Lifeless Red Bulls Restart the Season with a Loss at the Union

By Daniel Feuerstein | Chester, PA | July 22nd, 2026

Red Bull New York, currently in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, restarted their 2026 season with a trip down Interstate 95 to face the last-place Philadelphia Union. When the opening whistle blew, the Red Bulls didn’t hear it because they fell asleep at the start of the match, tried to wake it, then fell asleep again in the second half. While the Union did have a change at head coach, they looked determined and hungry, and wanted to right the ship as they manhandled the Red Bulls, with the final score at three goals to one.

Calamity came with the opening goal

The beginning of the end for the Red Bulls as the Union was hustling all over the pitch and outpressing them. They looked like a team that wasn’t in last place and were hungry to prove they aren’t what their record says they are. As the ball was going down the far side, a long cross was delivered toward the Red Bulls area. Ethan Horvath came off his line and leapt for the ball to make the grab and bring it down; unfortunately, he had a teammate underneath him and spilled the ball when he came down. An easy goal was converted by Milan Ilsoki, and the Union earned the opening goal in the 9th minute.

Red Bulls find the equalizer

After taking several strong fouls from the Union, the Red Bulls finally woke up and started to play their game. It all started when Adri Mehmeti got possession of the ball and moved it up toward Ronald Donkor, and then he got the ball moving up the pitch. He laid it off toward Emil Forsberg, and he saw Cade Cowell wide open along the far side. When Forsberg made the pass, he put it in a space inside the area where Cowell ran up to the ball and took it one time to beat Andre Blake and leveled the match at one in the 38th minute. The Red Bulls needed that to get back into the match and looked to have finished strong.

Deflected shot and in

After the restart of the match, the Red Bulls once again looked lethargic and slow. They lost all that energy from the equalizer and didn’t have anything going for them. The Union was determined to get the lead back, and it showed as they hustled for every ball they got. Jovan Lukic had the ball and passed it up toward Frankie Westfield. He had at least forced the backline toward their endline and made the cross to Indiana Vassilev on the near side of the pitch. His shot wasn’t taken well, but it had enough on it to take a slight deflection off of Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty and beat Horvath inside the near post in the 57th minute

The Union’s new Centerback threat

The Union brought back their prized Centerback on loan from Europe as Neil Pierre came on as a substitute in the 56th minute. He needed his first ten minutes for the Union to make his presence known, and he delivered in a big way. Kai Wagner, who returned from his six-month transfer to Birmingham City of the EFL Championship in England, took the corner at the near side. When he delivered the ball to the Red Bull area, Pierre, who is a giant kid, easily headed the ball down and passed Horvath for the two-goal lead in the 66th minute. Ryan Richter got his team prepared and ready to go for this match.

Adri Mehmeti abused by Bruno Damiani

We all know that Bruno Damiani is a very difficult striker to battle against, even if he was being tracked by Adri Mehmeti, who took his assignment seriously when he needed to face him out on the pitch. Two moments that should’ve given Damiani yellow cards went unpunished by referee Fotis Bazakos and the VAR room. One moment in the first half and one in the second half when Damiani threw his elbows into the head or the face of Mehmeti that caused him pain and made him question why nothing was happening.

Mehmeti took an elbow to the right side of his head in the 21st minute that stunned him and made him stay down on the ground. Then, in the 70th minute, Mehmeti was defending Damiani again and took another elbow to his nose, and he was bleeding. Again, no cards of any kind, and Damiani was allowed to play the entire match without a single yellow card on him. Fotis Bazakos has once again failed to properly protect players from these types of fouls aimed at the head of players trying to battle on the pitch. This didn’t cost the game for the Red Bulls, but Damiani should’ve been punished for his actions.

Another loss to a head coaching change

For the second time this season, a club that was at the bottom end of the Eastern Conference made a coaching change and took out the Red Bulls with ease. First it was CF Montreal at Stade Saputo on April 18th when Interim head coach Philippe Eullaffroy took over from Marco Donadel and was destroyed four goals to one. Now Ryan Richter took over for Bradley Carnell at the Union and took down the Red Bulls. While there is another game in three days and it’s at home to Charlotte FC, the Red Bulls need to get back into a positive mindset and not allow themselves to get into another losing or winless streak as they get back into the second half of this season.

“You know, coming to play in Philadelphia, it will always be a different kind of game. They want a game of chaos, and they wanna game of long balls, loose balls, and play physical, especially in the position that they’re in at this point in time. We had to expect that they would use tonight as a real fresh start in the second half of the season. And so they started with some energy. We have one or two moments in the game where we don’t get in the place well enough and get away with it. We had one big chance where Westfield misses the back post. We go down 1-0, and then we respond really well. We have a long test in the first half where we play well, and we score a really good goal.

We go inside the locker room at halftime to discuss a few things to make sure that everybody understands what the game is. And, well, we go out there in the second half. We have a few big advantages. We have a big chance with Julian running in on goal. And then, obviously, the goal agasint us to go down 2-1 is soft in every way. You know, we hit the big cross from really far wide. We don’t do well enough to deal with that. And then when the ball comes in the box, we don’t handle the cross, and there’s a slight deflection, and so it’s multiple down to one.

And that gave them energy. We didn’t have enough quality sharpness on the night to find our way back in the game, which really creates some big chances to get back to 2-2. And that set piece is its own: the front row becomes the header from here. And as I said in the end, in the second half, we just let the game play out in a few too many moments in a way that they wanted. And we needed to be a little bit sharper, a little bit better, so that we could find a way to put the game on our terms and see if we could really push it,” said Michael Bradley

CADE COWELL: Scored his second goal of the season, and his 12th career MLS Goal

EMIL FORSBERG: Earned his sixth assist of the season, and his 22nd career MLS Assist

RONALD DONKOR: Earned his fifth assist of the season, and his ninth career MLS Assist

Red Bull New York was taken out by a resurging Philadelphia Union under a new head coach, Ryan Richter

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