Red Bull New York had a frustrating Wednesday night as the club gave away two leads on their way to a 4-4 draw with rivals DC United at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The draw highlighted the club’s defensive woes as they’ve let the opposition score four goals in two consecutive games. While the offense may be finding a groove, the lack of prowess against the ball has cost them much needed points early in the season.
“We’re, at the moment, giving away too much,” said head coach Michael Bradley to the media after the game. “The chances and the goals that we give away in certain moments are broken plays where now there can be a little bit of chaos. There’s a few second balls we don’t take care of or that we don’t win.”
The game started strong enough for Red Bull as they grabbed the lead off of Julian Hall’s sixth goal of the season less than 20 minutes into the game. That lead was doubled by Ronald Donkor in the 21st minute, leading many to believe the night would be an easy victory for the home team. All of that changed when Tai Baribo cut the lead in half just before half time.
The Israeli forward continued his assault in the second half, drawing DC closer after Jorge Ruvalcaba restored the two goal lead. Jackson Hopkins completed the comeback for United until Ruvalcaba again found the net, scoring twice in one game for the first time in 2026. Not to be outdone, Baribo scored his third and final goal to leave New York wondering what went wrong on a night where the offense was so potent.
“Our ability to deal with some of those situations wasn’t what it needed to be,” said Bradley on the goals allowed. “We’ve got to continue to look hard at how we can deal with some of those things better.”
Red Bull will have a fast turnaround as the club travels to TQL Stadium to play FC Cincinnati on Saturday. The congested schedule will give little time to tinker with the gameplan as an even bigger mid week game against NYCFC is on the horizon in the US Open Cup next Wednesday.
photo by Matt Kremkau