MLS Cup is little more than a week away. Just four teams remain from the 29 who started the 2023 regular season with visions of lifting silverware way back in February.
The conference finals are here, with the Supporters’ Shield-winning FC Cincinnati hosting a Hell Is Real matchup against the Columbus Crew in the East, while in the West, LAFC welcome the Houston Dynamo to Hollywood.
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Will it be the Ohio capital, or the state’s Queen City, that plays host to Major League Soccer’s showpiece event? And will it be the U.S.’s second- or fourth-largest city that travels north for a shot at MLS Cup?
Eastern Conference
1. FC Cincinnati vs. 3. Columbus Crew (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET)
The East all comes down to Ohio. The midwestern state gets the eyes of the nation on it during presidential elections and, occasionally, big-time college football showdowns. But with two gleaming new stadiums, wise front offices and savvy coaching hires, The Buckeye State not only will host Saturday’s Eastern Conference final clash, but also will be home to the MLS Cup final next week.
The presence of one Argentine and the absence of another increases the intrigue of the highest-stakes Hell Is Real matchup in the rivalry’s young history.
FC Cincinnati depends on Luciano Acosta, recently named MVP for his contributions to the teams’ Supporters’ Shield run. While Acosta showed at D.C. United and Atlas that he was a cut above, few expected him to put together a 17-goal, 14-assist season years later — and to do it in Cincinnati of all places.
It’s clear the Boca Juniors academy graduate feels at home at TQL Stadium, so much so that he signed a contract extension through at least 2026 that could see him retire at the club. Acosta said during his MVP presentation that he’s building out a museum of sorts in his house with the shirts he’s traded for during his career, and he now has a team award in the Supporters’ Shield and an individual award in the MVP trophy. He’s eager to add another piece of hardware.
“For me, it’s a motivation to get to a final with this club against an opponent from the other part of our state,” he said. “We’re mentally very prepared and motivated and are going for bigger things. This is an individual award, but it’s about a team sacrifice and is for the whole city, for the club that has done great things.
“I’m going to let Columbus’s players know that the MVP is here,” he concluded.
That Columbus team came into the season still enjoying the contributions of Córdoba native Lucas Zelarayán, who helped send off the team’s old stadium with an MLS Cup final victory in 2020. During the Leagues Cup this summer, however, Columbus made the calculus it could do it without Zelarayán and transferred the playmaker to Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League.
The Crew subsequently signed Diego Rossi, but it’s been forward Cucho Hernández who has shouldered the burden, scoring seven goals in the club’s past six matches, including one each in the Round 1 series against Atlanta United and in the Eastern Conference semifinal win against Orlando City SC.
Without the No. 10 behind him, Hernández also has been instrumental in creating more goals, dropping deeper to help connect and create scoring chances, although his 20-goal haul between regular season and playoffs is a good indication that his primary contribution is still finding the back of the net.
“I took responsibility after we didn’t have Lucas,” Hernández said last month. “Diego came and contributed a lot, too. Lucas’s departure meant a lot of players took a step forward.”
