In the end, the weather won.
Blizzard conditions and heavy snow that accumulated throughout the evening forced MLS officials to call off the New York Red Bulls-D.C. United do-or-die Eastern Conference Semifinal 2nd leg scheduled for Wednesday night at Red Bull Arena.
The match will now be played on Thursday, at 7:30 pm ET, at Red Bull Arena. Tickets to Wednesday's match will be honored on Thursday, the league confirmed.
"All the indications we had was for inclement weather, but not a snowfall of this magnitude," Nelson Rodriguez, MLS executive vice president of competition, technical, and game operations, told the NBC Sports Network. "We did our best to try to stay ahead of it, unfortunately we couldn’t, but in the end you can’t jeopardize the safety of the athletes, and the game itself deserves a better field for the magnitude of the game.
"Ultimately the sensation [was] that we were never going to get ahead of this storm. That ultimately we were going to be shoveling, and halftime we would be faced with the same thing, even if we could get [the game] started."
Thursday's match will be broadcast by the NBC Sports Network and on TSN2, in Canada.
Because of the postponement, the Eastern Conference Championship first leg, originally scheduled for Saturday, November 10, will now be played on Sunday, November 11, at 4 pm ET. The NBC Sports Network will broadcast the game.
