The Round of 16 of the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup will pit the New York Red Bulls against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night.
The two teams will face off for the second time in as many weeks, first in league play and now on the Open Cup.
“It’s a little strange that we’ve had to play them so many times, but we play them a lot every year, so it’s not really that big of a deal," Head Coach Jesse Marsch said. "We’re excited about this tournament and excited about this game. The energy within our team is very good, I think we have a group that’s absolutely ready for this challenge even though we’ve got a lot of tired legs. But we’re going after it."
The two teams played to a 0-0 draw at Red Bull Arena on May 26.
New York is at the end of a stretch of five games in 15 days.
"Today, the energy was great," Marsch said. "That’s a real positive sign. I think and our guys are excited about it, so it’s not just like the club values it, and the staff values it. It’s the team values it. Our guys are ready.”
The Red Bulls faced the Union in the Round of 16 in 2017, too. New York won and advanced on penalty kicks.
“We want to put ourselves on the pitch with our plan, so we all know what is coming to us, but we want to bring our plan to the game,” Marc Rzatkowski said.
The team is looking forward to putting everything on the line on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“I like these kinds of games," Rzatkowski said. "It’s a win-or-go-home game, so there’s a winner and a loser and, for sure, we want to be the winner [Saturday] night.”
The game will be available on NewYorkRedBulls.com and New York Red Bulls Radio.
"We’re excited, we’re going down there, and we’re going after it,” Marsch said.
