photo by Noah K. Murray/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
HARRISON, N.J. — The New York Red Bulls had to overcome a first-half red card and needed to ward off a late push from New York City FC, but in the end they did enough to come out on top in a dramatic and entertaining first game against their new rivals from across the Hudson River.
Using a two-goal performance from Bradley Wright-Phillips, the 10-man Red Bulls defeated NYCFC, 2-1, at Red Bull Arena in an intense initial meeting between the two New York clubs. Wright-Phillips scored on each side of halftime to give the Red Bulls a two-goal lead, but NYCFC made things interesting after substitute forward Patrick Mullins struck in the 76th minute.
Jesse Marsch’s side played most of the match with 10 men. Young centerback Matt Miazga was sent off with a second yellow card in the 35th minute, but the man disadvantage did not stop the Red Bulls from looking the more dangerous team for large stretches of the game.
The Red Bulls got off to a dream start in front of the rowdy sell-out crowd of 25,217, as a wide open Wright-Phillips volleyed a close-range shot home in the fourth minute following a cross from Lloyd Sam.
Wright-Phillips made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute, finishing off a gorgeous sequence that saw Sam clip a ball to an open and streaking Sacha Kljestan down the left flank. Kljestan then played a low pass into the path of Wright-Phillips for a simple tap-in finish.
The goal was Wright-Phillips’ 33rd as a member of the Red Bulls, and moved the Designated Player into fifth place on the club’s all-time scoring list.
Chris Wingert looked to have scored an equalizer for NYCFC before that, but the defender’s 20th-minute finish past Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles was called back for offside.
Two minutes prior, Matt Miazga picked up the first of his two bookings. Miazga slid to try and prevent David Villa from breaking in on goal, and was deemed to have clipped Villa by referee Alan Kelly.
Miazga was then sent off in the 35th minute for shoving Khiry Shelton to the turf on a promising NYCFC counterattack, giving Jason Kreis’ expansion team a man advantage for the remainder of the game.
The Red Bulls made tactical adjustments following Miazga’s ejection, sacrificing left midfielder Mike Grella and inserting centerback Karl W. Ouimette.
NYCFC had chances to find the back of the net, especially in the open second half. Ned Grabavoy nearly equalized in the 48th minute, but his shot from just outside the penalty area bounced wide of the far post.
Mullins, who replaced a disappointed David Villa in the 68th minute, then found a lifeline 14 minutes before the final whistle. Left back RJ Allen whipped in a low ball into the penalty area, and Mullins stabbed it home.
The Red Bulls had a pair of chances to put the game away before Mullins netted. Lloyd Sam rounded NYCFC goalkeeper Josh Saunders in the 50th minute and hit a shot towards goal that a well-positioned Allen nodded clear.
In the 66th minute, Saunders kept Wright-Phillips from scoring a hat-trick. Wright-Phillips was on a clean breakaway and opted for the shot instead of passing to an open Damien Perrinelle, only to see Saunders come up big and deny the shot.
The victory ended a three-match run without a triumph for the Red Bulls and extended NYCFC’s current winless skid to eight matches.
NYCFC (1-6-3) will return to action on Friday with a home game against the Chicago Fire while the Red Bulls (4-1-4) visit FC Dallas that same day.
Strange that RBNY had more, and better, goal-scoring chances than NYCFC in the hour after the Miazga red card. A 4-1 result was not out of the question, as BWP blew an excellent breakaway chance and Richards was robbed of a breakaway by an incorrect offside call.
Even with Miazga’s, er, enthusiasm and Perrinelle’s occasional miscues, the defense is looking fairly solid. And that’s with two anticipated starters (Zubar and Miller) not seeing many minutes. 9 goals conceded in 9 games is pretty OK.
From the perspective shown on TV it looked like BWP was offside on the second NYRB goal.
When you see the side angle it is clear that although he was beyond the last defender he was 1/2 a step behind Sascha and the ball and therefore was onside. Great game by the Red Bulls, ton’s of heart, but I have to say that NYCFC’s marking on both goals was absolutely criminal.
05/11/2015 at 7:14 am
People need to wrap their minds around how terrible NYCFC is. They are on pace for 3-4 wins for the season. Their defense is awful, the midfield has zero creativity and they can’t finish. The team has three stars: two, Villa and Mix, have been so bad that they were subbed out in the 70th minute. The 3rd is sitting in a pub in London eating meat pies. Did you Villa’s face when he was subbed out? It said, “Gey me out of here.”
