Red Bulls Hosting the Union

After a heartbreak of getting knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup, the New York Red Bulls are getting ready to face the Philadelphia Union again for the second time in four days. Learning the fate of A.J. Marcucci after suffering that devastating ACL Rupture in his left knee has made the team sad, as that one moment ended their run for a trophy.

“I think it’s really tough for all of us, for the whole group. He was in a really good spot the last couple of weeks, and in all the training session since the beginning of the season. So now he’s out for long term, and what we can say is we will support him. I had a good conversation with him in person in the morning today. So we will support him. The whole club will support him, to help him that he’s coming back stronger.” Said Sandro Schwarz

But now all that’s left is to fix their position in the Eastern Conference Table so they can return above the playoff line and make a run. This will be the third match this season in all competitions that the Red Bulls will get the opportunity to end this winless streak against the Union. Even though that was a loss to the Union, there were positive moments in that match for the Red Bulls.

“I think to try and build off of some of the good things that happened on Wednesday. I think is important. That’s the goal, is to try and build off some of the moments that we executed at a pretty high level, I think, in Wednesday, and then to fix the stuff that maybe we lacked on Wednesday as well, to not see the game out, get the results. It’s just about fine tuning everything and just  rinse and repeat, kind of so we’re hoping for a good performance tomorrow.” said Peter Stroud

The hope for the Red Bulls against the Union is to stick to the details. To make sure they stick to the game plan again, and hope they can be successful. What we saw from some of the positive moments was fantastic moments that they had to score; even though they couldn’t break away into a solid lead, they were still active and ready to go.

“A lot of conversation,. that’s my responsibility. That’s my job to talk with the guys every time, about development, about what we have to improve, about what was good. And we talked also about things from the last game, which were very, very good. Was not only that, we start talking about the behavior. Start talking about some set pieces.

We talked also about which was good directly after the game. So we can took a lot of positive things from the game against Philadelphia  and also against Salt Lake, I would say, the last couple of weeks after Chicago, the Leagues Cup game, and now to play with whole confidence, to believe in ourselves and our quality tomorrow, and then to show that we can bring this performance against a good team again.” said Schwarz

While it was nice to know that former Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara did visit the training facility this Friday, sadly, he will not be coming out of retirement for a stretch run to fill in for A.J. Marcucci during his injury. The backup keeper spot has been given to Red Bulls II starting goalkeeper Aiden Stokes, so he will be pulling double duty for the remainder of the regular season.

The last time these two sides faced each other within the same week from a League and US Open Cup Match was back in the 2017 season as the Red Bulls played in Philly on a Sunday and defeated the Union two goals to nil, then returned to Sports Illustrated Stadium ending the match in regulation and extra time in a one all draw, but winning the shootout by a final of five to four with Meara in goal.

It’s time for the Red Bulls to get back into action and finish this week with a positive feeling, and hoping to end this negative streak when they face the Union for the last time this season. It should be a fun time, and let’s see if they will add a positive result in the win column for once.