Once A Metro Productions presents: Red Bulls Seventh Symphony

Truth be told, the rivalry between the New York Red Bulls and NYCFC is finished. Sure, the two teams will tussle over bragging rights three or four (US Open Cup) or five (playoffs) or even six or seven (CCL) times a season, but the heart went out of this match-up on May 21, 2016.

That was the date NYCFC fans will recall as the day they were forced to accept that there is no rivalry with genius. Yes, the well-heeled professionalism of the Bronx-based boys in blue will produce some fine entertainment. There will be times when that entertainment is considered superior to that provided by their ebullient neighbors to the south.

NYCFC has been intelligently crafted from all the examples set by RBNY (formerly, MetroStars): the borrowed big-name stadium; the starting lineup cluttered with top-tier names; even the hand-me-down kits and logo supplied by a wealthy patron. In almost every aspect, NYCFC is a near-perfect pale-blue replica of the team it was invented to rival.

But there is no rivalry with genius. Don't believe us? You don't have to: we have proof. Consider the footage below of the reaction of Antonio Salieri - prototypical NYCFC fan - to the greatest work of original soccer ever staged in New York: the Red Bulls Seventh Symphony.

(Set to Beethoven's Ninth, because genius cannot be rivaled but it can be paired.)

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

JasonRBNY is an occasional contributor to Once A Metro and a constant bringer of truth. Follow him on Twitter @JasonRBNY. And subscribe to his YouTube channel.