Red Bulls Preparing for Real Salt Lake

The New York Red Bulls are officially back in their regular League season, as they had a decent Leagues Cup group stage against those three Liga MX opponents. But now this stretch run is back on as the club has nine matches remaining to return to a playoff spot and make the playoffs. It all starts with Real Salt Lake coming to Sports Illustrated Stadium for Sunday Night Soccer.

With injuries for the club, goalkeeper Carlos Coronel injured his knee during training, so that’s why A.J. Marcucci was given the last match against FC Juarez. In one League match, two US Open Cup matches, and two Leagues Cup matches, he has won three times, and two draws with two shootout victories. Marcucci has slowly proven he can handle the spotlight and has improved his play during these moments.

The new threat that faces the Red Bulls when Real Salt Lake comes to town is US Men’s National Team attacking midfielder Diego Luna. His breakout season for the National Team started at January camp, his assist at the CONCACAF Nations League in March, then his real breakout performance in the Gold Cup this past June has been sensational, scoring three goals and multiple assists. How will the Red Bulls handle it?

There’s no single team that we are playing which we are approaching the game with the mindset of stopping one player. I think we are playing them as a team. So, for me, we were putting the team like playing against a League, not against only one player. So yes.” Said Mohammed Sofo. 

Since both Andy Rojas and Marcelo Morales finally got a chance as a starter in the final group stage match in the Leagues Cup, these two are considered the future for the club. For Morales, he has an upside with a strong performance, making strong tackles, and the assist on the free kick that went toward Dylan Nealis for the goal. He could be the answer for the left or the right fullback position.

Once again, the Red Bulls needed these three Leagues Cup games against their Liga MX opponents to gain their confidence back and gave rest to the majority of their starting eleven players, like Emil Forsberg and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. They found ways to prevent goals and got themselves into positions to score goals. These last three games should give them plenty of confidence.

“Yeah, that was, first, it was very important to have these rotations with all these games now, tomorrow, game on Wednesday, the next game, Saturday. So very tough with our schedule, but it was good to see all the guys. From the performance side, it was very well most of the time. I think that was very important for us to use the time to develop our principles, to develop how we want to play. We could see this in all the games. The first game we won, then was a little bit unluck against Monterrey. Against Juarez was very tough this game so but I would say it was good to have these two weeks and the performance in all these three games, and now we must continue the next step for tomorrow against Real Salt Lake.” Said Sandro Schwarz.

Sean Nealis currently needs to play three minutes in this match to reach seventh place in club history to achieve 15,000 total minutes. He can easily get that either as a starter or coming off the bench as a substitute. A terrific moment for Sean Neails and his family, and his brother Dylan, who will be there to celebrate with him.

After this Sunday, they will do the double against the Philadelphia Union in the US Open Cup at Subaru Park on Wednesday, and back to Sports Illustrated Stadium on Saturday in League action. This will be a big week for the club, and it all starts against Diego Luna and Real Salt Lake. They must get back on track and take back a playoff spot.

PREDICTION
NY RED BULLS 2
REAL SALT LAKE 1