New York City FC: Hudson River Derby postponed
New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls will have to wait to play after a weather-related postponement
On Saturday, New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls were set to face one another in the first Hudson River Derby of the 2021 season. There was a lot of excitement going into the match, and there were high expectations for the Pigeons. However, a storm system made its way through the Harrison, New Jersey area, originally causing a weather delay.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Hurricane Henri was creeping up the coast. Based on the updates around the start time of the game, Henri was expected to make landfall on Eastern Long Island sometime on Sunday. In spite of this, impacts from the storm, from the surge, wind, and rain, was expected to be widespread, and impact the entire tristate area. Of course, Henri was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday and made landfall in Rhode Island. For this though, Henri will be called a hurricane, for that was what the storm was on Saturday night.
During the evening on Saturday, New Jersey was already seeing the outer bands of the hurricane. Although, the storm system that caused the delay initially might have been separate from Henri. In fact, the Weather Channel initially reported the storms that hit New York City and New Jersey were from another disturbance. Afterwards, the channel did mention how the system started to trap the moisture from the tropical system, which led to the heavy rain. Yet, CBS New York reported the delay was due to rain from the tropical system altogether.
Therefore, due to the impending hurricane, it was surprising there was no earlier postponement once MLS was aware of the storm causing the delay. More importantly, it was shocking there was no postponement once the league was aware of the severity of the storm. Moreover, fans of both teams likely traveled from all over New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and both states had tropical storm warnings and hurricane warnings.
Still, the match was delayed for almost three hours, and eventually the two teams made their way out to the pitch for warmups. In the end, the derby was postponed, not due to the hurricane, but rather due to a waterlogged pitch. In other words, New York City FC and the Red Bulls were set to play, but poor pitch conditions led to the match being called off.
Since, again, at the time of the match, widespread impact was expected from Henri, then one would think MLS would have called off the game. While Northern New Jersey was not expected to experience the worst, fans still had to travel home, and some might have been closer to the eye of Henri. Plus, stadium staff and the teams also had to travel home. Hence, the original decision to play later was concerning due to the travel.
Additionally, the storms that were impacting Northern New Jersey and New York City already caused travel issues once the fixture was postponed. NYCFC photographer Katie Cahalin tweeted about the difficulty getting home due to flooding. Furthermore, the Weather Channel reported that there were road closures in Harrison due to flooded roadways.
Whereas tropical storm conditions were expected to arrive Sunday morning, there was concern about the outer bands. So, based on travel, the storms that already came through, Hurricane Henri, and to protect fans, staff, and players, MLS probably should have postponed the match earlier. Nevertheless, that did not happen, and once again NYCFC had to sit through a long delay for the second time this month.
As of Saturday night, there is no word on when the makeup will be played. Both teams do not have a mid-week game though, and maybe the match could be rescheduled to Tuesday. Of course, since the game was set to air on Fox Sports, there might be the issue of getting the proper TV coverage.
Undoubtedly, the Hudson River Derby should have been called off sooner, rather than almost 11 PM. New York City FC and the Red Bulls can always play another day. Hopefully everyone got home safely, for that is what matters the most.