Give these guys three years of playing soccer at Yankee Stadium and they will be the 1999 Metrostars.
The best part is that the team has earned zero points since Nick Chavez’s “Call to Arms.” Priceless.
This is a terrible team and will only get worse.
First off, great atmosphere. Great showing by the Red Bulls fans and the team… unbelievable effort down a man for 60 minutes. Dax is a beast. Also, that man city lite banner was hilarious pre-game.
Second, Jason Kreis is a very good coach, but he has absolutely nothing to work with. That’s a terrible team he’s working with – and Mix and Villa should be ashamed of themselves after their performances.
Finally, at the end of the game the Red Bulls players went around the entire stadium and clapped their fans, regardless that most people had left. That’s what they;re supposed to do. NYCFC’s team on the other hand, just fled. Which is ridiculous – they had a mildly vocal couple of thousand fans who came to see them and they got nothing from their team.
All told, it was a heck of a lot of fun and I really hope a reasonable rivalry grows from this – but first NYCFC has to put together a team that’s not atrocious. Right now, for rivalry and quality, I’d rather watch a Red Bulls/ DC United game any day of the week.
Much needed three points for Red Bulls,…another draw or loss at home would have been weak,…especially against a very, very poor NYCFC. Lloyd Sam and BWP.
Miazga made a young player mistake,…and Red Bulls were fortunate to be playing a team that was incapable of taking advantage. FC Dallas will be a different story.
When does David Villa say,…”what did I get myself into?”
i saw villa looking like that already in today’s match.
First of all, good job to the fans of both teams, I never thought red bull fans would show up and chant red bull and market the red bull company even more. (I feel bad for their fans,the team name doesn’t do justice in this modern world of soccer)
As for the game, it was what I expected, nycfc acts and plays like if they are Real Madrid and they expect their oppenent to be afraid of them but they suck for now and Jason kreis has a lot of work to do.
I also don’t want sound negative,but Jason kreis is just a normal MLS coach and has no tactics skills or creativity, i can’t say he’s overrated but for being nycfc coach he is overrated.
Why take out villa, mix was playing awful and has been playing awful and Lampard is coming at the right time. I think Lampard will put pressure on mix and the whole team and be a Beckham to his teammates.
And I’ll end with this, nycfc is just an expansion team but during the game, it felt like nycfc was just having an ugly game and have been part of the league for a while and that’s the bad part for red bull. We all know nycf will only get better and red bull will be red bull, I predict the nycfc vs cosmos game to be even bigger due to red bull name,
So ask yourself, if your from New York but live in texas or Hawaii, who would you follow red bull or nycfc. The red bull New York team name doesn’t do justice, it doesn’t have the power to grow on a soccer fan.
Didn’t Mullins come on for Villa and pretty much score right away?
i’m a soccer fan and i have no problem with the NYRB name. not to mention there’s also RB Leipzig, in 6 years they’ve gone from german 5th division to 2.Bund. would you rather they change to some silly mascot like the NY Narwhals?
Yeah sweet dreams man, Cosmos vs NYCFC will probably never even happen. Plus, even as poor as NYCFC is now I think they would still wipe the floor with Cosmos. Maybe some day the Cosmos will start spending money like they claim they’re going to, but until then it wouldn’t be much of a match.
Careful, you are criticizing American managers.potential USMNT managers.
Did you say NYCFC plays like Real Madrid? That’s hilarious! Just stop!
The better team won.
I thought there was something delusional going on with this post and then when I saw the reference to the Cosmos I was sure.
This name BS has been discussed ad nauseous and is just plain stupid. Do you say the same thing about Bayern Munich? Yes Bayen refers to the German company Bayer. Have a headache? The Red Bulls are the best team in NY, period and are one of the leagues best. Get over it.
nauseum not nauseous
And Bayern refers to the teams location in Bavaria (Bayern in German). You are thinking of Bayer Leverkusen.
I’d prefer to see them called Red Bull New York instead of Red Bulls though
My baby! My baby!
How could these monsters harm my precious NYCFC?!?
My baby! My baby!
Man City Lite is losing almost as many games a month as its owner loses slave laborers a month. Actually, no, still not close.
Sheikh Mansour also has more wives then NYCFC has wins. He only has 2 wives but still.