At Least We Got A “Subway” Derby

We spent an awful lot of time on this site mulling over the potential and possibilities of a Subway Series as the Yankees expectedly and the Mets unexpectedly rolled through September and October as arguably the best and certainly the most resilient post-season teams. Ironically, it was my Cubs blue-pilled colleague who got the most giddy when the Mets kept their season alive with a win in their final home NLCS game on the heels of the Yanks’ completion of their conquest of the AL Central.   But true New York fans, particularly those of the Mets, have been conditioned to hope for the best but expect the worst, so I can’t say I was surprised when the Dodgers completed their conquest of the Mets, and then doubled down on messing with the city they left a generation OK by beating the Yankees as well.

But now it’s MLS playoff team, and as luck would have it, today we’ve actually got a post-season event –at of all places Citi Field–that pits, at least in name, New York versus New York.   As USA TODAY’s Jim Reineking wrote early today:

For the first time in their 10-year Hudson River Derby history, New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls will square off in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

The 30th all-time matchup between these two clubs will be the biggest, with both teams coming off first-round upsets over higher-seeded clubs.

The seventh-seeded Red Bulls pulled off the second-biggest upset of the playoffs so far — first, of course, being Atlanta United over Inter Miami — by eliminating the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew in two games in Round 1. RBNY got goals from its three key offensive players in the playoff series win, with designated players Emil Forsberg and Dante Vanzeir, as well as the team’s leading scorer, Lewis Morgan, each netting a goal.

Sixth-seeded New York City FC enters the conference semifinals against their archrival after dropping last season’s Supporters’ Shield winners, FC Cincinnati, out of the playoffs. Alonso Martínez (16) and Santiago Rodríguez (13) were NYCFC’s leading scorers during the 2024 season, and each scored goals in the team’s playoff opener — a 3-1 win over FC Cincinnati.

Unlikely, to be sure.  And relatively inconsequential to what might have been baseball-wise, certainly.  But that’s not to say that the trend line and the level of intensity among those already invested isn’t pretty strong.  As THE NEW YORK TIMES/ATHLETIC’s David Waldstein explained:

M.L.S. is still considered a second-rate league compared to many leagues around the world, and some snobby American footie fans would prefer to watch Grimsby Town play Stoke in England than the M.L.S. championship game. But both of New York’s teams — like those all over the world — can produce heated emotions.

“For only a decade-long rivalry, it’s had some great moments, which have accelerated the fire,” said Marc de Grandpré, the president and general manager of the Red Bulls. “In due time this will be considered one of the great rivalries in the metro New York area. But it needs time.”

Dylan Nealis, a Red Bulls defender, said supporters of his Harrison, N.J.-based team have worked up a genuine loathing for upstart N.Y.C.F.C., which will play most of its games in Yankee Stadium until its soccer-specific venue opens in Queens in 2027.

“So many fans come up to us with this hatred they express toward them,” said Nealis, who grew up in Massapequa on Long Island. “We want to win the game for them, as much as for us.”

And there’s equal passion and nose-turning on the other side of this rivalry as well, as Waldstein continued:

“I only know three or four Red Bull fans, and that’s the way I prefer to keep it,” said Felix Palao, a graphic designer from the Bronx and a devoted N.Y.C.F.C. supporter. “I’ve got nothing to say to them. In fact, I look on them with pity.”

We did note that this match will indeed be played on the Mets’ “pitch”, as Yankee Stadium is the site for a crucial showdown that resurrects a once-classic college football rivalry, Notre Dame and Army, with the winner keeping their playoff bracket hopes alive.  And with West Point the closest FBS team to the Bronx, at this point that does take precedence.

And indeed, calling this a “Subway” battle of any type is a stretch.  Much like the area’s excuses for NFL teams, a team based in New Jersey borrows their neighbor’s nomenclature.  And technically, the train you’d take to get at least close to Harrison is the PATH line.  But it does travel underground along Manhattan’s West Side for a few stops, and you can transfer at Penn Station to get on the real subway.

This is a quarterfinal round winner-take-all match, so there’s still another step ahead for today’s victor–the winner between tomorrow’s matchup of Orlando City FC (whose sister NWSL club, the Pride, plays for that league’s title tonight against Washington in balmy Kansas City) and Atlanta United, who merely took out Lionel Messi and Inter Miami from the playoffs when they last were conducted two weeks ago.  And there’s a similar quartet of contenders in the MLS Western Conference.  But do look what city is still alive in that bracket.  None other than the City of Angels’ LAFC, who comes into tonight’s playoff match with the Seattle Sounders in a somewhat warmer venue than Kaycee (though it will be in the low 50s by kickoff) as unqualified favorites, as MLS.com MATCHDAY’s Charles Boehm & Ari Liljenwall detailed earlier this week: