New York Red Bulls II aims for its first ever victory on Saturday when Toronto FC II visit Harrison, N.J. This is the first of two meetings with Toronto FC II. The next matchup will be in at TFC II on August 22. This weekend’s match will be held on April 4 at Red Bull Arena, and Red Bulls II is set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. EDT (WATCH: Live stream available on NewYorkRedBulls.com/Live).
Here are some important statistics and a look ahead to Red Bulls II’s second match of 2015.
New York Red Bulls II
- Record: 0-0-1
- Leading Goal Scorer: None
- Assist Leader: None
- Saves Leader: Santiago Castano (4)
Toronto FC II
- Record: 1-1-0
- Leading Goal Scorer: Molham Babouli/Jordan Hamilton/Marcos Nunes (1)
- Assist Leader: Molham Babouli/Clement Simonin (1)
- Saves Leader: Alex Bono (1)
- This is the first ever match between the two USL clubs.
Tactics
TFC II in two matches has proven to be an attack-focused team with high pressure and wide play being a consistent part of head coach Jason Bent’s game plan. This style, however, can leave the TFC II defense vulnerable. Charleston Battery took full advantage of the pressure from TFC II and scored three unanswered goals to defeat the Reds, 3-2.
Player To Watch
Forward Molham Babouli has been the standout on Toronto FC II so far this season. In only two matches, he has scored one goal versus Charleston Battery, supplied the game-winning assist against rivals FC Montreal and has been named to the USL Team of the Week twice in a row. There’s no doubt that the NYRB II back line will have to pay special attention to the TFC II danger-man who is building an early reputation as one of USL deadliest forwards.
Head Coach Jason Bent
"I’ve watched the video of their last game and have put the players through a video session,” said Bent. “They have a really good attacking midfielder that can play both ways in Leo Stoltz from UCLA. They have (Marius) Obekop who plays on the left and is a very exciting player, he has a strong left foot and he’s good in 1v1 situations. The goalkeeper (Santiago) Costano has good distribution out of his feet, we’ll have to be aware of that. Then there’s another player coming out of the draft in striker Manolo Sanchez, he has a lot of pace and can be very direct.”
“We’ll set up our team to know exactly what we’ll be facing and set out to get three points.”
“A clean sheet and one goal would suffice,” said Bent. “We were able to get a clean sheet against Montreal and that’s fantastic. It gives us a foundation to build off.”
“The first game against Charleston we also had an issue with set pieces, which was corrected and long may it last. We’ll want to continue to score on set pieces as well, with it being such a huge part of modern day football.”
