Wiki Carmona Returns for a Two Goal Game as Red Bulls Fall to CF Montreal

By Daniel Feuerstein | March 8th, 2026 | Harrison, NJ

Red Bull New York tried to keep the wins rolling as they hosted CF Montreal at Sports Illustrated Stadium. After two victories, the young guns tried to get a third, but this time it wasn’t meant to be, as CF Montreal found ways to take the Baby Bulls off their game and punished them with timely goals and frustrated defensive plays. Montréal was able to absorb the press, and after going winless in two, allowing eight goals, CF Montréal took the victory by a final score of three goals to nil.

Game Recap

The first blunder of the day was from Justin Che as he sprinted back to defend a one-on-one against the attack. As the play moved inside the Red Bulls area, Che got a touch on the ball and made contact with his man, who went down, and referee Sergii Boiko blew his whistle and pointed to the spot for the penalty in the 4th minute. Before the penalty was taken, there was a call from the VAR to have Boiko take a look at the monitor, then returned to the pitch and said the penalty was confirmed. Prince Owusu took the spot kick and smashed it low inside the near post. Ethan Horvath did guess correctly, but it was just ahead of his left hand in the 8th minute

Wiki Carmona returned to his former home at Sports Illustrated Stadium, and he made his presence count. After the referee called for the foul just outside the Red Bulls’ area along the near side, He delivered a low, bending ball that went through the scrum. Owusu played the dummy role by running slight interference with the defenders as it beat everyone and tucked inside the far post to get the two-goal lead in the 44th minute. His second goal of the match was a bad distribution job from Horvath as he received a pass back and saw Adri Mehmeti coming towards him wanting the ball. Horvath made the pass and took it poorly, setting up Caromna to steal the ball from Mehmeti’s boots and score his 2nd of the game in the 68th minute.

For this club and head coach Michael Bradley, this was their first loss of the season, and it was a hard lesson for these Baby Bulls to learn. While it wasn’t a good feeling to see them get taken down this way, sooner or later this loss was going to happen, and be grateful it was the third match of the season and not an important match toward making the playoffs or if the Supporters’ Shield was on the line. It’s a long season, and right now the third match of 34 has come and gone.

“Today is a hard lesson, but an important one for sure. Just in terms of the understanding for our group, that obviously we have our ideas in terms of the football that we want to play, the game that we want to try to make, but if in a few too many areas our level comes down even just a little bit and we are not quite as good dealing with the moments of the game that play out the way the opponent wants to then the margins get tight.

You know, and obviously, if you combine that today with giving away bad goals at bad times, early in the game against a team that has not had a particularly good start to the season, to give them even a little bit of hope, that is not the way you want to start. Obviously, then the free kick later in the half, we did not manage that in a good way, and then in the second half, when we are trying to push back into the game to give away three-zero like that is hard as well. Yeah, hard lesson today, but an important one, and we will use it in the right way,” said Head Coach Michael Bradley

Sergii Boiko was horrible

Without a shadow of a doubt, CF Montreal was the better side in the match. They were thrashed by allowing eight goals combined in their first two games at San Diego and at Chicago. You knew they were looking to finally score a goal and did so in this match, but for the first 44 minutes, Referee Sergii Boiko was horrible at this job. He gave a no-call when Julian Hall was fouled just outside the area in the 21st minute, then a few minutes later, Emil Forsberg was inside the Montreal area with the ball barely touching his defender when he got called for a phantom foul. Even the call for the free kick that allowed Carmona to convert his chance was a bit questionable as well. CF Montreal didn’t need any help from the referee; that team can do the job all by itself.

Red Bull New York’s next match is on the road on Saturday Afternoon, March 14th, as they travel up north to Toronto FC at BMO Field at 1 PM Eastern, streaming live on Apple TV.

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