Photo Credit: New York Red Bulls
Red Bull fans have come to dread road games as they have manged only one win in six matches away from Red Bull Arena.
But Saturday may be a reversal of New York’s fortunes when they travel north of the border to take on the struggling Montreal Impact. Second to last overall and dead last in the Eastern Conference, the Impact are struggling to follow up their success from 2016 which saw the Canadian club finish eleventh overall. Having clawed back a 2-1 victory over the New England Revolution in their last outing at home, the Red Bulls are looking to strike while the iron is hot and earn another three points to bolster their push to climb to the top of the East.
Yet nothing will be simple in Montreal for two deeply emotional reasons.
The first of which, New York will be looking to avenge their embarrassing performances against the Impact in the 2016 playoffs which saw the Red Bulls downed 3-1 on aggregate. The chief architect of New York’s undoing then, Argentinian midfielder Ignacio Piatti, has been on fire in 2017 earning 6 goals and 1 assist. Italian forward Matteo Mancosu, the man who drew first blood in last year’s playoff thrashing of New York, has been a bit slow out of the gate in 2017 managing just 2 goals so far as he grapples with a thigh injury.
The Red Bulls will have to shut down Piatti and striker Dominic Oduro defensively in order to ensure victory. Yet, this will be an uphill battle for New York as the team has a -6 goal differential. Despite Montreal’s lowly Eastern Conference standing, the club has fared better on the defensive end of things posting a neutral 0 goal differential.
New York brings big guns to the table themselves in the form of Bradley Wright-Phillips and Daniel Royer. The former having logged six goals thus far, managing one in each of New York’s last two matches. Austrian winger Daniel Royer has arguably been New York’s best player in terms of work rate, sharing the praise with left back Kemar Lawrence who has been in impressive form. Manager Jesse Marsch lauded the team following last week’s victory over the Revolution noting it was RBNY’s “best counter-pressing game, maybe, ever”. The reactive nature of New York’s play when out of possession meant the team was able to recover the ball quickly and maintain possession. Marsch will be hoping to preserve the team’s style on the road Saturday.
The second emotionally charged facet of the game is pitting former teammates against one another. RBNY fans may shed a tear as the team returns to face former right back Chris Duvall who was left unprotected in 2016’s expansion draft. Despite being selected by league newcomers Minnesota United, he was traded to Montreal along with allocation money in a move to grab Costa Rican winger Johan Venegas. Since joining the Impact, Duvall has thrust himself into the starting role and played in all 11 of Montreal’s games thus far. Duvall joins former Red Bull left back Ambroise Oyongo and Belgian international Laurent Ciman in forming a high-profile back line capable of shutting down most attacking threats.
Regardless of the how fondly New York remembers Duvall, it will be all out war down the left-wing with Mike Grella likely tapped to start and battle for supremacy of the flank against Duvall.
So how will the match turn out? While New York leads the series all-time with a 8-3-2 record, their fortunes on the road have been less impressive with a 1-3-2 record. Yet with the confidence of last week’s victory keeping the team’s head held high, grabbing three points on the road is a possibility.
The New York Red Bulls will travel to take on Eastern Conference rivals the Montreal Impact on Saturday, June 3rd at 7:30 pm EST.
