Ten Men Red Bulls Thrashed by Charlotte FC

By Daniel Feuerstein | Charlotte, NC | March 21st, 2026

After leaving Toronto with a point last week, Red Bull New York traveled down to Charlotte, North Carolina, to face a better challenge in Charlotte FC. The match was a tale of two halves for the visiting side as they had a solid first half, but when the whistle blew to restart the match, somehow they completely fell apart and looked worse than facing CF Montreal two weeks ago at home. They were properly punished by their opponent and now have a week off to right the ship. The International Break is here, and that means they have time to plan for their next match as they fell to Charlotte FC by a final score of six goals to one.

Game Recap

The Red Bulls got off to a good start in the match and had a strong moment to score, but just couldn’t tuck it home from Julian Hall. But after that chance a looping ball went down the far side, chasing it were both Kerwin Vargas of Charlotte and Matthew Dos Santos. Dos Santos lifted his right leg and made contact with the ball, while at Vargas’s chest, but never made contact. Referee Allen Chapman blew his whistle for the foul and gave a free kick to Charlotte. Pep Biel delivered a fantastic cross toward Idan Toiklomani coming away from the back post and headed it past Ethan Horvath in the 14th minute.

Red Bulls quickly got back into the match and tried to get the equalizer, but nothing came, and the halftime whistle blew. Michael Bradley made a substitution at halftime, bringing in Omar Valencia for Dos Santos, and all of a sudden, everything took a turn for the worse. Everything fell apart when the match restarted, and Charlotte took advantage of the lackadaisical play, when Charlotte FC Sprung into an attacking run down the far side. When the play was inside the area, the cross to Vargas was slightly blocked, but not enough as Vargas reclaimed the ball, caught Valencia flatfooted, and buried his chance in the 46th minute.

From bad to worse came when Gustav Berggren was making a run back and took down his man from behind. He tried to coax Chapman, saying it’s not a foul or a card, but it was a denial of a goalscoring opportunity, and the referee pulled out the red card in the 53rd minute, putting the Red Bull down to ten men. It set up a free kick opportunity for Pep Biel, and he smashed it in with a low, bending ball inside the far post at the 54th minute for a three-goal lead. From that point on, it was going to be a destruction of the entire second half.

Charlotte FC earned three more goals. Wilfried Zaha made it four in the 68th minute, and Archie Goodwin earned a brace in the 77th minute and in second-half stoppage time, but in between Goodwin’s goals, the Red Bulls were able to rip up the clean sheet. Red Bulls earned a corner toward the near side. Emil Forsberg delivers it to the area, which is grabbed and spilled by Kahlina. Mohammed Sofo was there to put it home, but Kahlina made the save, yet it still bounced past him, and Julian Hall found a way to score his third of the season in the 81st minute.

Michael Bradley’s Comments

“Strange game. Really strange game. I thought we started really well. Had a really good, big chance after two or three minutes. We were pushing things in a good way. Go down one, zero on a free kick that we’re not able to deal with in a good way. Talk at halftime about a few things and still feel like the game is there for us in every way. And then, less than a minute into the second half, we don’t do well enough with a play in front of our own goal, go down to zero, and then there’s this play outside the box that quickly finds us down to 10 men and down three zero. And at that point, it’s going to be a challenging end to the game.

I give big credit to our players, because they kept even on a really difficult night, kept going, kept trying to play, kept trying to make chances, kept trying to push themselves on. We’re building something. We’re on the path to becoming a really good team. But unfortunately, nights like tonight are part of it sometimes, and we have to be able to take the lessons. We have to be able to learn. We have to be able to, as we move forward, reward ourselves for all the good things that we do, and be able to deal with a few situations, a few moments, a little bit better,” said Head Coach Michael Bradley

JULIAN HALL: Scored his Third Goal of the season and his Fifth Career MLS Goal.

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