Red Bulls Fall in Penalties to Monterrey

The New York Red Bulls flew to Cincinnati to take on Monterrey in their second group stage Leagues Cup match. While they did battle to a one goal draw in regulation, the penalty kick shootout unfortunately did them in as they fell to Monterrey five goals to three at TQL Stadium. By taking a point, they have four in two games, while the Rayados saved face, taking two after their loss to FC Cincinnati.

Monterrey shot first, as both sides converted in the first round, but in the second round, Iker Fimbres converted his spot kick, while Alexander Hack was stopped by Luis Cardenas, who dove to his right at the far post. Then both sides converted in the next two rounds, until Luis Reyes took the last kick. It was originally saved by Carlos Coronel, but after VAR reviewed it, Coronel was off his line before the shot came. On the retake, Reyes hammered it inside the far post, and Monterrey took two points.

In regulation time, the Red Bulls took the lead in the 19th minute. After the offside flag went up against Monterrey, Alexander Hack restarted the play, finding Daniel Edelman inside the center circle. He moved forward, then delivered a fantastic ball to Julian Hall as he split the defenders, and attacked the net. When he got close, he took the shot and beat Cardenas to the near post for his first of the season.

“Yes, I think it was a good moment for me. I’ve been waiting for a moment like this. And yes, it was a great pass from Edelman that set me up. And yes, I think it was good momentum for the team. And, you know, we came up short again. But I think we’re all looking forward to Thursday,” said Julian Hall.

Later in the first half, Monterrey found the equalizer in the 38th minute. As they attacked down the far side, the ball was crossed toward Ricardo Chavez. He jumped and headed the ball toward the net, as Coronel made the stop, but didn’t hang on to the ball. Left a juicy rebound to Sergio Canales as he put it away to level the match.

While the rest of this contest was a battle of attrition, neither side could get that second goal to take the full three points. If Dennis Gjengaar in the sixth minute and Mohammed Sofo in the 83rd minute didn’t hit the posts, then this would’ve been another big victory for the Red Bulls against a Liga MX side. But sadly, they could only get a point in this one.

However, there was a big moment in the match where the defense came up big for the Red Bulls in the second half. With Monterrey attacking up the pitch, they were looking for the go-ahead goal. Coronel came up big with a left leg save as he did the splits down on the pitch, but when the rebound shot came, Noah Eile ran to help his goalkeeper and blocked the rebound shot with his legs in the 80th minute.

“In my opinion, we played a really good game in our performance with our young guys. So we tried everything. We were very active, very intensive. So that was good. And I think the second half, we had a lot of good moments, and we had to be careful with some transition moments of the opponent. But was really, really good from the performance and PK, okay, was unlucky in this moment, but from the performance side I’m really, really satisfied with the guys, how they played, and how they defend all together. And of course, the first goal we conceded we have to defend better, to be active defend the cross more, and then to be active in our box defending. We have also to respect the quality of the opponent, but the performance was really good,” said Sandro Schwarz

While they needed three points to hang around before facing a red hot FC Juarez side, the amount of goals and points is not enough to keep them alive, going toward the Quarterfinals of the Leagues Cup. But in two games, the performances were good, but once again, when they needed that big goal to push ahead, it never came around.

One more Leagues Cup match this Thursday, then back to their regular season schedule and a trip back down to Chester to make up that rainout in the Quarterfinals of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup against the Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park, for round two. Let’s hope these two matches have regained their confidence and their energy to climb back up into a playoff position.