Coming off a huge victory against NYCFC in the US Open Cup midweek, Red Bull looked to parlay that momentum and their victory over Toronto last weekend into a positive result on the road against Supporter Shield leaders LAFC in front of a national broadcast on ABC.
But as soon as the sun rose in LA Sunday morning, things started to go downhill for Red Bull.
LAFC is coming off the back of announcing the two signings of Gareth Bale from Real Madrid & Giorgio Chiellini from Juventus. Good thing for Red Bull that both players are ineligible to play for LA until July 7th against the Galaxy.
But even with the squad that LAFC already have at their disposal, Red Bull was set for a tough test. That test would get even harder when it was revealed that captain Aaron Long, Luquinhas & Jason Pendant would all miss the match due to testing positive for Covid-19.
Red Bull, with that devastating news, still needed to go out onto the field at Banc of California Stadium and put on a performance for the fans and try to steal a point on the road. They gave a valent effort with the hand they were dealt, but LAFC’s quality was too much to overcome for a full 90’.
Here is how we expected Gerhard Struber to line up with Red Bull missing some key pieces in their XI.
Red Bull earned a corner almost as soon as the first whistle was blown.
Off the corner, Red Bull ran a set-piece straight off the training grounds, with John Tolkin firing a ball straight to Frankie Amaya making a run towards the near post, but it was a dummy run.
The ball would roll to a wide-open Lewis Morgan at the top of the box, unfortunately, he hit the ball completely wrong, and it went three stories into the crowd behind the goal.
With Long & Luquinhas out, it was expected to see Red Bull in a 4-2-2-2, but instead, Struber stayed with the more comfortable 3-4-2-1 with Omir Fernandez at the 10, Lewis Morgan at RWB & Dylan Nealis sliding into LCB next to his big brother.
Red Bull surprised everyone watching the game in the first 20', that they were the ones that were looking to be the better team, pressuring LAFC into mistakes and creating chances of their own.
But LA got their best chance of the half just seconds after the 20', as Carlos Vela switched the ball to the right side, finding Kwadwo Opoku, who with a back heal found Franco Escobar in open space in the box to get a clear chance on target.
Good thing for Red Bull Carlos Coronel is between the sticks and he got a big hand to his left to make a critical save early.
Through 30' and the first hydration break of the game, Red Bull liked the spot they found themselves in, limiting LAFC in their defensive third in front of Coronel while also being somewhat "dangerous" going forward.
But without their maestro Brazilian, Red Bull was just not able to find that final pass to get a shot on target. Luquinhas was a MASSIVE miss for Red Bull against LAFC and it showed the full 90'.
LAFC started to turn up the LA heat after the hydration break, as Red Bull's defense was starting to bend a bit, but it did not break in the first half.
Red Bull had a great opportunity to get the breakthrough just before the halftime interval but ended up squandering it, only earning a corner in the build-up.
Patryk Klimala was able to latch onto a Tom Edwards long ball down the right-wing. as the Polish striker was able to get on the inside of his defender, throwing him to the ground, and now was faced with a 3v3 heading into the box.
Klimala attempted to pick out Tom Barlow at the near post, but once he sees the replay, he is going to kick himself, as Omir Fernandez was alone at top of the penalty spot. A pass to the Bronx native could have seen Red Bull 1-0 up at half but we will never know.
Just before halftime, Dylan Nealis smacked into Opoku, picking up his 5th yellow card of the season, and will miss Thursday's night game at home vs Atlanta.
As the halftime whistle sounded, Red Bull was the happier of the two teams to head into the break 0-0. To get to halftime 0-0 with two of your biggest players being ruled out just hours before the game, manager Gerhard Struber should be extremely happy, especially in a tough environment in Banc of California Stadium.
To open up the second half, Struber made a sub in the midfield, bringing on Dru Yearwood for Omir Fernandez. This change allowed Christan Casseres Jr to move up into the #10 position after being Red Bull's best player on the pitch in the first half.
That decision looked to be the right one as Casseres instantly caused a turnover in midfield and fired a shot from 30 yards out that gave the keeper a scare, but just went over the crossbar.
https://twitter.com/NewYorkRedBulls/status/1541153973566164994?s=20&t=v6xfT3oD93oBIufF8pa1jw
Red Bull manager Gerhard Struber was all praise for his Venezuelan international postgame.
“I was very happy with him. His attitude, his aggression, his power, against the ball how many balls he won, how strong he is, and also clean on the ball with good passes. He was always involved in good actions when we played forward. I think 30 minutes in the second half, he was in the 10, and you can see how important he is in more positions for us. I am very happy also with him and he made a good job today.”
