 season, a streak of 66 consecutive league matches. Brad Guzan made three saves for Atlanta.

TORONTO FC 2, FIRE 2, TIE

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) — Omar González had a goal and an assist to help Toronto FC tie Chicago.

Toronto (12-10-11), which has already qualified for the postseason, can clinch a home game in the knock-out round with a win, and losses by New York and D.C. United, in next Sunday’s regular-season finale.

Chicago (9-12-12), which had its three-game unbeaten streak snapped, was eliminated from playoff contention.

González headed home a corner kick Alejandro Pozuelo in the 80th minute to make it 2-2. Jozy Altidore gave Toronto a 1-0 lead in the 59th. Aleksandar Katai tied it in the 68th, and Fabian Herbers gave the Fire a 2-1 lead in the 77th.

ORLANDO CITY 1, FC CINCINNATI 1, TIE

CINCINNATI (AP) — Benji Michel scored a minute into extra time to give Orlando City the tie with FC Cincinnati.

The late goal was the 75th conceded by expansion Cincinnati, the most in MLS history. The previous record was established by Orlando City last season. Orlando City (9-14-10) was eliminated from the playoff chase.

Allan Cruz scored for Cincinnati (6-22-5).