Don’t look now, but the New York Red Bulls can feel their mojo returning.
The Red Bulls won for the third time in their last four matches on Saturday, defeating Toronto FC 2-1 at BMO Field. The performance may not have been New York’s prettiest this season, but the end result was what mattered most, as it gave the club its second straight win on the road and brought them back to .500 at 4-4-2.
More importantly, the victory served as a big boost in confidence for a squad that was looking for some consistency after a topsy-turvy start to the campaign.
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“The main thing for us is we dropped a lot of points on the road and we’ve played such great football,” Tim Cahill, who scored both goals against Toronto, told reporters on Saturday. “Today, I thought in the first half especially, we played some beautiful passing and [I] sat well in there with Eric [Alexander] and pulled Jonny [Steele] in from the left and had Lloyd [Sam] breaking. It was a bit of a luxury today and it seemed really nice.”
“But the discipline and consistency has to be there and that’s what we said before the game and I suppose a lot of people were looking at us to see whether we could pull off the result because Toronto are a good team.”
The Red Bulls indeed pulled it off, but not before a late scare. New York were well on their way to an easy win but a late blunder by goalkeeper Luis Robles allowed substitute Jonathan Osorio to pull a lifeless Toronto FC level.
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Mike Petke’s men, however, refused to crumble after Robles’ gaffe and instead searched for a winner. They found just that a minute before the death, and Cahill's goal demonstrated resolve while also continuing to raise the team’s steadily increasing morale.
“It’s massive,” said Sam. “It’s nine out of 12 points, which is huge for us, confidence and everything. On the road, two road wins. We’re looking forward to the next game.”
