New York City FC 0, New York Red Bulls 7 | MLS Match Recap

Nick Rosano

NEW YORK – The New York Red Bulls continued their derby dominance on Saturday afternoon, obliterating New York City FC to the tune of a 7-0 scoreline at Yankee Stadium.

The Red Bulls got the scoring started early when Dax McCarty found himself unmarked on a corner kick to head home in the third minute. The visitors would add another two in quick succession at the end of the first half, including a stunning Bradley Wright-Phillips bicycle kick in stoppage time to increase RBNY’s lead to three.

The Red Bulls picked up where they left off in the first half, with McCarty again striking on a set piece before Homegrown midfielder Alex Muyl bagged his first MLS goal, helped by a layoff from Wright-Phillips, just before the hour mark. The rout would end with goals from Gonzalo Veron and Gideon Baah, tying it for the largest margin of victory in an MLS game.

Box Score

3’ – NY – Dax McCarty (Sacha Kljestan)
42’ – NY – Bradley Wright-Phillips (Mike Grella)
45+2’ – NY – Bradley Wright-Phillips
51’ – NY – Dax McCarty (Sacha Kljestan)
56’ – NY – Alex Muyl (Bradley Wright-Phillips)
83’ – NY – Gonzalo Veron (Felipe)
89’ – NY – Gideon Baah
Full box score
Stats
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Three Things

WHAT DO YOU SAY?: We’ve rarely seen a goalscoring outburst like this, let alone in one of the most anticipated derby matches of the year. As we noted above, the seven-goal win tied an MLS record for largest margin of victory in a single game, and the whole Red Bulls attack got in on the party. Five different players scored goals and four different players bagged the team’s five assists as the RBNY hit their rivals every which way – set pieces, crosses, acrobatic finishes – it all went right for the visitors on Saturday, and it all went wrong for NYCFC. But as Patrick Vieira noted after the game, "It's better to lose one game 7-0 than lose seven games 1-0."

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: There was no shortage of physical play between the two sides, even before the scoreline got out of hand. Two NYCFC players saw yellow for meaty challenges in the first half, while the game was punctuated by a number of comings together, plus a first-half penalty shout after Aurelien Collin appeared to haul down Frederic Brillant on a corner kick. And despite all that, it was Dax McCarty, the second-smallest man on the field (after RBNY fullback Connor Lade) that bagged two headed goals from set pieces:

Since the start of 2010, Dax McCarty (8) now ranks 2nd in #MLS in headed goals by midfielders behind Tim Cahill (9) who played Fwd as well.
— Todd Kingston (@TRKingston) May 21, 2016

LIGHTING THE LAMP(S):
It was a grim day for NYCFC fans all the way around, but if there’s a shred of hope to be found from this result, it came in the season debuts of DP midfielder
Frank Lampard
and
Jack Harrison
, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft, who both missed NYCFC’s first 12 games through injury. Harrison in particular caught the eye: