The New York Red Bulls clinched their fifteenth consecutive playoff appearance after their match at Red Bull Arena against NYCFC. This is an amazing feat by this club in Major League Soccer as the only side in North American professional sports to have this consecutive season streak, making it to the postseason. It’s breathtaking. It’s an amazing job, what they have done this season has been unbelievable. Sadly we can’t celebrate it the way it should be, and why is that? Because the New York Red Bulls got taken to the woodshed and were embarrassed by New York City FC and got walloped five goals to one.
But it wasn’t just all from NYCFC that made this loss hurtful, the Red Bulls did it to themselves by allowing poor decision making to give their opponents free chances and they never missed a single one. When Carlos Coronel is trying to distribute the ball, he should’ve seen three blue shirted players hovering around his area, waiting for the right time to intercept him. He should’ve booted the ball down the pitch but instead attempted to build it from the back and forced his centerback into a bad position to get striped by Maxi Moralez and tucked it inside the far post. The start of the downfall on that evening.
Daniel Edelman who has been exceptional in the midfield as a six with either Franki Amaya, Ronald Donkor or whoever is with him played a poor pass back toward Andres Reyes and Adrian Martinez got on his horse and attacked the net. He beat Coronel with ease to take a quick two goal lead. Edelman never looked up, he just blindly passed it back and Martinez was on his horse quickly to punish the hosts. Then the damage continued when Anders Perea headed in the ball leaping over Dylan Nealis, but the worst of the worst was in first half stoppage time as Noah Eile just flung his left leg out with a hope and a prayer to stop it, didn’t, then Martinez scored his second of the match. They allowed four first half goals, and it was a complete disaster.
Even though the only bright spot was Dante Vanzeir converting his fourth of the season and scoring in consecutive games, this entire match was a complete disaster. A total meltdown mentally, and the Red Bulls had nothing from start to finish. When the final whistle blew, they walked back toward the tunnel and had shame on their faces. Even with the return of Emil Forsberg wasn’t enough to power through and convert any possible chances to get them into a fighting chance to make a comeback. What did NYCFC do? They studied the film, they knew what to expect, and they just took advantage of what was in front of them. They waited for the mistakes to be made and capitalized on them with ease.
What’s even worse was that every time the Red Bulls had the ball, there was no sense of urgency and no sense of awareness when a blue shirted City player was sneaking up behind them, and stripping the ball. They were un-focused, un-disciplined and they paid for it dearly by allowing five goals into the back of their nets. No wins since the home match against FC Cincinnati on July 20th, and now they have fallen from fourth place to sixth. Only Charlotte FC drew with Inter Miami to remain in seventh. There’s only so much Sandro Schwarz can do with his tactics, but when the players are not ready to go, or if they aren’t up for a derby match, well then that’s all on them. They need to be better than what they have shown. You can’t have a mental breakdown the way they did on Saturday night, it is inexcusable.
When this rivalry got started, who was the man that got this club ready to go and prepared for a battle to claim the right to be the king of the sport in the New York City, tri-state area? It was from Jesse Marsch, then Chris Armas, there were also some good wins by Gerhard Struber and Troy Lesesne led the charge in the locker room, but right now Sandro Schwarz is down by getting swept in his first season facing the blue team. Is there energy lacking? Or are they just not able to get up mentally for a game like this anymore? I don’t know, but with three matches left in this regular season, they must get some wins and fast. The fans are angry, they are restless, they want something to happen now, or else all the goodwill will be gone again. Something needs to be fixed and let’s hope they go into Toronto and Atlanta this week and change their fortunes. That can’t happen again.