On a cold and rainy afternoon at Red Bull Arena, the New York Red Bulls hosted one of three undefeated sides remaining in MLS as Orlando City came up north, but after two losing results on the road, the home side got cooking and had a masterful performance as they took down Orlando City by a final score of two goals to one.
The Red Bulls had a fantastic opening 45 minutes as they hustled, created, and defended Orlando City very well. layers and layers of attacking runs towards the net as you saw Frankie Amaya along with Caden Clark and Cristian Casserers Jr. bringing the ball up the field and crossing it into the middle of the park, but in the 35th minute, the home side converted.
After Tom Edwards won the ball in midfield, the Red Bulls attacked. As Clark crossed it to Daniel Royer, he headed the ball towards Patryk Klimala who settled it down. He got himself into a better position to whip a cross in front of goal and Clark sneaks in to poke it home for his fourth of the season and his fourth goal scored at Red Bull Arena
“We have a great relationship off the field and on the field, so I know he has the quality. That is the thing I kind of touched on earlier against Galaxy,” Said Caden Clark, “I was not in the box, so I think I got my other goal by going in the box as well, so I think for me just being aggressive in the box and getting forward and that is my job. Patryk [Klimala] is a great player and we are good friends off the field, so I think it is showing on the field now.
“Yeah, that has kind of been my game for all my life. It is just that player that can create an issue and you never know what is going to happen in the box, so that is why it is the main goal for me to get in the box and anything can happen. I was fortunate enough that it came to me again. Yea, I am just going to keep trying to get in the box and hopefully, something will fall to my feet.”
unfortunately for the Red Bulls, Frankie Amaya got hurt during that chance. When he got up and tried to continue, his time was up as he knew he was injured and was subbed out for Dru Yearwood who returned from his one-match suspension and performed strong again. Yearwood was involved every time he had possession of the ball.
At the hour mark, The Red Bulls got a free kick opportunity and who would step up to the challenge, but Cristian Casserers Jr. took the free-kick from about over 25 yards away from the net. All Casserers did was smash a free-kick, just over the wall and just inside the far upper 90, that Gallese never went for, nor stood a chance to stop it. A big Golaso from the Venezuelan International put the cub ahead by two.
Cristian is absolutely the player what I love in this system, and in this principle what I will see my players going in action and I think Cristian makes today, outstanding brilliant performance against the ball he wins so many duels, he was always on the ball, cleaner like the last games he was for the whole team, so, so important.” said Gerhart Struber, “I can see especially with him, he makes the improvements what we want in the direction that he is more on the field, not a normal player, he’s also on the field, as a leader, he takes his responsibility, he taking the last third when he goes in the in-fight his big duty to win the balls, he understand my football exactly. He is an example of that, what I will see every week from him.”
While Orlando City did pull one back by Van Der Water, it wasn’t enough for them to try and get an equalizer as the defense remained strong and tough. Tom Edwards who is a full-back has played a little bit of Center Back for Stoke in the past, did not look out of place and he worked well with Sean Nealis in the center of the field to stop shots.
Now the Red Bulls are going to take this long international break as some will be ready for international tournaments and resting up to prepare to restart the league when Nashville SC comes over in a little over two weeks and see old friends face them at Red Bull Arena. But for now they can celebrate this win.