Photo Credit: NYCFC
New York City FC hoped that when it came to winning the match all its fans had circled on their calendar as soon as the season schedule was released, the fourth time would be the charm.
After dropping all three contests to its rival New York Red Bulls in its inaugural season in Major League Soccer by a combined score of 7-2, NYCFC believed the first meeting between the sides this season would be different.
Heading into the contest, the Blues, who finished their first MLS season in a modest eighth place, topped the Eastern Conference with 17 points in 12 matches after a franchise-best five straight games without suffering a loss.
Their opponents, who won the Supporters Shield for the second time in three seasons last year, came to the Bronx in fifth place in the East, trailing the hosts by four points.
NYCFC was beginning to fix the defensive issues that plagued it earlier in the season, giving up just five goals in the five game unbeaten run, including its first clean sheet of the season in a 2-0 win over DC United two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, the Red Bulls continued to struggle to take advantage of the multitude of opportunities they would create throughout a match, barely squeaking past Chicago after being dominated 2-0 by the same DC team NYCFC thrashed a week prior.
But despite the teams trending in opposite directions in the early going of the season, things only got worse for NYCFC as the Red Bulls annihilated the home side 7-0 in another dominating display in the New York Derby.
“It was a disaster today for us,” said NYCFC striker David Villa. “Very bad. The best thing we could do from today is think we only lost three points.”
The visitors commanded from kick off, with captain Dax McCarty ending the team’s recent offensive woes by putting it up 1-0 in the third minute off its first corner of the contest. The midfielder was unmarked in the middle of the box, allowing him to comfortably head Sacha Klejstan’s cross past Josh Saunders. The goal came shortly after a Connor Lade throw-in just missed the head of an onrushing Felipe.
It wasn’t until 20 minutes into the contest that NYCFC began to have a say, with the first quarter of the match being controlled by the Red Bulls. The Blues controlled the ball and forced the visitors to concede a pair of corners, but they were unable to force reigning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Luis Robles into any saves. The pressure on the ball the visitors have become known for troubled NYCFC as it was unable to play out of its own half before losing the ball.
Following a back-and-forth period of play, the Red Bulls again took command and ended any hope their hosts may have had of coming back.
Bradley Wright-Phillips, who has struggled early on in the season, scoring just 3 goals in 12 games after leading MLS in scoring last season, continued his solid form against NYCFC with 2 goals in five minutes to all but bury the hosts.
The first goal came following some brilliant work from Mike Grella down the left flank. The winger left a pair of defenders in the dirt before whipping in a cross directly onto Wright-Phillips head and past Saunders.
The English striker saved his best for last, however, as he used his athleticism to score an acrobatic bicycle kick just before halftime to put the Red Bulls up 3-0. The goal was his sixth goal in four meetings with NYCFC.
“I had to make something out of nothing, it was in the air, I took a swing at it and it went in,” Wright-Phillips said of his wonder goal. “I’ve tried to do it before and I missed. It was good though. When I saw it go in the corner, it was a good feeling.”
While its lead was hefty, Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch reminded his troops at the intermission that there was still an entire half to be played.
His side responded by opening the second half in the same way as the first — a Dax McCarty goal off a Sacha Klejstan corner, this time six minutes following the start of play. Playing in his 260th career match in MLS, it was McCarty’s first ever brace.
Another first for the Red Bulls came five minutes later as Alex Muyl, a product of the club’s youth academy, scored his first career goal two minutes after coming on to give his side a handful of goals, its largest ever lead in a Hudson River Derby.
“(Muyl) has earned the respect of his teammates at the highest level,” Marsch said of the youth product. “He comes in, works every day. When he steps on the field, he gives everything he has. For a young guy, they’ve grown to love him and love what he puts into it, so it’s been easy for me as a coach to make decisions to put him on the field because he’s earned everybody’s respect.”
Before heading back to Harrison, the Red Bulls piled on another two goals, both coming from substitutes opening their personal tallies of the season. Gonzalo Veron scored the sixth goal of the contest in the 83rd minute, six minutes before Gideon Baah closed the scoresheet with the matches 7th goal.
“One of the things that was great was that the three subs that we put on the field I thought helped the game and then ultimately wound up getting goals,” Marsch said.
NYCFC fought for a consolation goal throughout the second half, with the first overall pick in the 2016 MLS Draft Jack Harrison getting into the mix and showing some flashes of positive play and designated player Frank Lampard making his season debut to a chorus of boos from the home crowd. But it wouldn’t come as the visitors domination on both ends of the pitch lasted for the full 90 minutes.
Despite the drubbing at the hands of a rival, Vieira recognizes that his club remains atop the standings of its conference. While it wasn’t the result he wanted, he won’t allow it to take away from the success his team has already seen.
“We didn’t play well at all in any aspect of the game,” Vieira said. “But on the other side, I told (the team) I’m not throwing away what we’ve been doing from the beginning of the season. We at times play some good football … of course it’s a step back, but like we say in football; it’s always better to lose one game 7-0 than to lose seven games 1-0. We have to keep our head up.”
With the loss, NYCFC drops to second in the Eastern Conference with 17 points in 13 games, a point behind Philadelphia. The Union have 18 points in 11 games after defeating DC United 1-0 Friday night.
A year removed from a historic season, the Red Bulls are still trying to return to the form that brought them a second Supporters Shield in three seasons. While a 7-0 win over their newest rivals is surely a step in the right direction, pushing them to third in the Eastern Conference with 16 points in 13 games, the main focus remains the same.
“It’s been a weird year,” Marsch said. “We haven’t been able to show our quality in a lot of moments and we haven’t played at our best, but the whole time that we were going through our struggles, our whole emphasis was ‘when we get out of this, we’re going to be better … so that’s been the focus, that’s been the concentration.”
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