Red Bulls Ready for Rooney and DC

The New York Red Bulls are quickly back at training and getting ready to put that ugly one goal draw at NYCFC behind them as they get set to host DC United on the weekend as Luciano ACosta and Wayne Rooney will be visiting Red Bull Arena.

The oldest rivalry in MLS comes to Red Bull Arena since the league was founded in 1996 will add another European Superstar to this historic derby match as Wayne Rooney will make his second apperance at the cathedrial of football.

His first visit was during the 2011 MLS All-Star Game when he came over as a member of Manchester United to face the MLS All-Stars that had David Beckham from the Los Angeles Galaxy and Thierry Henry when he was with the New York Red Bulls and coached by Hans Backe.

But this is a different time and a different moment. Three points will be on the line as Rooney will have Luciano Acosta, Paul Arriola & Yamil Asad who look a lot more dangerous this time around than they did their last visit to our Nation’s Capital when Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his historic 100th career MLS Goal.

“I think we have really good defenders. the entire season was really hard to break us down, of course give credit to Rooney he’s a great player and he’s had a great career and he’s still really good as you could see in the last couple of game and weeks.” Said Daniel Royer.

“I think we have a good defensive organization and I think he will have a tough game against Aaron (Long) & Tim (Parker), but we have to be sure to be on top of the details as we need to be on top of him.”

We can see since Rooney has been starting that he has made a major impact for DC United as he has given the club more confidence and has give Acosta more freedom to truly play his game to be dangerous and not carry the club on his back.

“It should be fun to come home after a bit of a road trip, multiple games away. More than anything it’s going to be fun to play against them cause they’ve been on a roll and it will be fun to face them and break their streak they are having.” said Tyler Adams.

“Wayne Rooney makes DC 100% better and you’ve seen that in the past couple of weeks that now he’s able to play that full ninety and get them going a little bit more. You can tell that those guys don’t want to let him down, but we respect him obviously and just like playing against David Villa our center backs know they need to do a job.”

And the head coach Chris Armas has already faced DC United on the their first visit to Audi Field in the end of July when Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his 100th career league goal. Does he have to change things up?

“There’s always a difference. We always talk about resetting every game. Our opponent is different this coming Sunday and so are we. We always like to push things at home in a certain way and they changed their structure in a certain way.” Said Armas.

“Their spirits are high and they are structured a little bit different. They are possessing the ball a little bit more, they have credible players, riding the momentum of winning games and they know how it feels like, they have had a tough go at the start of the season.

Rooney can hurt you in many ways. He can hurt you by scoring goals, but his passing and movement underneath and you must be aware of what he is doing. He is making everyone around him better and they are riding high right now.”

So it’s going to be a big task for the Red Bulls to get ready to go and once again renew the oldest rivalry inside Major League Soccer as the I-95 battle continues this coming Sunday night as it’s NY Vs. DC