Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch labeled the difficulties of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals as a “mountain.”
Well, he might as well name the mountain Everest.
Only six teams since MLS changed from a three-legged conference semifinal series to a two-legged series have advanced after dropping the first leg by a 2-1 score. FC Dallas and Columbus did it most recently, both in 2015, but neither of those teams did it against Toronto FC, arguably the best team in MLS history, who outfought, outclassed, outhustled and did just about everything else in their 2-1 win over the Red Bulls in leg one at Red Bull Arena on Monday night.