With Everything Against Them, Red Bulls Go Down To Philly And Leave With a Massive Draw

Red Bull was looking to make history Saturday night if they won down in Philadelphia, starting the season with six wins on the road, passing the 98’ Galaxy who set the record with five.

Alas, it was not meant to be for Red Bull. Though Red Bull would not leave with frowns on their face as they battled against the other 11 players on the field, the crowd, and even the officials as they got on the bus back to Harrison NJ with a big-time point.

Here’s how Gerhard Struber’s men lined up on Saturday Night.

In the first half, there was little to talk about other than some half chances from both sides, but both Carlos Coronel & Andre Blake easily made saves as the teams headed into the locker room deadlocked at 0-0. Things would pick up in the second half

The Red Bulls would face adversity very quickly into half number two. Patryk Klimala was subbed off at halftime due to returning from Covid protocols & not being fully fit. Cameron Harper would come on as New York switched from their 4-4-2 to their more normal 3-4-2-1 formation with Tom Barlow alone up top and Harper slotting in at RWB.

Just two minutes into the half, with Red Bull scrambling at the back after changing formation, Philly had some very nice combination play with the final through ball finding the foot of Dániel Gazdag, who beat a helpless Coronel with ease to put the Union ahead.

Then in the 54’ out of nowhere Dylan Nealis, who was actually playing in a CB partnership with his brother Sean most of the game was shown a second yellow card reducing New York to 10 men. According to the broadcast, the 4th official on the sideline after seeing a Nealis tackle told the on-field official to issue the yellow card after the play stopped.

Let it be known that a foul was not called for Nealis’s challenge on the play, so it is a rare sight to see the 4th official step in and make a critical call like that that almost killed the Red Bulls chances at anything in the game.

All hope of a win, let alone a draw was all but lost. But Red Bull kept fighting for the next 35’ left in the match. Defensive plays by John Tolkin & Sean Nealis Red Bull keep the deficit at just one, putting in key tackles and even clearing the ball off the line in Nealis's case.

The momentum seemed to sway in Red Bulls favor at around the 60’ when Harper started to get forward a little more down the RW. He almost found Barlow inside the six-yard box with a cross that Blake just beat him to it. But that wouldn’t be Harper’s last involvement in the game.

Not five minutes later, Red Bull played some beautiful soccer, with linkup play between Frankie Amaya, Luquinhas, Omir Fernandez & that kid Cameron Harper.

First Amaya just played a ball to Luquinhas who opened up for the pass. The Brazilian then escaped the defender to get the ball to Fernandez who then sprayed the ball out wide to Harper. What Philly did not realize was that Luquinhas was making a run in behind the backline and with a first-time pass into the back by Harper, Luquinhas would just bang one over Andre Blake to tie the game at one and just silence the crowd.

Gerhard Struber has been in LOVE with Luquinhas since the Brazilian arrived from Poland just a few months ago, and this game was much more of the same for Struber. “Luquinhas played on an outstanding level. And we can see today, especially his dribbling ability from a different planet. And in the end, we score and we are back.“

After the goal, the Union tried to find a second gear to unlock the Red Bulls backline and they thought they did in the 80’ when Julián Carranza scored off a massive scramble in front of Coronel off a FK.

Fortunately for Red Bull, Carranza was a mile offside and VAR disallowed the goal. Coronel did have to come up big one last time for Red Bull after Corey Burke turned Tom Edwards and was 1v1 with Coronel, but the Brazilian shot-stopper has shown time & time again when called upon to make a key save, he has answered the call.

After that, Red Bull held their ground and when the final whistle was blown by the referee, all the players in red had smiles on their faces while the Philly crowd booed in frustration.

After the game, Manager Gerhard Struber was all praise for his player's mentality after Dylan Nealis was sent off. “Yeah, and in the second half, I think we can see after the double yellow for Dylan Nealis, yeah, I would say the pick of mental power from every single player on the field, and this help us in the end to come back with Cameron Harper with the sexy pass in the golden zone.”

Struber as shouted out Sean Nealis for his leadership & toughness in certain key defensive situations in the second half. "I think of course we can see the outstanding mentality from my team and especially Sean Nealis on the pick, what he defend in some moments and how he block moments and how he left, give everything in this game; that we bring the point home."

Overall, the Red Bulls got the point down in Philadelphia, but that was not the focus in the eyes of the Austrian. “Today’s the result with one point, for me, not the most important thing. For me, it’s my group, my boys, the mentality of what they show me. This can only do a team with the right spirit and the right togetherness, and today I feel we are so strong and so stick together, and I think this – this will help us also in the next difficult task what are coming.”

“Yeah, I am very proud today of my boys and yeah, I think this point has a bigger value like one point in a normal game.”

Sean Nealis was the captain in this game with Aaron Long on the bench and he showed why he is the assistant captain for this team this game. “I think over the last few years being at this club I’ve been able to watch a lot of guys like Luis , Sean , Aaron , and see how they compose themselves and lead a team and it’s been great to watch those guys and kind of emulate what they do.”

On the game itself, Nealis really echoed his manager and spoke highly of the boy's “mental toughness” in a tough environment. “I think we showed great mental willpower today, especially when things didn’t go our way. I think we controlled what we controlled during the game. We responded well after the red card, and we got a lot of guys that have a lot of fight in them, and I think we displayed that greatly today. I think it’ll only help us grow as players and people throughout the year and that was a hard-fought point.”

One player that has taken his opportunities the past week has been 20 Y/O winger Cameron Harper, who now has two assists in his first two appearances of 2022 for the first team. “It’s really good, especially being injured for the last few months, that was really tough, and I just decided I had to work really hard to get back and get fit again. Then it was up to me to want to come back to show the gaffer that I can play games. I came back, I was on the second team for two weeks and just worked really hard to get fit again and strong and sharp. It’s all kind of coming together right now the last two weeks.”

On the goal he set up for Luquinhas, Harper says it was “natural” playing RWB as he slipped the Brazilian on goal. ”Speaking to the gaffer the night before about that position, the RWB, I feel it's a position where I don’t really need to think about what I need to do. It’s just totally natural to me. It’s just something that I’ve practiced since I was a kid.”

“The ball came out to me and sometimes we go at the guy one-vs-one, but I saw an opportunity to put Luquinhas through and he made a really, really good run and it was actually a really, really good finish because the ball was bouncing. It goes to show us how good he is that he can deal with these passes with his composure. Luquinhas did really well for that.”

Red Bull now after two positive results on the road this past week, a win at DC United in the US Open Cup to advance to the Round of 16 and the draw in Philadelphia, looks to take all that momentum into a home date with an opponent they just defeated almost three weeks ago in the Chicago Fire.

The Fire and young Polish-American GK Gabriel Slonina have struggled as of late and sit in last place in the Eastern Conference, losing four straight while being outscored 11-3 in that span. So come out to RBA Wednesday night and support your Red Bulls for 90+ as they look for their first victory at home in 2022.

https://youtu.be/HsgY8YVqFmY

Match Stats

Final Score: NY 1, PHI 1

Possession: NY 39%, PHI 61%

Shots (On Goal): NY 10 (6), PHI 17 (6)

Fouls: NY 10, PHI 15

Corners: NY 4, PHI 7

Saves: NY 4, PHI 5

Next Game: May 18th, vs Chicago Fire 7:30 PM EST