Elias Manoel capitalized on a Charlotte FC mistake, pouncing on an errant touch, controlling the ball and scoring to give the New York Red Bulls a lead in the first half. An Andrés Reyes own goal late in the second half, though, led to New York walking away with one point on the road in Charlotte from a 1-1 draw.
"The first half showed a completely different picture than the second half," Head Coach Gerhard Struber said. "We lost a little bit of focus and concentration in shifting moments."
The draw keeps New York unbeaten in their last four matches.
"We have to learn from this and be stronger defensively all the way through," Captain Sean Nealis said. "For the goal, I missed the header that could have done better there. We all could have done better, stepped up and we're kind of disappointed at only getting one point here."
The goal was Manoel's third career MLS goal -- with all three coming against Charlotte FC.
"He has a nose for moments like that," Struber said. "He came in a very good pressing moments. He was smart that he didn't take a foul. I am happy with his performance. He is growing."
New York allowed just one shot on goal, setting the record for the fewest shots on goal allowed through the first five matches of the season: seven total.
"We gave them a big gift in their hands today," Struber said. "It's very painful for me, my coaching team and my boys, this was absolutely not necessary to go home with an equalizer against Charlotte. This is only on us today. The equalizer feels like a defeat. We are very unhappy about the second half and how we lost our momentum."
The Red Bulls played their 1,000th match in franchise history tonight. New York have participated in 860 regular season games, 58 playoff matches, 56 U.S. Open Cup matches, and 26 international competition matches.Â
"This is not the behavior I normally see from my boys in the second half," Struber said. "It was not what I expected. It was not what my team expected. We cannot be happy to fly home with one point from Charlotte."
New York is 13-7-6 in their last 26 MLS road matches.
"We expected a physical battle and it was one," Nealis said. "We felt that it was a good game. It was in our hands, but we just kind of lost momentum at the end -- I think we'll learn from it."
New York finish their road trip with a matchup against Atlanta United FC on Saturday, April 1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm. ET with coverage on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV in English and Spanish and New York Red Bulls Radio in English via Tune In, the New York Red Bulls app, and NewYorkRedBulls.com.
