Bragging rights in the Hudson River Derby might be secondary given the precarious nature of the playoff positioning for New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls when the teams convene Friday night at Yankee Stadium.
Both teams have nine games remaining and are separated by two points after stopping lengthy winless skids last week.
NYCFC (8-9-8, 32 points) begin the week in eighth and own the goal differential tiebreaker over ninth-place Cincinnati since they have outscored opponents 39-33, while Cincinnati has been outscored 59-52. NYCFC trail seventh-place Philadelphia by one point and sixth-place Orlando by two points, and those teams also have nine games remaining.
New York City heads into Friday 1-3-4 over the past eight matches. The Pigeons earned their first win since July 25 on Saturday with a 2-0 victory at Real Salt Lake, when Nicolas Fernandez and Luighi scored on either side of the halftime break.
“I think we found quite a decent balance when we play against the Red Bulls, but we’re also very aware of what’s at stake,” NYCFC coach Pascal Jansen said. “It’s a derby, it’s emotional, means a lot to our fans from both sides. So it’s going to be an intense game no matter what and for us, it’s mainly about making sure we keep things under control, stick to the plan that we will make and make sure we get a good result.”
The Red Bulls (8-11-6, 30 points) sit in 10th and are two points behind NYCFC and Cincinnati while carrying a minus-15 goal differential. New York is attempting to win consecutive matches for just the third time this season and the first time since May 9-13.
Like their rivals, the Red Bulls ended a lengthy winless rut (0-4-2) Saturday with a 1-0 victory at Columbus. Ronald Donkor broke the stalemate in the 89th minute with his second goal of the year.
“We have not had enough to show for ourselves on certain days,” Red Bulls coach Michael Bradley said. “We feel really good that now in this week-long road trip we take four points, two shutouts, and so, we are going to use this as a way to really build momentum.”
–Field Level Media
