From RBNY:
News and Notes
• The Red Bulls have posted a 14-14-9 mark against Philadelphia in regular season play and have earned three results in their last four road matches at Philadelphia across all competitions.
• Captain Emil Forsberg has scored a goal in back-to-back matches. His 16 MLS goals he has scored in his first two seasons with the club currently ranked tied for second in franchise history with Mike Grella for most goals scored by a midfielder in their first two seasons with the club.
• Forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has recorded five goal contributions in his last five MLS matches.
• Defender Kyle Duncan has tallied three assists in his last two matches and became the 16th player in franchise history to record at least 20 MLS assists for the club.
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Sandro Schwarz
On Saturdays game…
Yeah, I said this before the US Open Cup game is one game before Saturday against Philly. And so now it's another competition, another situation now, against Philly in our season now, and had now two days’ time. Positive was that we had yesterday, more time in our training session for to prepare for the game tomorrow. So normally, when we would play on Wednesday, then it's not the highest load, then it's more Recovery Training on Thursday. But now we had a good two training session to prepare for Saturday, the game against Philly.
On playing a team with similar style…
Yeah, from the intensity, it's similar. And when you are looking also to the numbers, they are playing very physical against the ball and with a lot of good deep runs, what I said, in their ball position or in their transition moments. But I think we have some faces in the game, which is different compared to Philly. And yeah, we must show our quality, our mentality, our intensity. But everyone can expect, of course, that it will be a highly intensive game, and in that case, we must be ready. We must be very strong in the duels. We must be very compact, very aggressive, and then to use our quality when we have the moon.
On Dylan Nealis’ progress…
No, I know we expect them, expect from everyone who's sitting on the bench that he’s then directly ready. So, but I agree it was a little bit longer. His injury was some couple of weeks. And then he was the first time on the bench in in San Jose. And then also on Wednesday, he would be on the bench. So, and yeah, tomorrow he's ready, and then we will see starting lineup or an option from the bench.
New York Red Bulls Defender Sean Nealis
On the US Open Cup game...
Yeah, I think some of us expected it kind of looking at the weather radar beforehand, and I think it was two years ago in Philly playing the league's cup, and the game got suspended. So, some of us were talking about that beforehand and kind of expected it. But, you know, once we were out there warming up right after the national anthem, we were ready to go, and unfortunately, we couldn't play. But I think the game got pushed back to the beginning of August, then we're moving on to this one, and we're focusing on the league right now. So, we're pumped for tomorrow.
On preparing for Philly mentally…
Not necessarily. I think we just want to win the game outright. You know, we've been a little inconsistent in the league. You know, we've had some ties the last couple of games in the league, and we want to go out and win, put three points on the board, and kind of get the second half of the season rolling. And I think we can do that. We have a very talented team. And I think, you know, we've had a good week of practice. Unfortunately, the game got rained out Wednesday, but, you know, same, opponent. So, we get to prepare a little more, prepare a little harder the last two days, and we're feeling good to go tomorrow.