Maxi Moralez scored his seventh goal
Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY — The New York City FC and new head coach Dome made two changes to his lineup for his first Hudson River Derby.
Maxime Chanot and Rodney Wallace both returned to the XI for this 11th MLS meeting with City’s local rivals.
In the two 4-0 defeats earlier this season, Red Bulls seized the initiative with the early goal but there was no chance of it this time around, with City flying out of the blocks, determined not to allow a repeat.
In fact, it was Torrent’s men who looked the more dangerous side throughout an attritional first period, creating some sweeping moves where just the last pass was missing.
Jesus Medina went closest to giving NYCFC the lead early on with a deflected effort that sent Luis Robles scrambling across his goal, but it flashed just past the post.
That was about the sum total of meaningful penalty box action in the first period, until the final two minutes when both sides had good opportunities.
First, Red Bulls were denied by a diving Sean Johnson save before NYC broke and Maxime Chanot was inches away from marking his return with a goal, but his stabbed volley just missed the target.
0-0 was how it stayed until the half but Medina set about changing that on 56’ when he let rip from 25 yards with a knuckle shot which only flew a foot over the crossbar.
A minute later, Ronald Matarrita was introduced from the bench in place of Ismael Tajouri-Shradi for his first appearance since the end of May and he nearly made an instant impact with a shot which Robles had to move quickly to get his body behind.
Red Bulls forced chances of their own in their first dominant spell of the match between 70’ and 80’, with Johnson making a couple of excellent saves, including a solid one at his near post from Bradley Wright-Phillips.
Just when it looked as though the spoils might be shared, Jonathan Lewis was introduced late on to try and spark a late winner and that’s just what he did, within minutes of his entry.
Lewis ran down Tyler Adams deep in Red Bulls’ territory and pickpocketed him, leaving him through on goal where he unselfishly squared for Moralez who tapped into the empty net.
Wallace made his first start since returning from the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Maxi Moralez scored his seventh goal of the season. NYCFC have won their last three home Hudson River Derby games. Ronald Matarrita returned for his first appearance since the end of May. Sean Johnson kept his sixth clean sheet of the season. Domènec Torrent took charge of his first Hudson River Derby.
And 30,027 fans watched the game inside Yankee Stadium – the biggest crowd of the season so far.
QUOTES
NYCFC Head Coach Domènec Torrent
His thoughts on his first derby in NY…
“Yeah it was an amazing game, maybe not the best quality, but we played against one of the best teams… they make high pressing all the time. They play quickly to the spaces, especially Wright-Phillips, because they finish in diagonal to the spaces…”
On his overall view of the game…
“The last 20 minutes we were in trouble, I decided to play 4-4-2 with a fast player like Jonathan. I’m very proud of our players. It was not easy to play in this intensity and they played with soul. The most important thing, I say many times, you have to play with passion in derbies especially.
On beating the Red Bulls…
“I’m very proud of them because they understand the best way, in my opinion, to play against this kind of teams, especially when we lost the last two games…I’m very happy, especially for them because…believe me, it’s not easy to play against them.”
On going forward establishing his style…
“We have to improve because I like to pass the ball and keep the ball. It is not easy to come here after another coach… but the most important thing for me tonight was break the situation against the Red Bulls…”
NYCFC Defender Ben Sweat
On the win…
“You know, no matter who we play against, it’s always sweeter against the Red Bulls. We always have that in the back of our minds. But you know, we went out there and we executed our game plan. We were physical. We worked hard. And that’s how we have to be at home. That’s the standard, the work rate. Nothing less than that the rest of the year and we’ll see how far we go. But I thought it was a really good match – A really fast paced match for 90 minutes – and it’s good we came out on top. We definitely deserved it.
On how Dome wanted you to play…
“This is his third game here. You know, we’ve touched on a few things, so I think eventually we’ll get a buildup. Obviously he knows how we played with Patrick [Vieira] and obviously he’s been a Man City, Barcelona, Bayern [Munich] coach. So he wants to play. He wants us to be creative and pick and choose our moments. And I think at the later games, you’ll see us playing more out of the back.”
How does NYCFC’s game change with not having a target striker up front…
“It’s different. Jo [Berget] and Maxi [Moralez] are different. Jo maybe runs to space. Maxi is so small, can hold the ball up, can turn. He’s so creative on the ball and I think we utilized him really well tonight. In terms of long balls, you know it’s a mismatch. With Rodney [Wallace} and I on the right side with Connor Lade and I think we won every header against him, which sometimes is just as simple as being taller.”
NYCFC Midfielder Alex Ring
On picking up the result…
“I think that I didn’t do anything more differently than from what I usually do. I think as a whole we just accepted too much of the intensity. The game probably won’t be too pretty because of the way that they played. Very content. I think we showed it today and I think we haven’t shown it in a while. Especially the last two games. So today felt amazing to come out with three points.”
On other forwards stepping up…
“No. We have other guys who step up for us. I think Rodney [Wallace] did a fantastic job to come back from [the World Cup] and was as impactful as he always is. I think he’s very hard to play against because he’s going to be up your face all the time working his ass off and I think games like this are made for guys like Rodney.”
On style of play tonight…
“I prefer having the ball all the time and touching the ball 100 times a game. It’s not always possible. They play a very intense, high press game. And sometimes you just have to be direct to break that press because otherwise, you’re going to play yourself into trouble. I think we saw that the first two games. And I think we did that better than before, today.”
