Your kickoff on Sunday: Red Bulls want to eliminate Columbus, Atlanta forces Game 3 against Miami

Did we mention that you really don't want to bet against home teams in MLS? Let's discuss it.

Well, well, what do we have here? Is this a team with comically inflated totals compared to the underlying numbers, struggling against a team they have struggled with all season?

Any idea about it The The game in particular would be a piece of cake for Inter. Miami felt a little silly. Or at least like they're coming from people who aren't in Atlanta. The excitement began earlier this week and more than 65,000 spectators came to the Mercedez Benz Stadium to recreate the feeling of 2018.

That's not to say it's been easy for Atlanta. They needed a great injury-time goal from recent substitute Xande Silva to clinch victory. But the Five Stripes outnumbered the Herons here. They were simply the better team that evening. That shouldn't be too surprising given how the regular season went and the fact that Atlanta United didn't have to play their third away game in six days this time around.

Now they have the chance to pull off an upset of all time. Will they be able to do it on the road? I don't know. This is definitely a difficult task. But this Atlanta United team is playing with a level of confidence and determination that we haven't seen from this team in years. At least they showed the proof of concept for 2025. But anything could happen, right?

For New York City FC, it's like this all year round. After being overrun in their first meeting with FC Cincinnati, they fared quite well upon their return to New York. Alonso Martínez, Thiago and Santiago Rodríguez all scored in an outstanding performance from Game 1 onwards. After conceding 3.9 xG on Monday, NYCFC Cincy scored 3.4 xG itself.

They had total control here. And once they got to Cincinnati, it would be hard for the Garys to catch up since there was no real No. 9 on the field. Yuya Kubo and Luca Orellano perform admirably at the front, but neither does Brandon Vázquez.

The problem for NYCFC now is that they have to return to Cincinnati. They have four away wins all year. Something has to change on Saturday.

Another draw, another penalty shootout win for Minnesota United. We'd call it a surprise, but RSL has been on the cards for some time. They never looked like themselves again until Andrés Goméz left and Chicho Arango fell off a cliff. Meanwhile, the Loons are incredibly hot. They just keep winning. They will have a tough task against a very in-form LA Galaxy led by Riqui Puig, but they keep finding ways to get results. It will be no surprise at all if they pull off another “surprise” in the conference semifinals. It's that simple. And that's the biggest compliment I can give them at the moment.

Three more Game 2s today. I hope you slept and stayed hydrated after last night.

New York hit Columbus straight up. I know, I know, I'm still having a hard time processing it. But New York came out in a back five, made life difficult for Columbus all over the pitch, focused on scoring in transition and executed their entire game plan perfectly in a shocking 1-0 win.

The question now is whether they will stick to the same ideas or try to steer Columbus off course. If they stay there, there is a risk that the crew will find out. If they change something, there is a risk that the new ideas will not be good.

My gut feeling here is that the Red Bulls are taking an “if it ain’t broke…” approach until the crew eventually breaks them. If they perform as well as they did in Game 1, they obviously have a chance. That's a really difficult task against an elite team like Columbus, but it's plausible that they can come out the other side clean. The crew usually fares well in such scenarios. There is one tonne However, there is still a lot to do here.

So little, but Seattle ultimately won on penalties.

Definitely. This game could end 0-0 and lead to another penalty shootout. All Houston has to do is win this shootout and then win the next one after Game 3 ends 0-0.

LAFC outscored Vancouver by 2.3 xG to 1.2 and were the better team, although Ryan Gauld scored late in the game that made the final score seem a little closer in a 2-1 loss to Vancouver.

Perhaps! But these are traditionally the kind of games where Vancouver shows a little fight and ultimately fails to get the job done. It would be a lot of fun if they could release that. It just never feels like they're going to make it. Maybe today is the day?

Good luck out there. Let them know it's not over yet.