Red Bulls visit New England looking to continue unbeaten run
By Harvey Cruz
Red Bulls take their three-game road winning streak to Gillette Stadium, where they face the Revolution.
New York (7-1-3, 22 points) battle New England (5-4-4,19 points) looking to extend a five-game unbeaten run, including winning their last three road games. And while their 0-0 draw against the Philadelphia Union stopped their four-game winning streak, they still maintain good form.
Last season, the Red Bulls won all three games against the Revolution. A 2-1 win at Red Bull Arena, followed by 3-2 and 1-0 wins in the league and U.S. Open Cup. This will be the first of two league meetings this season.
The Red Bulls will be missing a few players for this game. Both Tyler Adams and Tim Parker will miss after being called up to the U.S. men’s national team. How do they replace them? Expect either Marc Rzatkowski or Vincent Bezecourt to start in place of Adams and partner Sean Davis in midfield. As for Parker, look for Aurelien Collin to replace him alongside Aaron Long.
Moreover, Fidel Escobar and Michael Amir Murillo have left to play with Panama at the World Cup. With Escobar rarely playing a game this season, Murillo is a bigger loss. So look for Connor Lade to play at right-back against New England.
New York have enjoyed a fruitful start to the season, thanks in large part to their success on their travels. After losing their first two against Real Salt Lake and Orlando City, they’ve reeled off three straight victories on the road. In previous seasons, winning on the road was difficult, but head coach Jesse Marsch says a change in mentality has brought a positive change.
“I think the guys now know that we can get results on the road,” Marsch said. “It’s not that it wasn’t that before, but I think there is a real urgency to try to be successful, to try to find ways to gain an edge, to try to find a way to get wins. And knowing what that means when you look at the table in the Eastern Conference and how close it is and how vital each point is. The mentality has been the key more than anything else. It’s been the mentality to go on the road and find ways to be successful.”
The Red Bulls will have to be reliant on the duo of Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kaku to produce the goods. The pair have been excellent this season, but had a rare off-night last game. Florian Valot will be the team’s x-factor in attack with his silky-smooth dribbling and chance creation. Daniel Royer has to pick up the slack, he only has three goals so far this season.
As for New England, they had to settle for a second straight draw against Atlanta United in their last match. Teal Bunbury scored a late penalty to bring his goal tally to a team-leading seven. The result follows a wild 3-3 draw away to the Vancouver Whitecaps. New England come into this game winless in their last three games, Bunbury realizes the importance of three points this weekend.
“We want to get three points, so I wouldn’t say it feels like a win,” Bunbury said after the game. “Atlanta’s a good team, they have a lot of key players, but we kept pushing and we got a point. We’ll assess this game and good thing we have a game in a couple of days against the Red Bulls, who are another great team and another great matchup, an Eastern Conference rival and we’re going to be looking to get three points in that game as well.”
Midfielder Diego Fagundez will be key in trying to break down a Red Bulls defense that has only conceded 12 goals this season, second-least in all of MLS. Columbus Crew are first, letting in 10. First-year head coach Brad Friedel will have his hands full trying to figure out a game plan to score against New York.
A look at the standings see New England just three points behind the Red Bulls, but the latter have two games in hand. A win for the Red Bulls will send them as high as second place.
Prediction: New England 1-1 Red Bulls
The key to this will be how Revolution respond to New York’s suffocating press. If they succeed, they can catch the Red Bulls sleeping or on the counter-attack. Ryan Meara has been in good form replacing Luis Robles and kept a clean sheet in his last game. Should New England fail, they’ll be in for a long night as the Red Bulls are capable of overpowering teams as of late.