WASHINGTON, DC – For the first time all year, Red Bulls New York put in a 90-minute performance and walked away with their first road win of the season, beating our long-time rivals, DC United, 2-0. Cameron Harper scored the opener in the 42nd minute, with Mohammed Sofo adding a late goal in second-half stoppage…

WASHINGTON, DC – For the first time all year, Red Bulls New York put in a 90-minute performance and walked away with their first road win of the season, beating our long-time rivals, DC United, 2-0.

Cameron Harper scored the opener in the 42nd minute, with Mohammed Sofo adding a late goal in second-half stoppage time to give the Bulls a much-needed win.

Sandro Schwarz made several lineup changes after Wednesday night’s Open Cup win. Tim Parker and Alexander Hack for the suspended Sean Nealis and Noah Eile were back in the starting lineup. Daniel Edelman was back in the pivot spot for Felipe Carballo. Omar Valencia returned from suspension for Raheem Edwards, Cameron Harper, and Wiki Carmona for Mohammed Sofo and Dennis Gjengaar.

The boys in Ivory Camo came out flying. Desperate to regain their season control, they should have opened the scoring in the fourth minute.
Attacking right down the middle, Eric Choupo-Moting sent a through ball to Cameron Harper on the right, but his shot hit the side netting from 8 yards away—a bad miss from that close.

Red Bull was off and running on the left when Omar Valencia was free for a 2v1 with Emil Forsberg in the 10th minute. Omar sent a cross that was partially deflected to Emil in the box, but he couldn’t beat Luis Barraza, so he quickly came out to cut the angle down—another missed opportunity.

Emil and Choupo’s connection created another chance in the 14th minute. Forsberg passes to Choupo just inside the box on the right side. He quickly turned and took a left-footed curling shot just inches over the bar.

D.C. got their first chance in the 19th minute, but Carlos Coronel came up huge to deny Jacob Murrell the opening goal. Aaron Herrera floated a ball to the spot between two Red Bull defenders that Murrell pounced on and got off a right-footed shot that Coronel saved with his left foot before being cleared away by Harper.

Kyle Duncan was late tracking Murrell, allowing him space inside, with Parker not returning in time. For once, our mistake doesn’t wind up in the back of the net.

Peter Stroud sent a nice long through ball that Harper tracked down only to be tackled outside the box, giving Red Bull a set piece along the sideline in the 37th minute. Emil stepped up and floated the free kick to the back post, where Hack headed the ball straight to Barraza for the save.

United got the game’s first corner in the 40th minute with Herrera sending in a cross to the top of the box where Lucas Bartlett’s header would go right to Coronel for an easy save.

Wiki Carmona intercepted a pass in the 42nd minute and dribbled to the box on the left before sending a back pass to Emil on top of the box. Emil quickly sent it to the right, where Harper’s low right-footed shot beat Barraza to the far post to open the scoring. 1-0 RBNY on Harper’s 4th of the season.

After another 4 minutes of action, the ref blew the halftime whistle with a score of 1-0 in favor of Red Bull.

Neither team did much early in the second half as Red Bull hunkered down defensively, trying to preserve the lead.

The first chance in the second half came in the 58th minute after Choupo could control the ball and find Edelman on the right side, but a sliding defender blocked his shot.

Harper played provider in the 68th minute when he found Emil alone in space just to the right of center 25 yards away. Emil let the ball travel before letting a shot off with his left foot that narrowly missed to the right.

The host came alive in the final 20 minutes, getting a few chances to level the score.

After playing a corner short, Jackson Hopkins sent a cross that David Schnegg headed that Coronel grabbed off a deflection in the 70th minute.

Joao Peglow almost beat Coronel from 22 yards to the right of the box. Coronel didn’t see it clearly and bobbled the ball out for a corner in the 73rd minute. On the ensuing corner, the Bulls were able to clear it away.

Herrera found space on the left-hand side in the 84th minute and whipped in a cross that found a wide-open Jared Stroud, but his header went straight to Coronel—a bad miss on an open header from 8 yards.

With DC whipping balls into the box, Matti Peltola found Bartlett with a cross inside their box, but Coronel grabbed his weak header in the 90th minute.

The fourth official added 6 minutes of extra time. In the 94th minute, Harper intercepted a pass and raced straight towards Barraza. With two defenders closing him down, Harper blasted one that Barraza saved but left a rebound that Viktor Bogacz retrieved, only for his shot to get saved by Barraza.

Alexander Hack picked up a loose ball in the 95th minute and sent a long ball towards Bogacz. The ball deflected right to Mohammed Sofo, who took two dribbles into the box and let a low left-footed shot to the right that best Barraza to make it 2-0 and give New York the three points.

Sofo used the defender as a screen and quickly got the shot off before Barraza could do anything. The goal is Sofo 3rd on the season and 6th overall.

The ref would blow the final whistle a minute later with the Red Bulls 2, D.C. United 0 score. The victory also keeps the Atlantic Cup here for another season.