The international window came at an ideal time for both FC Cincinnati and the New York Red Bulls.
Cincinnati was happy to ride a win into the brief break in the MLS schedule, while the Red Bulls realized the need to recharge and reestablish some things in training. The two-win clubs will get together Saturday in Harrison, N.J.
FC Cincinnati (2-3-0, 6 points) had lost 6-1 to the New England Revolution on March 15 and 5-1 to Mexico’s Tigres UANL on March 19, the latter knocking them out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Roman Celentano let in all 11 goals, then picked up an injury in training.
Evan Louro took over in net and guided Cincinnati to a 4-3 home win over CF Montreal on March 22. Cincinnati was down to 10 men after Miles Robinson’s 60th-minute red card, but Tom Barlow tied the game in the 80th minute and Kevin Denkey scored the game winner in stoppage time.
“It’s better to go through that little break with three points,” Louro said this week. “The mood is a little bit better… but I think this group does a really good job of not getting too high by the highs and not getting too low by the lows; just focusing on what we need to do to get ready for the next game.”
It’s unknown whether Celentano or Louro will start Saturday. Louro and defender Matt Miazga are both New Jersey natives who came up through the Red Bulls’ youth system, making this a homecoming for them. Barlow also spent 2018-23 in their organization.
“This is a special area,” first-year New York coach Michael Bradley said. “I always say, the soccer circles in this area are really close and really strong. The degrees of separation, it’s never much.”
The Red Bulls (2-2-1, 7 points) have slipped up after a 2-0-0 start. They were walloped 6-1 by Charlotte FC before the break.
“There have been moments where we’ve rewarded ourselves and moments that we’ve taken what we should,” Bradley said, “and in other moments we have still paid a heavy price for not quite doing enough with our really good spells of football, with our really good periods of controlling and dominating games, and then we get penalized in other moments.”
He went on to praise Cincinnati coach Pat Noonan and midfielder Evander, who’s still seeking his first goal after scoring 18 last year.
Cincinnati will have to contain teenage phenom Julian Hall, who’s scored four of New York’s five goals.
“The energy (at training) was good, the work was good,” Noonan said. “Now it’s, ‘How do we connect that all in the next 24 hours and go and perform?'”
–Field Level Media
