New York Red Bulls II Vs Toronto FC II: Everything you need to know

New York Red Bulls II started 2018 on the right foot with a win in their season opener for the first time in the team’s brief history. Here’s everything you need to know.

New York Red Bulls II took on 2017 USL Eastern Conference last-place finishers, Toronto FC II, at Red Bull Arena due to construction at their home stadium in Montclair, NJ.

John Wolyniec aligned his team in a 3-3-3-1 formation, that featured some new and old faces.

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The back line consisted of Red Bulls II returnees Hassan Ndamand and Jordan Scarlett, as well as first team signing Tommy Redding. Draft picks Niko De Vera and Brian White got the start, as did new signing Steven Echeverria. Returning players, Ethan Kutler and Andrew Tinari, started at right wing-back and central attacking-midfield, while Red Bulls’ starlet Ben Mines played out on the right with Florian Valot opposite him.

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The Red Bulls controlled the early minutes with a couple of shots. Valot saw a lot of the ball and created some dangerous opportunities, but White didn’t make use of his early opportunities to score and missed a couple of chances inside the six-yard box.

In the 50th minute, Redding had another miscue when he took down Ben Spencer inside the box for a penalty kick. The game was in danger of slipping away, but Evan Louro had other plans saving the penalty. In the 60th minute, Louro came up huge again, making himself big on a 1v1 after a long ball beat Scarlett.

New York hauled themselves level in the 62nd when Tinari redirected a scuffed shot from Mines. The go-ahead goal came in the 72nd when Valot saved a ball from going over the goal-line to find Tinari in the box who rocketed the shot at goal past Angelo Cavalluzzo. Tinari’s goal was all New York Red Bulls II needed to seal their first win of the season.

Quick takeaways

• Brian White was a goal-scoring machine for the U-23 Red Bulls PDL team, but you wouldn’t have known that from his performance on Saturday. White missed some sitters, but on the bright side, he was getting into dangerous positions. Once White settles in, he will start racking up goals in USL.

• It was the first game of the season, but the backline didn’t look too confident. Going forward that needs to be a point of emphasis for the Baby Bulls.
• Both Cristian Casseres Jr. and Kevin Politz looked good in their debuts and need to continue to show out for potential first team looks.