The New York Red Bulls travel to Philadelphia to visit the Philadelphia Union in what will be the seventh 2020 regular season match. The Red Bulls hold the third place of the Eastern Conference, while the Union are one point below in fourth place. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Here are the Keys to the Game, presented by Honda:
Team Depth Will Be Put to Test
On Thursday night, Jared Stroud, Ryan Meara, Marc Rzatkowski got their first starts of the season against NYCFC.
The depth of our team will be important as games will start to bunch up in a tight schedule. Tim Parker returned to the starting XI after not starting in any of the MLS is Back Tournament games.
In the MLS is back Tournament, Head Coach Chris Armas used the same line-up in the games against Atlanta and Columbus, but against Cincinnati, he made one change by giving the start to Omir Fernandez in place of Tom Barlow.
Kaku, Barlow and Fernandez came off the bench in the New York Derby, while Mandela Egbo got his first MLS minutes in the win versus NYCFC.
Build from Strong Defensive Showing against NYCFC
New York’s defense kept NYCFC’s offense quiet on Thursday night, not only that but right-back Kyle Duncan scored the winning goal.
Led by USMNT center-back, Aaron Long, the Red Bulls defense has achieved two shutouts in the 2020 season. The first one came against Atlanta, and the most recent one against the Cityzens.
NYCFC only had two shots on target in the 17th edition of the New York Derby. Since the MLS is Back Tournament, Jason Pendant has started all the games and is still working on understanding the Red Bulls style but has already helped out New York on getting two shutouts.
Meara made two saves to help the Red Bulls get a 1-0 win over the crosstown rivals.
Philly Have Seven Goals Scored by Seven Different Players
After six regular season games played, the Union have seen seven different players score goals: Alejandro Bedoya, Brenden Aaronson, Sergio Santos, Ilsinho, Jacob Glesnes, Kai Wagner and Kacper Przybylko.
In the knockout stages of the MLS is Back Tournament, Santos scored three goals and helped the Union reach the semifinals, where they lost to the eventual champions, Portland Timbers.
Although they started this new phase with a scoreless draw in their visit to New England last Thursday, the Union have tallied a total of 12 goals if we include into the mix MLS is Back knockout games.
