COLUMBUS – This time the “Hell Is Real” derby is for all the marbles.
The third-seeded Columbus Crew travels to TQL Stadium Saturday (6:00 p.m. MLS Season Pass on Apple TV) to face top-seed FC Cincinnati in the MLS Eastern Conference Finals.
Crew defender Malte Amdundsen says the players expect a hostile reception at the home of their in-state rivals but plan to use that as inspiration.
“Hopefully, they’ll scream bad things at us and I turn that into energizing, yeah, like ‘You can scream whatever you want and we’ll just do our thing’,” he said.
This is the ninth time the Crew has played in the conference finals. Columbus won MLS championships in 2008 and 2020.
The two teams split their regular season series, with FC Cincinnati winning 3-2 on their home pitch on May 20 in a match where Amundson scored the Crew’s second goal.
Columbus evened the series at home on August 20 with a 3-0 shutout.
The winner will host the MLS Cup finals on Dec. 9 against the winner of the Western Conference match between Los Angeles FC and the Houston Dynamo.
The Crew are 15-7-8 against Eastern Conference opponents and lead the league with a +21 goal differential, scoring 67 goals while conceding 46. Columbus leads the MLS with 10 goals during the playoffs.
Cucho Hernandez leads Columbus with 20 goals and eight assists. Darlington Nagbe has two goals over the past 10 games.
Luciano Acosta has 18 goals and 14 assists for Cincinnati, who will be without defender Matt Miazga.
Miazga was suspended three matches and fined an undisclosed amount Wednesday by MLS for misconduct following a game against the New York Red Bulls on Nov. 4.