Ten Men Red Bulls Edge Ten Men Real Salt Lake

This wasn’t just a tale of two halves at Sports Illustrated Stadium; this was a crazy, strange, and, at the end of the night, jubilation for the home fans and the home team. The New York Red Bulls had another slow start to this one, found a way to climb back up, and then at the very end, found a way to convert the match winner as they defeated Real Salt Lake by a final score of two goals to one.

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored another brace in this match, as he led his side to victory. His first goal of the match was during an attacking run. The play began on the far side of the pitch as Raheem Edwards brought the ball and made a solid pass to Emil Forsberg. When he entered the area, Forsberg made a good pass to the middle and saw Choupo Moting as he stuck his right foot out to redirect it inside the back post in the 52nd minute.

The match winner came in second half stoppage time when Choupo-Moting was tangled up with Justin Glad inside the RSL area. Choupo controlled the ball, had a tussle with Glad, then got pulled down inside the area by Glad. The referee pointed to the spot for a penalty, while VAR did take a review to see if there was an offside before the penalty. They confirmed the spot call was correct, and Choupo-Moting blasts it inside the near upper 90 for the win.

After the match, the pool reporter submitted questions to the officials and asked about the VAR review during the delayed offside call during the awarding of the second penalty for Choupo-Moting. “After the penalty had been awarded, the assistant referee raised the flag for a delayed offside. After review, it was deemed that there was no offside offense, thus restarting the game with a penalty kick.”

The Red Bulls had a horrible start to this match as they came out of the gates slowly and lethargically. Diego Luna made a fantastic pass from the far side touchline to William Agada, then a diagonal pass toward Zavier Gozo at the near side, took the shot one time scored. While A.J. Marcucci did put himself in perfect position to make the save attempt, the ball deflected off his left boot and in.

But some crazy moments did happen when the score was leveled at one. In the 80th minute, Choupo-Moting was fouled by Brayan Vera inside the area, but needed VAR to confirm it after the referee didn’t initially give it. Then, three minutes later, Diego Luna was given his first yellow card for intentionally chewing up the penalty spot with his studs.

Choupo-Moting decided to take a panenka attempt, but RSL goalkeeper Rafael Cabral never moved and made an easy grab. In the 85th minute, there was a battle between Kyle Duncan and Luna, as both men were jostling for position to play the ball. Duncan put his right arm around Luna’s neck and head area, while Luna threw Duncan down.

Diego Luna was shown his second yellow and then a red card, putting Real Salt Lake down to ten men. After play resumed and then stopped, VAR came back into play, and the referee went to the monitor to give Kyle Duncan his straight red card for wrapping his right arm around Luna’s neck, and the Red Bulls went down to ten men in the 89th minute.

“I’m very proud of the guys. But I’m not only here to analyze only the result 2-1, so we did that, okay, I would be so happy and okay, everything is great today. We have to learn a lot from this game. But when we had the energy level, the intensity, the whole time, but it’s not so easy to be honest when you are 1-0 down, it’s not so easy, then you need normally two touches, then you need four touches.” said Sandro Schwarz, “Then, of course, it’s also human a little bit then, the heads go down. And the reaction, and this is what we said very — in a very emotional way in this halftime today, it was not done from a tactical point some things. It was more very emotional, and the reaction was great.

“And for me, with the first half it was also very dominant, but not with this intensity that we always believe in the situation. This is what we have seen in the second half, and that’s good. I am so proud of the guys. I am so proud of the guys. And it’s important to win this game, not of the table. That’s the end result, end of the season. It’s more to continue every time.

So we have seen these three Leagues Cup games, our quality. We have seen this today most of the time, and this is what we have to continue. And tomorrow, training. Tuesday, training. Wednesday, to prepare for the U.S. Open Cup game.”

So many twists and turns to get a result out of this one, but at the end of the evening, Choupo-Moting got his brace, the Red Bulls got the three points, and they are hanging around even though the Chicago Fire currently has a game in hand, but even on points. Yet the one issue that everyone has been talking about is the condition of the pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium. Since the Rufus Du Sol concert came before the start of Leagues Cup, the surface has looked horrible.

“On point with this pitch, it’s more difficult. This is what everyone has to understand: it’s more difficult when you have a home game, I’ve been here one and a half years, and we had the best pitch in the league, but now it’s worse, I’m sorry to say. When you are one-zero down, and of course, you want to control the game and you want to be dominant, you have to play quick against a good opponent; you need a better pitch,” said Schwarz.

After so many years of a healthy and pristine playing surface at the cathedral of football, for the very first time, it looks horrible with brown spots in the middle of the field, and inside both areas of the stadium. The chatter on Social media and Sandro Schwarz was not happy with what he had seen, and usually, the groundscrew at the stadium has always been the best at keeping it in tip-top shape.

Now the Red Bulls will be getting ready to restart their US Open Cup Campaign by taking another trek down to Subaru Park as they will face the Philadelphia Union in their quarterfinal match-up. You can watch this match on CBS Sports Network or streaming live on Paramount Plus at 7:00 PM Eastern

ERIC MAXIM CHOUPO-MOTING: Scored Two Goals, One in open play and the Game Winner from the penalty Spot. His 14th & 15th of the season and his 4th multi-goal game.

EMIL FORSBERG: Recorded an Assist, his 8th of the season, 13th career MLS Assist

RAHEEM EDWARDS: Recorded an Assist, His 2nd of the season, 7th career MLS Assist

SEAN NEALIS: In the 3rd minute of the match, Sean reached 15,000 Playing minutes for the club, he is officially in seventh place.

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