It was a crystal clear night for soccer as New York City Football Club (NYCFC) II and New York Red Bulls II took to the field at MSU Soccer Park for their third meeting of the season. Coming into tonight’s game, Red Bulls II had gone 1-1 against NYCFC II this season in addition to being knocked out of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in the second round by their crosstown rivals.
The stage was set for a classic Hudson River derby and the game didn’t disappoint. The Red Bulls II earned the game’s first dangerous scoring chance when 16-year-old Tanner Rosborough, who came into this match on a five-match goal-scoring streak, turned and shot on the edge of city’s 18-yard-box, but his shot was stopped by the goalkeeper.
In the eighth minute, the NYCFC II goalkeeper was shown a red card for taking down Julian Hall as the two challenged for a loose ball deep in city’s half. Ten minutes later, Copeland Berkley made a reckless slide tackle that tripped NYCFC II’s Piero Elias inside his 18-yard-box which resulted in a penalty. Elias then scored the penalty kick to give NYCFC II the first lead of the game in the 20th minute.
For the remainder of the first half, the Red Bulls II tried to overcome NYCFC II’s low block defensive scheme by laying siege to NYCFC II’s 18-yard box but almost every time their crosses and passes were intercepted and cleared. Then in the 38th minute, the Red Bulls II almost went two goals down when a NYCFC II player sent a pass across the face of goal which found another NYCFC II player whose low shot had to be stopped and cleared by Red Bulls II defender Omar Valencia.
The Baby Bulls best chance to equalize before halftime came when Julian Hall stole the ball from a NYCFC II player near midfield and had plenty of space to dribble up to the edge of the 18-yard box. The 16-year-old did some stepovers in front of a NYCFC II defender before unleashing a right-footed strike that went just wide of the left post.
The second half was more of the same; the Red Bulls II controlled possession and set up shop on the edge of NYCFC II’s box looking for just a small crack in the defense to exploit. That crack almost opened wide for the Red Bulls II in the 55th minute, when the Red Bulls II switched the field and found Valencia inside the NYCFC II box. Valencia took a hard shot that the keeper saved but left a rebound for Hall who shot high over the bar.
Then in the 69th minute, the Baby Bulls almost scored again when Frank Ssebufu headed a perfect cross to the back post into the goalkeeper’s hands. Five minutes later, Ibrahim Kasule received a pass from Rafael Mosquera-Diaz inside the box that played him right in front of city’s goal. Kasule couldn’t pull the trigger in time and his shot was blocked. In minute 85, the Baby Bulls survived another scare when NYCFC II’s Jonathan Jimenez rang a shot off the cross bar.
The Red Bulls were held off the scoresheet until the 92nd minute when Steven Sserwadda received a cross from Berkley and took one touch before unleashing a scissor kick that the goalkeeper got a hand to but could not keep out of the net.
The game went to a penalty shootout where Red Bulls II goalkeeper Alan Rutkowski was able to save the first penalty. Both teams held serve for the next four rounds until Aidan O’Connor ended the game by scoring the Baby Bulls’ fifth goal of the shootout and afterwards, ran over to the supporter’s section to celebrate with the young fans who were in attendance.
After the game, Red Bulls II head coach Ibrahim Sekagya discussed why it was actually more difficult for his team to play with a man advantage against a well-organized New York City FC II team.
“You can see from the beginning, from the start, we were a better team than them. It’s unfortunate they got a red card, but you can see our boys pushed up until the 90 minutes. We knew it was going to be difficult, when they went down to ten men they defended well but we tried to get the goal at the end.” – Red Bulls II manager, Ibrahim Sekagya
After the Baby Bulls failed to capitalize on their man advantage in the first half and went into the halftime break down a goal, Sekagya made sure to stabilize his team.
“At the end of the first half, I said ‘there’s no pressure’ we just have to keep what we’re doing; we just have to stick with our plan and the goal will come. The guys stuck with our plan until we were confident that we’d get a chance, one chance. We had a lot of chances to win this game but at the end of the day, the two points are massive for where we are [in the standings].”
The goal scorer, Steven Sserwadda and his teammates never gave up despite being frustrated for the first 90 minutes of the match. After the game, Sserwadda described what it took to finally break NYCFC II’s low block.
“They’re good defensively but we tried to create ideas, me and my teammates, to break them but it wasn’t easy. We tried to move them because we were trying to see if maybe we could get a goal through crosses and eventually the goal came through a cross and that’s the only way we could break them.” – Red Bulls II midfielder, Steven Sserwadda
The Baby Bulls came away from their last Hudson River Derby of 2024 victorious which moves them up into seventh place in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference standings. They are now within one point of NYCFC II for fifth place and above the playoff cut-off by one place.
“This is big. We played them now four times, this was the last one. But this is good to win. It doesn’t matter how we win it, it’s not about the tactics, it’s not about the plan. It’s about the desire and the guys, they knew they needed the mentality to fight until the end.”
Anthony Paradiso 