Jesse Marsch and Oscar Pareja put together the two best coaching performances in MLS this year, and it was no surprise to see the pair of former MLS midfielders finish first and second in the MLS Coach of the Year voting. For all the success the New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas have enjoyed this year, the final legacy of 2015 for Marsch and Pareja will be determined, rightly or wrongly, but their ability to make their teams forget last week's losses.

Marsch's Red Bulls and Pareja's FC Dallas must find a way to turn around multi-goal losses in the first legs of their respected conference finals series, and they must do so without becoming distracted or overwhelmed by the knowledge that it will take near-perfect performances for either of them to advance to the 20th MLS Cup final.

The Red Bulls are in a particularly difficult predicament, having failed to score an own goal in a 2-0 loss to Columbus. They now return to Red Bull Arena on Sunday knowing that any goal allowed to the Crew will make a victory extremely unlikely, though a shutout will be very tough against a team that has been held without a goal just once in its past 17 matches.

"Certainly there won’t be a sense of panic or a lack of patience because we still know scoring two goals, three goals, four goals, that’s not out of the question for our team. Especially at home," Marsch said on Friday. "There has to be urgency, but no panic. There’s plenty of time in this game. If it’s 0-0 in the 85th minute, and we get a goal in the 86th minute, the series is all up for grabs."

The Red Bulls will need to be at their best to eliminate the Crew, but must also find that top level just a week after enduring one of their worst performances in recent memory.

"I think a lot of guys, myself included, had some of their worst games of the year," Red Bulls captain Dax McCarty said.  "When you couple all that together with being in a tough place to play, it makes for a really tough environment and a really tough result that we have to overcome."

One thing the Red Bulls have done well this year is respond well to poor performances. With the exception of a four-match losing streak in May and June, the Red Bulls were 6-0 after losses, outscoring opponents 17-4 in those matches. That, coupled with the Red Bulls dominant form at Red Bull Arena this year, has Marsch and his team confident they can overturn an extremely difficult deficit.

"We’ve been very good at home. Very good at scoring goals at home. Very aggressive at home. I  expect this game to be on our terms for much of it," Marsch said. "Certainly, being aggressive without being reckless is very important. It should be an emotional game with a packed crowd and a lot of fun, frankly."

The Red Bulls midfield will need to have a much stronger showing on Sunday if they are going to have any chance at mounting a comeback. Defensively, they need to do a better job of keeping tabs on Crew playmaker Federico Higuain and winger Ethan Finlay, while offensively they must provide striker Bradley Wright-Phillips with more service after failing to offer much last week.

As much as the Red Bulls will carry confidence into the second leg, the Crew will have the advantage of having set a high bar in the first leg, as well as the knowledge that another performance anywhere close to that should be enough to secure a berth in the MLS Cup final.

“You have to have that mentality not to change anything, go in, do what you know best,” Justin Meram told MLS Soccer earlier this week. “I think if we wanted to sit in, that would play to their advantage, so we just have to control the tempo. They’re going to have their chances, their moments, and we just have to hopefully stay strong in the back.”

The Timbers will have a similar mindset heading into Sunday's second leg in Frisco, Texas against an FC Dallas side that posted the best home record in the league. Caleb Porter's side has been in outstanding form over the past two months, particularly on the road, and after a 3-1 first-leg victory, Porter doesn't see a reason to change anything.

“There’s this fallacy sometimes that you’re either playing a defensive game or an attacking game, and good teams play a balanced game,” Porter told reporters on Saturday. “And that’s what we’ve been doing, and that’s what we’re going to do in this game. We’re certainly not going to sit back, and we’re certainly not going to be reckless going forward.”

The Timbers showed in their playoff series victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps that they can attack on the road, though Dallas will offer a much tougher challenge. Working in Portland's favor is an attack that welcomes Rodney Wallace and Diego Valeri back from suspension, and boasts an in-form Darlington Nagbe, who has been close to unstoppable in recent weeks.

“They’re going to be looking for a 2-0 win, no mystery there,” Porter said on Saturday. “But to do that they have to keep us from scoring. And if we do score, then they need three to push overtime. If we score two they need five. So the worst thing we could do is sit back and try to hang on.

"We’re going to look to score goals, but we’re not going to do it in a reckless way," Porter said. "We’ll do it in a very patient way and again it’s just exactly what we’ve been doing home and away.”

FC Dallas is in a better position than the Red Bulls because of the away goal David Texeira scored in the first-leg loss, which means Oscar Pareja's side can advance with a 2-0 victory. That should allow FC Dallas to approach the match with some normalcy to start out, though urgency will surely build if the goals don't come, or if the Timbers can break through and score.

FC Dallas will need to win the individual battles it lost in the first leg, starting in midfield, where the Timbers did a good job containing the attacking trio of Mauro Diaz, Fabian Castillo and Michael Barrios. The potential absence of Timbers central defender Liam Ridgewell to an injury could make things somewhat easier for FC Dallas, but the Timbers attack will also be up for the challenge of trying to punish FC Dallas if the home team gets over-anxious in its search for goals.

That will be delicate balancing act the Red Bulls and FC Dallas will have to try and pull off Sunday. They both need to treat Sunday's matches as if they are starting out 0-0, because if they let the urgency of their two-goal series consume them too early, the Crew and Timbers are more than capable of punishing them for it.