New York Red Bulls II returns home to face Rio Grande Valley FC on Friday, April 15, at MSU Soccer Park. Kickoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. ET, with coverage available on ESPN+.
Match Notes
Another New Friend – New York and Rio Grande Valley will meet for the first time on Friday night, marking the second of nine matches this season in which Red Bulls II will face a new opponent.
Wild West – Rio Grande Valley marks the first of eight Western Conference opponents for New York this season. After only playing the West three times in 2021, the club will look for its first victory against a Western Conference foe since the 2019 season.
A Key to the Offense – Jeremy Rafanello scored his first goal of the season in New York’s last match against FC Tulsa, bringing his career total to nine. The club averages 2.6 goals per match when Rafanello scores, including four matches with at least three.
Training Quotes
"We’re on the right track, the boys are giving everything, we’re just trying to impose a lot more quality and the detail of the work every day so that comes out on a match day." - Head Coach Gary Lewis
"We’ve worked quite a bit this week on combination play around the box, making better decisions, calmer decisions, instead of just kind of being erratic at times with the ball. As we win it back through that intensity, we seem to still have that intensity when we have the ball, so just trying to calm things down and make better decisions. Then just making sure that the boys believe they can score when they get in the box, so that’s been kind of the focus this week, has been a lot of finishing and combination play around the box." - Head Coach Gary Lewis
Important Numbers
1+1 – John Murphy is the first player since Deri Corfe in 2020 to record at least one goal and one assist through the first five matches of the season.
5 – John Murphy and Juan Castillo are the only two players for Red Bulls II to appear in and start every match. Murphy leads the team with 422 minutes and Castillo ranks second with 385.
11 – New York has 11 wins when facing an opponent for the first time.
