Long Island Meets the Metro
The first ever derby for a New York soccer team is coming. The Red Bulls have not had a New York derby in its history. In the past two weeks, that has all changed. The New York Cosmos will be playing the Red Bulls on Saturday, June 14th at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. This will be the first ever meeting between these two clubs. The Cosmos play in the North American Soccer League, which is the second division in the US Soccer pyramid. Although they are a second division team, they are not to be taken lightly at all. They won the Soccer Bowl last season, which is the equivalent of the MLS Cup in the NASL. Currently they sit at second place in the NASL Spring standings behind Minnesota United. Lower level teams have upset MLS clubs before in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup; one of the most notable ones being amateur side Cal FC beating Portland 1-0 in 2012. Timbers fall 1-0 to Cal FC
Lacking of Derby Matches
Compared to other leagues around the world, the MLS severely lacks derby games, mainly due to a lack of teams in one city. In Manchester, England there is the derby between Manchester City and United. Other notables are Rangers-Celtic in Glasgow, Scotland and the Real-Athletico rivalry in Madrid, Spain. These derbies have a long history and legacy attached to them, but there is currently only one derby in the MLS, and that is Chivas USA-Galaxy rivalry in Los Angeles. The rivalry doesn’t get much attention, in fact the name of the city is only in one of the club’s names, it doesn’t even look like a derby. However, with two New York teams with the city in the title of their clubs, it may draw more attention to the matches and get more fans to come out and watch.
Growth spurt in New York Derby Matches
The potentially big derby games are up ahead with New York City FC coming in 2015. Currently, NYCFC only has one player, David Villa. The former Barcelona and Athletico Madrid star signed with NYCFC this week and “Super” Frank Lampard may be heading there soon as well. The coming of these two great players will help the beautiful game grow in the Big Apple. In fact, there are already billboards of David Villa advertising his coming to New York City along with the growth of NYCFC. With the Yankees and Manchester City doing a joint-venture, this could be just the beginning of a massive campaign for soccer in New York with all the money the two sports club giants have. The Red Bulls currently have two well known players to their roster: The France and Arsenal great Thierry Henry, along with Soccerroo legend Tim Cahill. The MLS doesn’t want to become a retirement league for big-time players, but it seems like that may be the best way to get the MLS as a mainstream league here in the United States. Having these four amazing players along with this derby game could really help the league grow, maybe even bring in some big names to the Red Bulls in the future as well.
Thank you for reading. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @MLSDispatch and @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at sports injury alert.
Feel free to discuss this and other footy related articles with thousands of fans at r/football.
Main Photo:
