New York Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch yells instructions at his team in a 1-1 draw against New York City in the final Hudson River Derby of 2017. (Photo Credit: New York Red Bulls)
HARRISON, N.J. — History was made in the Hudson River Derby Friday night.
For the first time in the rivalry’s three year history, the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC finished in a deadlock, both finding the net once in a 1-1 draw at Red Bull Arena.
NYCFC head coach Patrick Vieira said he was happy with the point, but his opposing head coach wasn’t as happy.
When looking at the match as a whole, the contrast makes sense. The final scoreline tells a different story than the one that occurred in the final regular season Hudson River Derby match of the year.
The Red Bulls were dominant in possession and created the bulk of the chances on the night. They hit the woodwork twice, had a strong case for a penalty before finally getting one and were the better team over the course of the 90 minutes.
“It’s a funny game sometimes, right? How many sports does a team dominate like that and then be down 1-0?” said Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch. “But I wanted to make sure that our team was still aggressive and had confidence and went after the game. They did that, able to get themselves back in. I mean, a draw feels like a big disappointment because the way we played and the way we dominated most of the match.”
But as the adage goes — if you don’t score, you concede. NYCFC had just nine shots compared to 21 from the Red Bulls, but it took advantage of them. The Blues opened the scoring in the 56th minute, taking advantage of one of the many counter attacks they created by sitting back and waiting for the Red Bulls to concede possession.
Maxi Moralez combined with David Villa at the top of the box for a 1-2 to find space in the box before slotting it across Luis Robles’ body towards the far post.
The Villa touch. The Moralez finish. Slick stuff from @NYCFC!#NYDerby // Heineken #RivalryWeek https://t.co/CVE2uq1Q9F
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 26, 2017
The goal was sandwiched between two appeals for penalty from the Red Bulls.
The first came on a smart combination between Sacha Klejstan and Bradley Wright-Phillips. A great cross from Klejstan had Wright-Phillips wide open with an empty net to header into. NYCFC’s R.J. Allen came to the rescue with a last-ditch intervention from behind to force Wright-Phillips to head it over. The home side shouted for a penalty, and it looked like they deserved one, but the call didn’t come.
Shouts for a penalty but nothing given. pic.twitter.com/hvOLa4L2ig
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 26, 2017
“What happens with VAR?” Marsch said when asked of the non-call. “Bradley clearly gets contact … it’s going to be a free header where he’s going to basically have the majority of the goal to head the ball into and it’s not going over his head, it’s going directly to him where he can score. He gets bumped before he hits the ball and it alters the shot, which is a foul. It’s a foul.”
“So it doesn’t get called and what you get with VAR is, if it’s not clear and obvious, so it’s a little bit of a tweener, if it were called a penalty, I don’t think it would’ve been reversed. But because it wasn’t called a penalty, it’s not reversed either. So that’s the part that’s still the decision of the referee — and it should be, I do still think it should be in the referee’s hands — but that call was not going to get reversed I think either way no matter what the call was.”
The second came shortly the opener as Alex Muyl seemed to be tripped by Frederic Brilliant, but the referee did not give the penalty.
The third time would be the charm for the Red Bulls, though, as a foul was called on Allen for running into Klejstan at the top of the box.
Penalty to RBNY! pic.twitter.com/aFxjmazYAx
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 26, 2017
Substitute Gonzalo Veron stepped up to take the penalty and he buried it to tie the game at one with 20 minutes to play.
Veron buries the penalty for #RBNY and the #NYDerby is all tied at one with 20 minutes to play. pic.twitter.com/MHdBTUiLC9
— Brian Fonseca (@briannnnf) August 26, 2017
Vieira wasn’t happy with that call, nor was he with the non-call against his team minutes later. A header from Villa looks to hit Muyl on his arm in the Red Bull area, but the referee didn’t blow his whistle.
Shouts for handball but nothing given! pic.twitter.com/UbBt4L1gZB
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 26, 2017
“It was really, really smart from Klejstan,” Vieira said on the penalty. “He fooled the referee. It wasn’t a penalty at all. It was really soft and when you look at David’s header, that was clearly a handball. I’m disappointed because when you have the VAR in the van and you see the replay and you don’t call a penalty, I just think to myself ‘why did we spend so much time, open our door for people to come explain to us what is the VAR job and what they’re going to do and what will happen?'”
