Crew's banner year could bring another MLS Cup

Flashback: The Crew could become just the fourth team in league history to win back-to-back cups.

• The Los Angeles Galaxy was the most recent to do so, in 2011 and 2012.

State of play: It's already been another banner year for Columbus, which finished the regular season with the league's second-best record and sold out all its home matches.

• Among the feats: Winning the Leagues Cup, reaching the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup final, sending goalkeeper Patrick Schulte to the Olympics and hosting the MLS All-Star Game.
• Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy coached the All-Star roster featuring a handful of our players.
• Five Crew members are also finalists for year-end awards, which will be announced throughout the playoffs.

How it works: Tuesday night's match at 6:45pm is the first in a best-of-three series. The second match is 4:30pm Sunday in New York; if necessary, a tiebreaker would kick off at 5pm on Nov. 10 back at Lower.com Field.

• If a game is tied at the end of regulation, it is decided by penalty kicks. 

• After this round, all postseason matchups will be single-elimination matches. 
• The MLS Cup Playoffs bracket.

🔥 The intrigue: The Crew and FC Cincinnati are both heavily favored to win their first-round matchups. 

• If that happens, Lower.com Field will host a bonus Hell Is Real derby in the second round.

Watch it live: Resale tickets for Tuesday's match started at $34 on Ticketmaster as of Monday.

• The game will air on Apple TV MLS Season Pass and FS1.