NYCFC Goalkeeper Sean Johnson
On slowing down Bradley Wright-Phillips
“I think I was just keeping everything in front of us. We got into trouble when things start to turn our back on the space between myself and the central defenders. So the main focus was keeping things compact tonight. And feeding a little bit of space in front. But once we got everybody up front organized, Maxi [Moralez] stepped in and did an unbelievable job organizing and it was good enough to get the job done.”
On the flow of the game…
“Yeah, it was a bit of a weird game. The first half really had nothing in it. I think both ways, there was maybe one shot inside the 18. But, it wasn’t that troubling and the first half was just kind of a tactical back and forth – kind of like a chess match. The second half, things started picking up a little bit. And I think we had one quick opportunity to finish and we did. I think we did well to move the ball and we stuck to our principles as to what we wanted to – especially against them. So all in all, we executed what we wanted to do today.”
On staying prepared…
“You train for it every day. You try to put yourselves in every situation that you may come across. But I think you can do what you can to keep communicating with your team, keep yourself in the game.”
NYCFC Forward Jonathan Lewis
On playing in front of tonight’s crowd…
“It pushes us, so when we have our home support packing the whole stadium it gives us the belief that we can win because they believe in us.”
On the intensity of the match…
“For sure, definitely. Because of the stakes that were on the line. We lost twice them early in the season. Playing in front of a packed house, I’m pretty sure our fans would not be happy if we lost the third one to them.”
On what the win means for team going forward…
“It pushes us forward a lot more. I think that’s a big monkey off our back after we just beat them. Now we look forward to Wednesday’s and Saturday’s game.”
On how physical the game was…
“There were some really hard tackles flying. Good, clean tackles, nothing dirty.”
NYCFC Midfielder Maxi Moralez.
On today’s game…
“Yes, of course winning is always good, especially in a type of game like this because we know the importance of the rivalry and we know what it means to our fans and to our club. We were coming off two road loses against them so we had to get this game in a sense but to also keep pace with Atlanta.”
On the coaching and staff changes…
“The change was just that. I think other then that the team philosophy is the same. Surely they’ll have new ideas and new changes we’ll try to implement. Other then that, we have to continue playing well and improve game-after-game and ask what our new coach asks of us.”
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Chris Armas
On tonight’s match…
“Well it’s obviously disappointing to not come away with points here. Obviously, it was close in the end, close to getting a draw, and maybe even with the push we made in the second half, maybe three, but to leave here after a big match, a derby match, is disappointing.”
On the late sub after the goal…
“We thought at 0-0, we’re making a good push and if I have to make a change early in the first half, I’ll do it. At that point, we didn’t think a change was needed. We were pushing the game in a good way and felt like a goal was coming. Let’s call it, attacking option that you have and say, the guys on the field are performing well, why would you change anything. Of course you go down a goal. What do you do then? Do you do nothing or do you make a push at that point? So I think it’s pretty simple at that point why we made the move.”
On what his first game in charge was like…
“I was very comfortable today. I was comfortable in the role, and I think the comfort comes from the group of guys that I’m coaching. Not just that I know them, but that there’s a respect there. I’ve known these guys and it’s just a certain comfort level that felt ok. Knowing that we’re a good team gives a coach comfort. You step out on the field and think you can beat anyone on any given day, so in the role of head coach on the day, it’s a bit different, but I’ve been in this building before and I’ve made decisions before so I largely felt comfortable.”
New York Red Bulls Goalkeeper Luis Robles
Thoughts on the game…
“I think everyone is disappointed. We really wanted to take a big step forward with Chris (new head coach) and a lot of the talk before was obviously about the group. We want to continue to get points but at the same time when you think about the transition Chris is making, it would make his life a lot easier getting a win against New York City. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the type of performance today to get that. It’s a bit disappointing but with that being said its on to the next one.”
On losing several players to injury so far this season…
“Our heart goes out to Flo (injured player). He’s had an incredible season thus far. Same thing with Kyle (injured player). We have these two guys who get invited to camp and they put their best foot forward and all of a sudden you’re seeing that these are the type of guys you can rely on. It’s never a good time to have an ACL injury or have any injury. You just feel for those guys. It’s not just the soccer part but as a human being you know that it’s probably a very discouraging experience so as teammates, as friends we want to continue to encourage these guys and know that when you’re injured it’s a good opportunity to reach out and let them know that they are still part of the group and we are excited to have them back and I hope they recover quickly and we will just have to find a way.”
On NYCFC’s defense…
“What ended up being part of their defense is that they played a lot of long balls. This is something that has become synonymous when they play the New York Red Bulls. Instead of possessing the same way and kill us with a million touches, they decide to switch and go long. With that, I didn’t find them to be too effective. I think the only two real opportunities they had came off of plays from us. No matter how they wanted to play I think we did a good job of minimizing their opportunities and really frustrating them. It’s a bit unfortunate for us not to even just get the tie.”
New York Red Bulls Midfielder Sean Davis
On match…
“Wasn’t the result we wanted obviously, overall it was a really competitive game on both sides. It was a really fast game high temple, I hope it was very fun to watch. Both teams put a lot of energy in, disappointing results for us for sure. After we got out a competed in the first half, we did a good job getting a hold of the game in the second it’s a little disappointing to give up a goal late but they are some good takeaways and we are looking forward to next week.”
What will you do differently next time?
“At home they are a good team, all you have to do is look at their record to see that. They’ve done very well here and I think they were very aggressive on their press, they try to make it very difficult to play out. They were combative more than usual so I thought that was their game plan.”
On the coaching changes…
“It’s been good actually, I think Chris has done a pretty good job taking over. I think he’s done a good job integrating himself seamlessly, it’s great having a coach within that understands our system and that knows the players well and the players know him well obviously. I think it was a good transition for us and it’s been a good week of training.”
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