New York City FC striker David Villa points at teammate Jack Harrison after the winger assisted him on the Blues second goal in a 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls Sunday, July 3, 2016. (Photo Credit: NYCFC)
New York City FC striker David Villa points at teammate Jack Harrison after the winger assisted him on the Blues second goal in a 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls Sunday, July 3, 2016. (Photo Credit: NYCFC)
The New York Derby, the Hudson River Derby — whatever you want to call it — is in its second year in existence but was already appearing to head towards becoming one of the most one-sided rivalry in soccer history.
Through four games, the 20-year Major League Soccer veterans New York Red Bulls dominated their sophomore city rivals New York City FC, winning all four meetings by an aggregated score of 14-2. The famous 7-0 win for the Red Bulls 6 weeks prior to the fifth edition on Sunday was the latest and most flagrant example of the bullying.
The younger brother had had enough.
A dominating display from the Blues highlighted by a goal and an assist from rookie Jack Harrison pushed the Blues to a 2-0 win, its first ever Hudson River Derby victory and a spot atop the Eastern Conference.
“I’m happy because of the three points but I was more pleased with the way that we played because we stuck to our principle and that was really good,” said NYCFC head coach Patrick Vieira.
NYCFC entered the match hungry to break its bad fortune against its cross-river rivals. It controlled the opening 15 minutes of the match, looking comfortable on the ball, unphased by the Red Bulls’ high press that caused them so many issues six weeks prior.
Appearing to have learned from the errors made in the 7-0 thrashing in the previous Hudson River Derby, NYCFC head coach Patrick Vieira changed the way his team would escape the signature defensive strategy of his opponents. Insisting on playing the ball out from the back, Vieira pinned Jason Hernandez and RJ Allen to the touchline, stretching the back-four as thin as he could to provide space to spread the ball around.
“I think we just did our homework,” Vieira said. “We knew that they’re quite really aggressive when they are pressuring (to recover) the ball, they are committing a lot of players, and one of the ideas behind putting RJ and Jason quite really deep is just to create more distances between their outside backs to cover our outside backs, and that gives us more time to make a decision.”
The result was early dominance that created a plethora of chances beginning in the second minute, when David Villa’s shot from a tight angle on the right side of the penalty area was saved by Luis Robles. Major League Soccer’s leading scorer had another chance from the opposite side of the area moments later, but missed high and wide.
Tommy McNamara had a much cleaner angle in the 7th minute when his path to goal was opened when Chris Duvall slipped while defending him, leaving the NYCFC midfielder one-on-one with Robles. But McNamara took one too many touches, allowing Robles enough time to come off his line, close the angle and block it out for a corner.
The miss was quickly forgotten, though, as the Blues took the lead on the ensuing corner through Jack Harrison.
The rookie was found open at the edge of the area by Andrea Pirlo before controlling the ball and taking a touch that took out two Red Bulls defenders and gave him acres of space in the penalty area to work with. Harrison decided to take matters into his own hands, striking the ball towards Robles, who couldn’t handle the strike as it trickled past the goal line to make it 1-0 in favor of the home side.
“Ever since we lost the last time, we’ve been looking forward and preparing really well, just working hard in practice,” Harrison said. “We’ve been preparing for this game for a long time, it’s not just this last week. We were definitely up for it today.”
NYCFC was not only able to nullify the Red Bulls press, but even take advantage of it, using the high line they were implementing to get into the space behind the final line of defense on numerous occasions.
This slowly began to stop as the match wore on, however, with NYRB beginning to grow into the match with each passing minute. The match was becoming closer to even but chances were coming fewer and farther between.
It took 41 minutes for the visitors to create any real danger towards Josh Saunders goal. Alex Muyl, the Red Bulls homegrown player born and raised in Manhattan starting in place of Lloyd Sam, found space at the edge of the area and fired away from 20 yards out. But unlike his first Hudson River Derby, where he scored his first career goal and the Red Bulls’ fifth on the day, Muyl didn’t factor then or ever on the afternoon, Saunders parrying away the strike rather easily.
NYCFC entered the half with the lead and looked to expand it immediately when it returned to the pitch. Villa wiggled his way through the Red Bulls midfield in the second minute of the second half and fired a strike, but it was weak and right at Robles, who had little issue collecting it.
The visitors had one of their best chances to equalize at the hour mark, with Aurelien Collin rising to head a Zizzo cross over the bar.
Vieira subbed in full-back Ronald Mattarita in for Mcnamara in the 62nd minute, shifting to a back-five with Matarrita at left-back and Hernandez as a third center-back.
The plan nearly backfired as the Red Bulls had their best chance of the match moments later, with Felipe somehow missing a header wide from 6 yards out after Zizzo found him open.
From nearly conceding an equalizer, NYCFC gave itself a two-goal cushion at the other end. Goalscorer Harrison turned provider to Villa on a counter-attack, sliding in a pass to the Spanish striker that only needed a slight touch to get past Robles.
The Red Bulls had a chance off the restart to reduce the deficit, but after the shot went wide, there wasn’t much else created from the visitors for the rest of an underwhelming performance.
“They were the better team today. They wanted it more, they showed that on the field,” said Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch. “We weren’t sharp enough on the day … credit to New York City. They wanted it bad … their whole team seemed to pour it all on the field.”
A team with consistent issues in closing out matches in which its led by as many as two goals, NYCFC easily saw out the end of this match against the team that’s given it the most trouble in its season and a half in MLS.
The Blues were helped by the numerical advantage they had beginning in the 80th minute when Duvall was sent off for a hard challenge on Pirlo. Duvall’s studs dug into the Italian midfielders’ calf as both fought for a 50/50 ball.
Playing with an extra man, the Blues cruised as the clock approached the 90th minute. When the final whistle blew, the 11 men in blue on the pitch jumped with most of the 33,613 in attendance in commemoration of the historic moment for the club.
The 7-0 loss is in the past and the demons were slain.
“I didn’t really talk about the 7-0 … because that always going to be in the players mind. But what we could do is just change the future, the next game we’re going to play,” Vieira said. “I think that’s why I’m really proud of the players because there was a big expectation and there was a pressure on their shoulders and the way they respond today, they really made me proud … I think they gave an answer to everyone that we are strong and we are determined and there’s a really strong spirit in this club.”
For the first time, New York is blue.
Follow Brian Fonseca on Twitter (@briannnnf) for updates on New York City FC.
