Cincinnati, Seattle win opening MLS playoff games

FC Cincinnati and the Seattle Sounders kicked off their Major League Soccer playoff campaigns with narrow victories on Monday.

Cincinnati opened their best-of-three postseason series against New York City FC with a 1-0 victory at TQL Stadium.

Argentine forward Yamil Asad scored the game's only goal, heading home from close range on 51 minutes after a swift Cincinnati counter-attack. 

"It was a really strong performance -- really pleased with the effort tonight in every way," Cincinnati head coach Pat Noonan said.

Cincinnati finished the regular season in a slump, going four games without a win before defeating Philadelphia in their final fixture of the season.

Captain Luciano Costa said the back-to-back wins had given the side renewed confidence for the rest of the playoffs.

"We've won our last two games and we had a great performance. I think everybody is filled with confidence," he said.

In Monday's other game, Seattle scraped a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win after their game against the Houston Dynamo finished in a goalless draw.

"This was always going to be a tight series because the teams are defensively very good," said Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer.

Game two of the series takes place in Houston on Sunday.