2. The Hudson River Derby was less eventful than last time, though like last time it ended with the red side of the river being much, much happier than the blue side.
Cristian Casseres Jr.’s third-minute goal was the only one in
RBNY’s 1-0 win, a result that kept them in ninth place, three points ahead of the Crew.
But it also leveled them with now eighth-place
NYCFC on 40 points, one behind CF Montréal.
RBNY truly are rolling, having gone 5-0-2 over the past month as Gerhard Struber has learned to love his bench (he has subbed earlier and more often during this stretch than in the season’s first five months) as well as moving away from his preferred two-forward set-ups. On Sunday it was a 3-4-2-1, though it’s just as often been a 4-2-3-1 over the past month, and either way RBNY have been just as difficult to play against and seemingly less vulnerable in transition than they had been through the summer.
And so NYCFC generated next to nothing — six shots, with just two on target. They are struggling badly and I thought Taylor Twellman was right, on the ESPN broadcast, to call out Ronny Deila’s decision to go with five at the back in a 3-4-2-1 of his own for this game, instead of playing a more front-foot 4-2-3-1 that could actually get on the ball and control things through midfield while stretching RBNY's backline horizontally.
Deila did eventually shift to a 4-2-3-1 for the final stage of this game, but it didn’t do enough to seriously pressure the Red Bulls. NYCFC never truly got close to finding an equalizer and are in a serious tailspin: just 1-5-3 since the start of September and have been shut out in four straight. They are below the line for the first time since Week 2.
The only good news is that three of their final five are at home which, this time of year, means Yankee Stadium. They still control their own destiny.
So do the Red Bulls, of course — if they win out, they're in. But as good as this run has been, there's an element of fool's gold in it as RBNY have scored more than one goal in a game just one time since July. That's 14 games, damn near half a season's worth.