The rain in the Bronx could not keep New York City Football club from inflicting some revenge on their cross river rivals on Sunday night. Valentine Castellanos scored a hat trick and lead City to a decisive 5-2 win.
The game started well enough for both sides with City scoring in minute twelve as Maxi Moralez set up Castellanos with a header past Ryan Meara but Red Bulls would not be put down so easily responding with goals from Brian White and Cristian Casseres Jr to take the lead. It looked like a dreary night for City fans, but Gary Mackay-Steven linked up with an excellent pass from Castellanos and found the back of the net to tie the game just before half.
After the break the game was all City with Alex Ring scoring a rocket goal from outside the box to put City up for good. Castellanos was not done with Red Bull, however scoring two more goals to seal the deal and send the visitors limping home. Coach Ronny Deila was delighted with his team’s performance after the game.
“We played two good halves today, we didn’t start slow, but they are aggressive and hard to play against, especially in the beginning of games. We get 1-0, they come back in 2-1, they had very strange goals. We just kept doing the same good things and we deserved to get the equalizer before the break. Then we just needed to do the same things we did in the first half, because we were a better team. We felt it in the last 20 minutes of the first half, then in the second half we defended good. At the same time, we scored some beautiful goals. Like I said before, this gives us more confidence, gives us belief that when we do the job and follow up the plan, then we have some really good football players out there. We showed that today. We are hard to beat and we got three points.”
For a team headed into the playoffs, confidence can be key. New York City now are riding a three-game winning streak and their striker is coming off the game of his life. They finish the season away against Chicago on Decision Day. Depending on other results, a win there could put them above Orlando and Columbus in the standings. That would secure NYCFC a home playoff game to start their campaign and if Sunday night was any indication, City are a hard team to beat in the Bronx.
New York City FC
New York Red Bulls
