New York Red Bulls took six of a possible nine points over their three-week but feel disappointed by dropping the derby game against local rivals NYCFC on Saturday night. The game was a bench mark for both clubs who have been consistently gathering points of late. However, the win for City caps off a rise that saw them near the bottom of the table while Red Bulls are focused on maintaining against a possible drop in the coming weeks.
“At this moment we don’t think about the last two games,” said head coach Sandro Schwarz following the game. “The feeling is now that we lost this game today. We are very disappointed today but when we wake up tomorrow, hopefully, we will analyze the game seriously. Then we will know that this week was okay and was good with these two games. Now there are more emotions about this, about this game, which we lost.”
Red Bulls have fallen to third place but it is still a vast improvement from where they were one year ago. At times they seemed destined for the bottom of the Eastern Conference. This season, the sentiment is more that they should be further up from where they are. All of this happening while enduring a difficult schedule that has seen them play at Red Bull Arena a mere five times while playing nine games on the road. Among those road games were trips to Columbus, Miami and LA. All of those locations are not easy places to get results.
The schedule will ease soon as the club has a week off to lick their wounds. When the dust settles, Schwarz and company have to feel that they weathered a very difficult start to the season in a strong position to place themselves among the contenders in the Eastern Conference. Along the way they have discovered players that can produce with multiple goals from Elias Manoel and Cameron Harper coming out of this week in strong standing with the club.
“We want more for sure,” said Schwarz. “We must improve a lot but this is normal. The mentality, the behavior, how we want to play is very quick and very well. We are disappointed at that we lose the derby game. For us to have this feeling now, to not go out with nine points, that can happen. Heads up.”
New York will have a 10 day break ahead of a home game against Charlotte FC next Wednesday. The game will see a refreshed club look to get back on track and potentially show their growth following a bumpy but successful road early in 2024 .
photo by Matt Kremkau