Julian Hall scored in the 57th minute by capitalizing on a misplay from James Sands, and the visiting New York Red Bulls hung on for a 1-0 victory over New York City FC in the Hudson River Derby on Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
The Red Bulls (9-11-6, 33 points) won consecutive matches for the first time since May 9-13. They also moved past NYCFC into eighth in the Eastern Conference, thanks to Hall’s 10th goal and his first since a hat trick on May 13.
NYCFC (8-10-8, 32 points) slipped to the ninth and final playoff-qualifying spot in the East.
After Adri Mehmeti blocked a right-footed try by NYCFC’s Andres Perea, the ball approached midfield and Sands gained possession.
Sands attempted to pass the ball back to goalie Matt Freese, but he moved it too softly and Hall pounced on the loose ball. With Freese out of position, Hall took a few dribbles and easily finished off a right-footed shot from outside of the box for the Red Bulls’ only shot on target.
Red Bulls goalie Ethan Horvath made four saves for the third clean sheet of his MLS career, all coming in his past four matches. He highlighted it with a point-blank stop on Benie Traore during the four-minute second-half stoppage time and also made a diving save on Perea in the 18th.
Horvath also had help from his defense as the Red Bulls blocked seven of NYCFC’s 18 shot attempts. The biggest occurred in the 76th when Tim Parker blocked a shot by Alonso Martinez before it could cross the goal line.
NYCFC have the same amount of wins as Cincinnati but own the goal differential tiebreaker. New York City also fell to 1-4-4 in its past nine matches despite holding possession for 60.6% of the contest.
Freese did not make any saves as NYCFC blocked four of the Red Bulls’ nine shot attempts.
–Field Level Media
