A Tale of Two Halves in the Draw of the Hudson River Derby

By Daniel Feuerstein | Harrison, NJ | May 16th, 2026

These two clubs within the New York City/ Tri-State area came back to Sports Illustrated Stadium to face each other in the MLS regular Season as they were a part of the Walmart Saturday Showdown, as Red Bull New York hosted New York City FC. The match was electric, the fans were engaged, and both sides were battling each other trying to gain an advantage, but at the final moment, both sides could only muster a goal. After the final whistle blew, both clubs headed back to the tunnel and took a point back as this match ended in a one-goal draw.

Jorge Ruvalcaba pokes it in for the late lead in the First Half.

The Red Bulls had possession of the ball in midfield when Adri Mehmeti, near the central part of the pitch, found Ronald Donkor, who started the attacking run. While surveying where to put the ball into a certain space, he saw Cade Cowell making a run down the far side and gave him the ball directly into his path. As soon as Cowell got the ball, he made a long cross toward Julian Hall in the middle of the area, but the ball was blocked by a trailing Thiago Martins. Then, a collision with Martins and his goalkeeper, Matt Freese, started a little confusion, but not for Jorge Ruvalcaba, as he pounced on the loose ball and smacked it in at the 44th minute.

Red Bulls attacked down the right in the first half.

NYCFC started the opening half very well, but after the first ten minutes, everything changed, and the Red Bulls took advantage of it. Everytime the had possession, it was all going down the right side of the pitch. From Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to Ronald Donkor, then to Cade Cowell. When they got close to NYCFC’s area, the crosses were just a hair ahead of Julian Hall, who couldn’t tap it in, but you saw dangerous attacking runs and putting the blue side on their heels. The Red Bulls looked comfortable the majority of the first half, and NYCFC had no answers till the referee blew his whistle for halftime.

“Performance of the team, excellent. First half, really, really good, on top in every way, score a really good goal, give away next to nothing. Second half, yeah, we know that in a big game they’re going to push and respond, try to change a little bit, and you know, one of the things that we have to continue to work on is our ability to defend set pieces, and so they’re able to get back to one, and you know, obviously at that point both teams are pushing, I thought we were going to still find a way to get the winner. We have a few good advantages, a few good chances, but overall, like I said, very, very proud of the team,” said Michael Bradley.

Andres Perea uses his head for the equalizer.

Dylan Nealis was given the task to defend against Nico Fernandez Mercau, and when his marker got the ball, Nealis fouled him and gave a free kick along the far side touchline. In the last match in the U.S. Open Cup, NYCFC took advantage of the Red Bulls on Set pieces and corners to convert their chances. Once again, that moment came when Fernandez delivered a great free kick towards the Red Bulls Area, and in a good position was Andres Perea, who slightly redirected the ball off the top of his head and beat Ethan Horvath to level the match at one in the 52nd minute.

“Of course, when you’re 1-0 up, you want to keep that score. But overall, it was a much better game for us than last time. I think we showed that we learned a lesson from the last game. For everybody, it was a good game between two good teams, a lot of battle. So it was a good game — 1-1, we’ll take it. We’re not super happy, but as you said, we played a fantastic first half. Everything we said we were going to do, we did it. In the second half, we invited them a little bit too much, but overall we fought, we showed maturity, and I’m proud of the boys,” said Emil Forsberg.

NYCFC’s Substitution game changed the game

The Substitution game by Marcus Jensen changed everything for NYCFC and got them back on the front foot. The first change came due to an injury to Maxi Moralez in the 35th minute. While trying to challenge a Red Bulls player with his right leg, his left leg was straight, then he crumpled down to the floor. He was in immense pain and holding his left knee. He tried everything he could to walk off on his own power from the noncontact injury, but it was so bad that they called for the stretcher and subbed him off for Perea in the 39th minute.

At the start of the second half, Malachi Jones subbed in Hannes Wolf, and that started to turn the tide, and City were back on the front foot for the entire second half. Then, a third substitution by City after the goal by Perea, as Jonathan Shore came on for Keaton Parks. Three substitutions to nil as NYCFC continued to take advantage of the Red Bulls and their backline pressing up higher in the attacking third. Even when Bradley finally made substitutions, with Gustav Berggren, Omar Valencia, and Tim Parker in the 69th minute, City still found ways to attack and be dangerous.

“The first 10 minutes, we were controlling possession. You could see they were struggling to press us. Then there was a moment where we initiated their momentum. We started losing easy passes, they created their first corner, and it took another three corners before we could get away from that kind of pressure. Our biggest threat is movement behind, and there was none of that in the first half. That’s the simple reason why we made the changes at halftime. All credit to Malachi [Jones] because he alone could have scored maybe two or three goals by himself and killed the game in our favor. That was the major difference in the second half, a massive difference,” said Pascal Jensen of NYCFC

Justin Che & the Woodwork stopped the go-ahead goal.

When you need your goalkeeper to come up big and make huge saves, you know you will get a result, but two moments could’ve spelled disaster for the home side and the loss of all three points. The first one was from Centerback Justin Che as he made a huge sliding save to help his goalkeeper and stop Jones from getting the lead. After Horvath left his line and tried to pounce on the ball, the rotation slipped out of his hands and squirted toward Jones for the free shot, but Che, on his horse, slid towards the near post and cleared it out, saving a corner and giving away a throw-in in the 56th minute.

Late in the second half, Valencia was called for a foul in the same spot where Nealis fouled Fernandez. City earned a free kick along the far side touchline. As the ball was delivered, it looked like the ball went inside the back post, but never did as it his the post and bounced towards Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty. He quickly cleared the ball away and was given a hero’s handshake from his teammates. That was the moment many thought this could have been the result for City, and continued the losing streak in the 73rd minute. The Red Bulls did have a moment where they thought they stole a goal from Adri Mehmeti, but his chip shot just sailed over the crossbar in the 78th minute.

“It’s a derby. When you go into these games, you want to make the first tackle, you want to set the tone from the start, and send a message to the other team. Once we do that, we know, and they know that we’re not messing about and we’re going to go after them,” said Adri Mehmeti

JORGE RUVALCABA: Scored his fifth goal of the season.

Red Bull New York and NYCFC just had another thrilling Hudson River Derby, as this match ended in a one-goal draw. Red Bulls won the first half, NYCFC won the second half.

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