The Red Bulls were ready to face their bitter rivals in the Hudson River Derby as this one transferred over to the big ballpark in the Bronx, but what looked liked a scoreless draw changed into a loss as one goal ended the match and the Red Bulls fell to NYCFC by a goal to nil.
Maximiliano Morales converted the lone strike as it was created by a mistake in the midfiled from Tyler Adams. He tried to pass the ball back to Aaron Long, but it was intercepted by Jonathan Lewis who atacked down the far side then a cross to a wide open Morales put the ball away past Luis Robles in the 85th minute.
“Well it’s obviously disappointing to not come away with points here. Obviously, it was close in the end, close to getting a draw, and maybe even with the push we made in the second half, maybe three, but to leave here after a big match, a derby match, is disappointing.” said Chris Armas
This one is a tough pill to swallow for the red side of New York as many thought the result would end in a drab scoreless draw, but unfortunately it didn’t go that way towards the back end of the second half.
For the very first time in this rivalry both Jesse Marsch and Patrick Vieria weren’t around anymore as Domenec Torrent and Chris Armas took over their respective benches in the second league contest, third overall including the US Open Cup. But while this was the first Derby match in MLS for these two, one was making the necessary subs.
This match was won in the technical areas as Torrent made his first sub in the 58th minute, then made his second sub of the match in the 76th minute when Armas stayed at nil. When the goal was scored in the 85th then the first Red Bulls sub came three minutes later as Derrick Etienne Jr. replaced Sean Davis.
“We thought at 0-0, we’re making a good push and if I have to make a change early in the first half, I’ll do it. At that point, we didn’t think a change was needed. We were pushing the game in a good way and felt like a goal was coming.” said Armas when he put in his only sub in the match.
“Let’s call it, attacking option that you have and say, the guys on the field are performing well, why would you change anything? Of course you go down a goal. What do you do then? Do you do nothing or do you make a push at that point? So I think it’s pretty simple at that point why we made the move.”
Yes this is Chris Armas first match as a head coach and the derby’s are always going to put a lot of pressure on a man who just got the job after Jesse Marsch left for Leipzig. But at the end of the day there was a situation that needed to change and at the moment it didn’t show until that mistake came.
This has also been a tough couple of days to learn of the season ending injury of attacking midfielder Florian Valot, as he suffered a torn Left-ACL injury at training this past Thursday. The news was announced before the match began.
“Our heart goes out to Flo (Valot). He’s had an incredible season thus far. Same thing with Kyle (Duncan). We have these two guys who get invited to camp and they put their best foot forward and all of a sudden you’re seeing that these are the type of guys you can rely on. It’s never a good time to have an ACL injury or have any injury.” said Luis Robles
“You just feel for those guys. It’s not just the soccer part but as a human being you know that it’s probably a very discouraging experience so as teammates, as friends we want to continue to encourage these guys and know that when you’re injured it’s a good opportunity to reach out and let them know that they are still part of the group and we are excited to have them back and I hope they recover quickly and we will just have to find a way.”
At the end of the night you felt that at least a point was going to be taken here and yet it doesn’t happen as one mistake costed the Red Bulls. But now it’s time to move on from this match and get ready for Sporting Kansas City who will be the next opponent at Red Bull Arena.