MLS Road Report: Red Bulls Roll In Dallas; NYCFC Wins In LA

@NewYorkRedBulls.

The MLS locals had road games against Western Conference foes on the road on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Bulls rolled to a 3-1 over FC Dallas, while New York City Football Club shutout the LA Galaxy and won, 2-0.


The Red Bulls improved to 4-2-5, with 14 points, and moved into a tie for seventh with Atlanta United (4-2-3).

NYCFC moved into fourth place in the Eastern Conference with the win, improving to 4-6-1, with 18 points, just two points out of second place, behind DC United and Montreal,who both have 20 points. Philadelphia leads the Conference with 23 points.

Red Bulls 3, FC Dallas 1:

This was the Red Bulls' first road win of the season, while it was Dallas' its first home loss of 2019.
The Red Bulls made wholesale changes in this one after their loss to Montreal on Wednesday night, as they made 10 personnel changes in this one. Amro Tarek the only player to remain in the starting lineup from Wednesday night, as they entered their third match in eight days.
Cristian Casseres Jr. opened the scoring for the Red Bulls in the 11th minute, shooting low through traffic from the top of the box and beating Jesse Gonzalez for his second goal of the season. Andrea Ivan earned an assist on the goal.
It stayed that way until extra time of the first half when Dallas tied it on a goal from Jesus Ferreira, his fourth of the season, on a feed from Jacori Hayes in the 47th minute.
In the second half, the Red Bulls got the lead back in the 58th minute when Sean Nealis scored his first MLS goal in his first MLS start when he deflected a shot from Michael Amir Murillo to make it 2-1.
Brian White added an insurance goal, his second of the season, in the 85th minute off of a feed from Omir Fernandez, and that made it 3-1 Red Bulls.
Red Bulls goalkeeper Ryan Meara got the start and the captain's armband in his first MLS appearance since June 2018, and made five saves to earn the win.
The Red Bulls return home next weekend to host Atlanta United FC on Sunday, May 19 in a rematch of the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.

NYCFC 2, LA Galaxy 0:

This was NYCFC's second straight shutout win on the road (they beat Montreal 2-0 last Saturday) and their unbeaten streak is up to seven games (four wins, three ties).
NYCFC got on the board in the 44th minute when Héber was in the right place at the right time by the net to put a rebound back in for his third goal in five starts.
Soon after, Anton Tinnerholm fired a shot and it looked like a handball, but it wasn't initially called that way. They went to VAR, and NYCFC was awarded a penalty kick in the 51st minute, which  Maxi Moralez buried to make it 2-0.
NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson earned his second straight clean sheet. 
NYCFC Head Coach Domenec Torrent said of their recent success on the road, “I am very happy because when you asked me about that last week I said the same thing, maybe we found the right system for us because this is three clean sheets in a row when we play away. But it is not about that, it is about the feeling, sometimes you are not able to score but the feeling is much better, and right now this team has the possibilities to win some. We feel good, that is important for us when that happens (clean sheets) you have more confidence, even when they have the control or decide to play long balls, if you defend well and fight for every single ball, you have more possibilities to get points. Right now when I see the face of our team, I know they are happy when we are playing this system. We didn’t start well, maybe we deserved more, I said many times that when you are able to win the games people don’t analyze anything, that is normal, but I am a coach, I have to analyze, and I know how important it is, and how happy our fans our when we get points, but sometimes you have to analyze if we play well, if we play bad. A key player arrived for us you know, Héber, and it is not about his scoring, it is about when you are in trouble, you can pass the ball to him and he has the quality to keep the ball, create spaces, he is a good player for us and everybody is better when he is playing.”
Torrent said of the decisive penalty kick by Moralez, “That means he has personality. I remember when Leo Messi missed a penalty sometimes in Barcelona, nobody asked about Leo. Are you sure you want to take the penalty? Yes, you have personality, ok, up to you. I told you many times the soccer belongs to the players, it is about that, I have to convince my players what is the best way to play. Give the ball, pass the ball, and they are happy because we had a lot of passes, that means this team has personality, but when you decide to shoot the penalty or free kicks it is about the personality, it is not in the training. We have 3-4 players able to shoot the penalties really well, but if one player decides to shoot the penalty to me that is not a problem.”