New York Red Bulls go into Saturday’s epic playoff Hudson River Derby knowing that they are in need of solutions after losing both regular season games to NYCFC in 2024. Head coach Sandro Schwarz set aside all of the historical context of the game and broke it down to simply needing to take advantage of City’s aggressive nature on the ball and find their style of play on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
“We have to find our way on Saturday and in a good direction,” said Schwarz during the pre-match press conference. “Also with intensity, with our energy and this is the most important thing for Saturday. Then, hopefully for us to find good solutions against them.”
Those solutions have been hard to come by in 2024. Once a rivalry that was dominated by the Harrison troupe, it has now shifted in the direction of NYCFC over the past few seasons. This year in particular, the lopsided nature of the results has left Red Bulls searching for answers. Their latest defeat came only months ago when City rolled into Red Bull Arena and got the biggest win ever over their crosstown rivals, 5-1.
Head coach Nick Cushing has found his danger-man in Alonso Martinez, who split the Red Bulls defense and was able to be an unsolvable puzzle for Schwarz’s team. While City haven’t played particularly well thus far in the playoffs, they are still a formidable side, especially defensively. Red Bulls have yet to impart their style of play on either of the two meetings.
“We have seen both games against them in our video sessions,” said Schwarz. “They have a lot of quality with the ball, they’re also very aggressive against the ball.”
That aggressiveness is something that Red Bull has taken advantage of in other teams. However, City has posed a different question to the club in 2024. While it is true that both games did not feature Emil Forsberg in a major role, There is more to the structure of those results that speaks to how difficult of a task it will be for New York to conquer their sky blue rivals. The pressure will be on but that’s something that Schwarz and his coaching staff have experience in handling.
“It is good to feel pressure. We need the pressure to bring out our best performance, to bring our best level of intensity, to bring our best level of energy. Without pressure it’s not possible.”
Red Bulls should have a majority of their pieces ready for the game thanks to the international break. Lewis Morgan, Emil Forsberg and Cameron Harper were all available for training and appear ready to step onto the field in a major role this Saturday. The winner will advance to the Eastern Conference Final, one step away from MLS Cup, something that City is familiar with having won it back in 2021 but something that Red Bull have been striving for their entire existence.
photo by Matt Kremkau