Carlos Coronel would be called into action once again in the 54', making another big save on Opoku from a sharp angle. Opoku burned Dylan Nealis to initially get to the ball as it was played in behind the Red Bull defense and then beat the Long Island native off the dribble to get his shot on target.
Coronel did need some attention from the training staff, looking at his right hamstring/quad, but the Red Bull #1 would stay in the game.
Steve Cherundolo would look to his bench as LAFC would go "all-out" with both "Chicho" Arango & Kellyn Acosta coming as the Black & Gold looked for the opening goal at home.
Those subs would pay off just minutes later for Cherundolo as LAFC would get their goal in the 68' from the substitute Arango getting in behind Red Bull's high line and slotting his 1v1 effort with Carlos Coronel home.
The flood gates would open up for LAFC after that goal, doubling their lead just 90 seconds later.
Hitting Red Bull with a little of their own medicine, as on a New York corner, LAFC gained possession and hit on the counter with the pace of Brian Rodriguez.
Rodriguez would get the assist after he beat both Tom Edwards & Cameron Harper, finding Diego Palacios at the far post, as he calmly & cooly buried his shot in the bottom right corner to beat Coronel.
Red Bull would get some offense from the foot of Lewis Morgan in the 74', but it was from way outside the area and Maxime Crepeau was able to get his hands to it as he saved it out for a corner.
Another chance came In the 85' off the foot of Zach Ryan, but he hit the post after a Tom Edwards thrown-in fell to him in the box. It just was not their day in the attacking third with Luquinhas not on the field.
The final whistle sounded after 95' and Red Bull fell to a very tough LAFC team.
Other than a very poor 6-minute stretch, it looked like Red Bull could pull off a massive draw. This result didn't come from a lack of effort from the 11 players on the field, they put in a GREAT effort against all the odds they were faced with before the game.
During his post-game availability, Gerhard Struber was happy with the effort from his boys, despite the 2-0 loss and the players missing from the lineup.
https://twitter.com/corkinho/status/1541169802827399170?s=20&t=PYfWfedDJgMw4prV870ibg
“My boys today left in every direction many things on the field. I think the attitude, the energy, and also the synchronized pressing brought LAFC problems in some moments. We missed a little bit of sharpness and also the clearness to find chances in the opponent’s box. I think we had two very good moments in the first half, but we were a little bit over-based in this moment.”
“My boys invested a lot today. In the end, of course, we are disappointed, it’s always difficult to realize a loss but my boys worked very hard. We’re on a very good way to be a team in MLS with a big output constantly. Today, my boys fought very hard, and this is always the basic expectation of what I have, and in this direction, I’ve been happy.”
Captain on the day, Sean Nealis, was also happy with the result but upset with the result.
https://twitter.com/corkinho/status/1541172545801650184?s=20&t=PYfWfedDJgMw4prV870ibg
“It was a good performance, but we were upset, we wanted to win. We have a lot of guys that are pretty upset in there. We wanted that win, we felt for most of that game we had it in our hands. We had some odds against us with COVID testing and late travel, but we had to muster up some courage. It was a tough one out there and a tough week coming off the wins against NYCFC and Toronto, but I think we wanted to complete it with a win this weekend.”
Looking forward to Atlanta Thursday night Nealis said, “We have to be ready for that game and it’s a quick turnaround with the flight and recovery and everything and being limited on guys. We just have to mentally reset, recalibrate, and get ready.”
Red Bull now sets their sights on Atlanta United Thursday night at RBA.
Red Bull will be massively short-handed with Dylan Nealis suspended (Yellow Card) and both Aaron Long & Luquinhas out after testing positive for Covid.
**NOTE: Long & Luquinhas will not travel back to NJ as they have to quarantine in LA until they produce two negative Covid tests**
Looking at Atlanta, they have struggled all season for consistency with a record of 5-4-6, 19 PTS which is good enough for 10th in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta is also coming off a 2-1 loss to Toronto at home in Mercedes Benz Stadium and will look to get back into the win column with Josef Martinez, Luiz Araujo & Marcelino Moreno leading the attack for the "Five Stripes".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DitzqRFJ2bQ
Match Stats
Final Score: NY 0, LAFC 2
Possession: NY 46%, LAFC 54%
Shots (On Goal): NY 16 (4), LAFC 12 (5)
Fouls: NY 11, LAFC 10
Corners: NY 10, LAFC 3
Saves: NY 3, LAFC 4
Next Game: June 30th, vs Atlanta United 8:00 PM EST
