FOr the 5th time in the regular season, the New York Red Bulls traveled down to Atlanta, Georgia, and faced an Atlanta United side that has been playing tough, but not earned the necessary results to put them into the top seven spots of the Eastern Conference. After 90 minutes of play and through lengthy stoppage time in both halves, the New York Red Bulls earned their first point on the road with an exciting scoreless draw at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
The majority of the match was played inside Atlanta United’s half a the Red Bulls kept attacking, creating chances, made a few runs, and had some help along the way from the Atlanta United defense to earn opportunities to take shots on goal, but unfortunately, Brad Guzan made several big saves to keep the visitors off the scoreboard. He stopped Patryk Klimala who took advantage of a missed possession and when he struck the ball, it slipped thru Guzan’s gloves, but he pounced on the ball late and prevented it from crossing over the entire goal line,
Late in the second half, Kyle Duncan had a big chance to get the opening goal as he rounded the defender and got very close to the net, but when indecision crept inside his head, his cross went to no one as the space was empty with no Red Bulls teammate in sight. he had Fabio wide open and was ready to tap it in, or he should’ve taken the shot himself. But towards the final 5 minutes in each half, Atlanta United had some good looks, but they were stopped by either the entire backline or Carlos Coronel was able to make all four saves in this one.
But once again injuries have crept back into the Red Bulls play as the field turf was unforgiving and as we always say, the turf monster strikes again. Andres Reyes pulled a hamstring, and while we don’t know the severity of how big the injury is, it’s not good when you are down two centrebacks, one who is out for the season and one who looks like will be out for a while. Tom Edwards who has been doing a good job as a fullback, center back & defensive midfielder also got grabbed by the turf monster as he has a bit of a groin issue when he came out of the match.
But after the end of this match, the number one feeling is that the New York Red Bulls found a way to earn a point on the road, and with the way they played and tried their best to get a big result, this draw will do, as they never backed down, played strong on both sides of the ball, got a little bit of luck a well, but once again they played strong and everyone on the coaching staff was very happy to get their first positive result on the road, even if it only earned them a single point.
“Hello together. Yeah, we expected today, a tough game and we realized that tough game against Atlanta. I am very happy with our style against the ball, I think we have so many in-fights and so many battles on the field today and we win so many battles from that.” Said Gerhard Struber” The attitude, the energy, the synchronized moments, was what we miss a little bit in New England, was today on a very good level. I think the togetherness, to create overload moments in our spaces for want we want and was also very good. We create some very good chances. In the end, I missed a little bit the desire or the determination to score in the end, but we create chances against a very good team, and was a challenge today to play against a team like Atlanta from the technical side and from the ability, from the players, was a very good game for my boys that we handle and manage the game.
“Over the most of the time in our direction, we are a little bit unlucky with some moments from the referee and also we have a little bit luck, also in the end with one or other chance from Atlanta on the post, but I think in the end, we deserve, absolutely this point and with a little bit more luck in the end we can win this game.”
So the Red Bulls will return home to relax and train for the next road match as they will head down to the Magic Kingdom of Central Florida to take on the purple & gold of Orlando City, who are for sure looking to earn a bit of revenge after loss at Red Bull Arena before the International Break came, but for now, it’s time to pat this side on the back and see if they can continue their good fortune.