The Philadelphia Union defeated the New York City FC 3-1 on Sunday night with to second-half goals from Julian Carranza and Daniel Gazdag.
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On Saturday, the league championship game will be played in Los Angeles between Supporters Shield winner LAFC and the Philadelphia Union.
Top-seeded After beating Austin FC 3-0 earlier on Sunday, LAFC punched their ticket to the MLS Cup finals for the first time in club history. In addition, this is the first time the winner of the Supporters Shield has advanced to the finals since Toronto in 2017.
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Union made it to the conference finals after going 19 games without a loss at home and getting a goal from Cory Burke.
Gazdag had what looked like a goal in the 16th minute for the Union, but he was actually offside. At halftime, neither team had scored, but in the 57th minute, NYCFC took the lead on a goal by Maxi Moralez that flew past goalkeeper Andre Blake.
Carranza scored his first playoff goal for the Union in the 65th minute. Minutes later, Philadelphia took the lead when Gazdag scored off Carranza’s header. Then, as the clock wound down to zero, Burke scored an insurance goal.
With a hip injury that kept him out of the Union’s conference semifinal win over FC Cincinnati, Alejandro Bedoya has returned to the lineup. Maxime Chanot, a defender for NYCFC, was sidelined with a lower-body injury and didn’t play. So, in addition to Talles Magno, all other possibilities were eliminated.
They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second year in a row. The Union lost 2-1 to NYCFC last year despite being short-handed 11 players due to COVID-19 regulations. After a scoreless regulation and overtime period, the MLS Cup final went to a penalty shootout, which New York City won by defeating the Portland Timbers.
For the first time ever, the Union has whitewashed NYCFC in two meetings this season, winning 2-0 in March to claim their first victory at Yankee Stadium. Earlier in June, Philadelphia also prevailed by a score of 2-1 at home.
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