“So it is really disappointing evening for us from that standpoint.”
The first half consisted of the Red Bulls controlling possession but doing little with it. Their patented high press under Jesse Marsch made a resurgence as the home side consistently won the ball in NYCFC’s half, but the Red Bulls couldn’t take advantage. Their best chance came in the final minute of the half. Bradley Wright-Phillips found Amir Murillo thread a perfect ball to Amir Murillo into the box on the third attempt of a connection between the two. Murillo saw an oncoming Sean Johnson and calmly chipped it over, only to see his strike hit the near post and bounce away from goal.
Murillo strikes the post right at the stroke of halftime. We are scoreless after 45. pic.twitter.com/bmdTXXOrd2
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 26, 2017
Prior to that, the two chances of the half came via a pair of long strikes at the top of the box from Sean Davis. Neither resulted in anything positive, the first going straight at Sean Johnson for a comfortable save, the second going well wide of goal.
NYCFC had acres of space to work in behind the Red Bulls back line due to the press, but the visitors were rarely able to break through the first wave of pressure from their hosts. Whenever they did, either of Aaron Long and recent signing Fidel Escobar was there to sweep up and kill the chance.
1v1 with Villa? No problem for @A_LoLo12! ⛔️#NYvNYC | #RBNY pic.twitter.com/N84tNx9UYo
— New York Red Bulls (@NewYorkRedBulls) August 25, 2017
After conceding a hat-trick to Villa the last time the teams met a few weeks ago at Yankee Stadium, the Red Bulls held the top scorer in MLS scoreless.
“Aaron was very good, Fidel (Escobar) was very good, Kemar (Lawrence) made it very hard,” Marsch said. “So I feel that back-three was quite good. Their aggressiveness, their athleticism, their intelligence, I think bodes well for the future of what we’re doing here …
“We challenged Aaron Long during the week. We said ‘Listen, if you want to be a big time centerback, then when you play against big time strikers, you got to find a way to take care of them. It’s David Villa, (Toronto FC’s) Giovinco, these guys are not easy to take care of. What great players they are and we’re lucky to have them in our league, but I think that Aaron took a big step forward in his career tonight with the way he played against Villa.”
The draw marks the end of the Hudson River Derby in regular season play, but both sides are in prime position to enter the MLS Cup playoffs. The possibility of a playoff series between the two would go a long way in adding to the rivalry, Marsch said.
“I got questions this week like ‘we played them so much in the past two months, twice in the past few weeks, does it dilute the intensity of the rivalry? I mean, the obvious answer is yes, it does,” he said. “It’s still one that I think both teams take so much pride in and I think it’s developed into one of the best, if not the best rivalry in the league for many reasons.
“We’re fully aware that if we get to the playoffs and we see them, that will be a heavy moment for both teams and one that both teams will be up to and an exciting proposition for the clubs and the league.”
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Scoring Summary:
56’ New York Red Bulls 0-1 New York City FC (Maxi Moralez, assist David Villa)
70’ New York Red Bulls 1-0 New York City FC (Gonzalo Veron)
Starting XI:
New York Red Bulls: Luis Robles, Tyler Adams, Fidel Escobar, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence, Amir Murillo, Felipe, Sacha Klejstan, Sean Davis (Gonzalo Veron, 64′), Alex Muyl (Derrick Etienne 82’), Bradley Wright-Phillips (Dilly Duka, 90′).
New York City FC: Sean Johnson, Ethan White (R.J. Allen 30′), Frederic Brillant, Alexander Callens, Ben Sweat, Alex Ring, Mikey Lopez, Rodney Wallace (Tommy McNamara 78’), Jack Harrison (Johnathan Lewis 71′), Maxi Moralez, David Villa.
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Follow Brian Fonseca on Twitter @briannnnf for updates. Email him at brianfilipefonseca@gmail.com with questions, concerns, tips or story ideas.
