Red Bulls Renew NY Derby in Open Cup

After that loss in New England that broke their five game unbeaten streak, the New York Red Bulls look to renew their rivalry against NYCFC as they will host their fourth round match up at Red Bull Arena.

For the second consecutive season these two sides will meet at the cathedrial of football in Harrison, NJ as the blue team hasn’t earned a win in three conecutive matches. Since coming into the league NYCFC couldn’t defeat the New York Cosmos either at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium, or at the campus of Fordham, then coming to Red Bull Arena last year and getting edged 1-0 from a Daniel Royer.

It will be a good month between games from league action to Open Cup that the Red Bulls and NYCFC faced each other after the four goal clean sheet destruction the team in Red delivered to the team in Blue.

“Well Open Cup is a very important competition for us so we know what’s on the line and just to know we got the better of them the last time we faced them at Red Bull Arena.” said Sean Davis.

“We know they are looking for revenge but we also know that the roster rules of the Open Cup is going to be different for them, but regardless who is on the field they will be ready for us and we will be ready for it.”

What Sean Davis is referring to are the roster rules from US Soccer as they expect a heavy American playing line up with five roster spots for internationals, if an international player does have a green card, they are not affected as an international player.

So you can expect Aurelien Collin, Kemar Lawrence and Bradley Wright-Phillips to be apart of the starting eleven, while NYCFC has some scrambling to do as the only have nine Americans on their roster.

Three Goalkeepers in Jeff Caldwell, Sean Johnson & Brad Stuver. Defenders Saad Abdul-Salaam, Joe Scally, Ben Sweat. Midfielders Tommy McNamara, James Sands & Forward Jonathan Lewis.

But head coach Jesse Marsch knows very well that NYCFC is not happy about their loss at Red Bull Arena and are very aware that they will be looking for revenge and trying to knock out the Red Bulls in the Open Cup.

“I’ve listened to their comments and for sure they are carrying anger from the last competition they had and I expect them to bring out a good team to come after this, to make a point and we have to expect their absolute best.” Said Jesse Marsch.

“They have a lot of internationals so trying to figure out who they are going to use and how they are going to use them and they are playing three in the back as of late and they have done a lot of different things. But we are prepared for this tactical challenge, but we always take the Open Cup seriously.”

Fixture congestion is always a big moment for this club when they are going after trophies and the Open Cup is no different when they started the season during the CONCACAF Champions League, so we shall see if some of the USL players will get a shot mixing in with some of the MLS roster.

“We got a lot of guys doing well physically but we have a lot of games coming up so we are just going to have to figure out who goes out there and what their roles area and make sure that we have a team that plays like us.” said Marsch.

As of right now USL side Louisville City is the only club to upset the New England Revolution and DC United survived a scare as they drew with North Carolina FC thru regulation and extra time, but defeated them in the penalty kick shootout while the Philadelphia Union demolished the Richmond Kickers.

So one more spot in the 5th round draw in the northeast bracket is remaining and which of the NYC sides will take it? That is the biggest question that will be on the minds of the soccer fans in this area. But the hope from most Red Bulls fans is that the blue side of NYC will go home in their fourth consecutive Open Cup match in the fourth round.