New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

New York Red Bulls vs. New England Revolution
2018 MLS Regular Season — Week 21
Red Bull Arena — Harrison
July 21 - 7 pm ET
WATCH: ESPN+, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

After rallying to defeat Sporting Kansas City, the New York Red Bulls hope their brilliant home form continues Saturday night when they host the New England Revolution in a six-point Eastern Conference showdown at Red Bull Arena.

The Revs, meanwhile, will look to shore things up defensively after back-to-back defeats to the LA Galaxy and Minnesota United FC.

This is the second meeting this season between the longtime rivals with the Revs holding serve at home, beating the Red Bulls, 2-1, at Gillette Stadium on June 2. Bradley Wright-Phillips opened the scoring early, but Diego Fagundez leveled in first-half stoppage time and Teal Bunbury struck for the 78th-minute winner.

The Revolution have lost eight of their nine visits to Red Bull Arena in league play since the stadium opened in 2010 (1D). The Red Bulls have averaged 2.2 goals per game in those matches.

New York Red Bulls

The Red Bulls (11-5-2) needed a second-half rally, but they bounced back from a derby loss to New York City FC to defeat Sporting Kansas City and hand Chris Armas his first win as head coach Saturday night.

Wright-Phillips opened the scoring four minutes after kickoff, but Johnny Russell leveled four minutes later and a screamer by Roger Espinoza put Sporting in front, 2-1, in the 51st minute. Marc Rzatkowski came off the bench to score twice in a seven-minute span — his first two MLS goals — as the Red Bulls won for the third time in their last four games.

“He had a great week of training,” Armas said of Rzatkowski. “In every session, he brought energy and he always has quality, but he showed a lot of life this week.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: D - Tim Parker
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: M - Florian Valot (torn left ACL), D - Kyle Duncan (torn right ACL), M - Vincent Bezecourt (MCL sprain)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Luis Robles — Michael Murillo, Tim Parker, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence — Tyler Adams, Sean Davis — Danny Royer, Kaku, Marc Rzatkowski — Bradley Wright-Phillips

Notes: Wright-Phillips has scored six headed goals in 2018. Since 2010, no player has scored more than nine in a regular season. He is also two goals away from 100 in his MLS career. … The Red Bulls are averaging 2.4 points per MLS home game this season with a goal differential of +17. Only two teams are averaging more points per home game, and only NYCFC has a better home goal differential in 2018.

New England Revolution

New England dropped its second straight game and are 0-4-2 in the last four games away from Gillette Stadium after falling to Minnesota United FC, 2-1, Wednesday night.

Christian Ramirez put the Loons in front in the 5th minute, pouncing on an errant headed ball by Jalil Anibaba and cleverly chipping over Matt Turner, who was off his line to play a potential backpass. Darwin Quintero then doubled Minnesota’s lead just before the break with a sensational solo effort.

Fagundez pulled the Revolution (7-6-7) a goal back in the 52nd minute, beating former teammate Bobby Shuttleworth with a penalty kick up the middle after Alexi Gomez pushed over Kelyn Rowe. But Shuttleworth wouldn’t allow an equalizer, making six saves in the win.

“In the last two games we made five individual errors that have cost us the game,” Brad Friedel said. “You can never fault the players work rate. The work rate is superb. I think in the first half they were in our box maybe three times and they scored twice off of our mistakes.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: D - Chris Tierney (torn right ACL), F - Femi Hollinger-Janzen (dislocated elbow)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3–1, right to left)
GK: Matt Turner — Andrew Farrell, Antonio Delamea, Jalil Anibaba, Claude Dielna — Luis Caicedo, Wilfried Zahibo — Juan Agudelo, Diego Fagundez, Cristian Penilla — Teal Bunbury

Notes: Fagundez is just two goals away from 50 in his MLS career. He has five goals in 15 games against the Red Bulls, his most against any MLS team. … New England has won just two of their 10 league games (3L-5D) and have allowed multiple goals in four of their last five games. They have not lost three straight games since a four-game losing streak in June-July 2017.

All-Time Series

Overall: New York Red Bulls 26 wins, 118 goals … New England Revolution 30 wins, 117 goals … 15 draws
At New York: Red Bulls 20 wins, 75 goals … Revolution 8 wins, 49 goals … 8 draws
Last meeting at New York: New York Red Bulls 2, New England Revolution 1 (May 27, 2017)