MLS New York Red Bulls

Red Bulls Open MLS' 25th Season with 3-2 Win over FC Cincinnati

Published on March 1, 2020 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
New York Red Bulls News Release


New York native Kyle Duncan's one goal, two-assist performance paced the New York Red Bulls (1-0-0, 3 pts) to a season-opening win over FC Cincinnati (0-1-0, 0 pts), 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at Red Bull Arena.

New York improved to 8-2-1 all-time when opening the season at home. The Red Bulls have outscored their opponents, 20-8, in 11 matches at home to begin a season.

The Red Bulls have stretched their season-opening unbeaten streak to four matches (3-0-1).

New York found the back of the net first as Danny Royer swung his pass towards the top of the 18-yard box for Florian Valot. Valot led a charging Duncan, who took one touch and finished to the near post in the 16th minute.

Duncan began the counter attacked as he headed a clearance back into Cincinnati territory. Valot picked up loose ball and fed Kaku at the top of the box. Kaku redirected Valot's pass to the far post to double the lead, 2-0, in the 27th minute.

As the second half whistle blow, Cincinnati quickly cut the deficit to one, 2-1, as Allan Cruz finished Cincy's counterattack to the near post.

Royer then brought the lead back up to two, 3-1, in the 70th minute as he danced through two defenders into the 18-yard box and beat Richey to the left.

Cincinnati's new DP Jurgen Locadia cashed in his first of the season in the 83rd minute but came up short.

Duncan, who had one goal and two assists in 1,080 minutes last season, tallied one goal and two assists in 90 minutes.

Valot tallied two assists in his first game back since March 16, 2019 to raise his career total to eight. It was Valot's second two-assist performance and first since March 31, 2018 at Orlando City SC.

Royer recorded his 36th MLS regular-season goal and 47th across all competition. He also included his 14th MLS regular-season assist and 20th across all competition.

The Austrian winger also scored against his 20th different MLS team. FC Dallas, Houston, Orlando City and expansion-sides Nashville SC and Inter Miami CF are the five remaining teams.

Newly acquired Danish goalkeeper David Jensen and freshly signed 2020 MLS SuperDraft First Round draft pick Patrick Seagrist both made their MLS debuts.

Duncan's 16th minute goal was the first goal of the game and gave New York a 1-0 lead. Since the Red Bulls implemented their high-press system in 2015, New York improved to 70-12-16 when scoring the first goal of the match.

New York improved to 19-7-3 in the last 29 matches at Red Bull Arena across all competitions. The Red Bulls have outscored their opponents, 45-24, during the stretch.

Head coach Chris Armas raised his career record to 27-17-9 overall and 18-6-3 at home. Armas is three wins away from cracking New York's top-five all-time MLS wins list.

New York is 17-17-10 all-time in the month of March. New York has scored 64 goals in March and allowed 61.

Following Sunday's season opener, New York will travel West to face Real Salt Lake on Saturday, March 7. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. ET from Rio Tinto Stadium.

New York Red Bulls 3, FC Cincinnati 2

2020 MLS Regular-Season Match 1

Sunday - 1 p.m. ET

Red Bull Arena | Harrison, N.J.

Scoring Summary:

NY - Kyle Duncan 1 (Valot, Royer)16' - WATCH

NY - Kaku 1 (Valot, Duncan) 27' - WATCH

CIN - Allan Cruz 1 (Vazquez, Garza) 46'

NY - Danny Royer 1 (Duncan) 70' - WATCH

CIN - Jurgen Locadia 1 (unassisted) 83'

Misconduct Summary:

NY - Brian White (caution, time wasting) 30'

NY - Cristian Cásseres Jr (caution, unsporting behavior) 89'

New York Red Bulls: David Jensen; Patrick Seagrist, Tim Parker, Amro Tarek, Kyle Duncan, Cristian Casseres, Jr., Sean Davis ©, Kaku (Josh Sims, 66'), Florian Valot, Daniel Royer (Marc Rzatkowski 79'), Brian White (Tom Barlow, 71')

TOTAL SHOTS: 15; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6; FOULS: 10; OFFSIDE: 4; CORNER KICKS: 3; SAVES: 3

FC Cincinnati: Spencer Richey; Kendall Waston ©, Greg Garza (Andrew Gutman, 82'), Mathieu Deplagne, Maikel van der Werff, Haris Medunjanin, Allan Cruz, Adrien Regattin, Frankie Amaya, Yuya Kubo (Kekuta Manneh, 79'), Brandon Vazquez (Jurgen Locadia, 64')

TOTAL SHOTS: 11; SHOTS ON GOAL: 5; FOULS: 7; OFFSIDE: 3; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3

Referee: David Gantar

Assistant Referees: Eric Boria, Gianni Facchini

4th Official: Kevin Broadley

VAR: Jorge Gonzalez

Attendance: 15,703

Check out the New York Red Bulls Statistics

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Major League Soccer Stories from March 1, 2020


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