HARRISON, NJ. (July 22, 2018) – The New York Red Bulls faced the New England Revolution in their second matchup in league play. While the first half was evenly matched, the New York Red Bulls strong second half brought goals from Daniel Royer and Bradley Wright-Phillips sealed the win.
New York Red Bulls strong second half hold off New England Revolution 2-0
Powerful advances
The Red Bulls and the Revolution have a similar style of play. As such, the majority of the game was even. Both teams were at times able to advance but the first half remained scoreless. Two yellow cards (Aaron Long 30′ and Alejandro “Kaku” Romero Gamarra 41′) for RBNY marked the intense 1v1 battles. The second half saw more yellow cards, this time for the Revolution (Antonio Delamea 57′ and Luis Caicedo 59′). With a total of 30 fouls charged, the physicality of the game was obvious.
Royer breaks through
After Tyler Adams drew a foul, the inswinger from Marc Rzatkowski on the free kick landed in the middle of the fray. The traffic in the box caused the right level of confusion for the Red Bulls. Midfielder Daniel Royer found the ball and tapped it into the near corner of the net to open the scoring in the 70th minute. Neither team was looking to chase the game, but once the stalemate had been broken, RBNY maintained the upper hand. The shift in possession during the second half towards the Red Bulls made it easier to create more chances.
Inching closer to the century mark
In the 80th minute, Kaku crossed the ball and found striker Bradley Wright-Phillips, who headed the ball into the upper corner. With this goal — his 99th in his MLS career — Wright-Phillips is that much closer to the historic milestone. There was nearly an opportunity for Wright-Phillips to make that 100th goal with a penalty kick following a ruling of a handball. The Video Assistant Referee overturned the ruling, however. RBNY was able to keep the clean sheet and take all three points on the night.
The New York Red Bulls travel to newly opened Audi Field to face their original MLS rivals DC United. The Revolution head into a bye week leading up to the MLS All Star game
