The New York Red Bulls travel to take on FC Cincinnati on Saturday, July 9. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at TQL Stadium with coverage on MSG, MSG GO, and New York Red Bulls Radio in English and Spanish via TuneIn, the New York Red Bulls app and NewYorkRedBulls.com.
Get to know who the Red Bulls will be playing in their upcoming matchup.
How they’re doing
Cincinnati has already tallied its highest points total in the club’s four-year MLS history – kicking off the season with 25 points thanks to a team-record seven wins.
Sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, the Orange and Blue climbed the table with a four-match league win streak from April 30 to May 14. None of the teams it faced in that stretch – Toronto FC, the Chicago Fire and Minnesota United – are currently in playoff position, but three of those four wins came on the road.
Cincinnati has won just once in its last six matches since the end of the win streak. In four matches after the FIFA international window, the club earned a victory over Orlando City and drew with the Philadelphia Union, NYCFC and the New England Revolution.
TQL Stadium hasn’t been a fortress for the hosts. Cincinnati has a losing record on its home turf, winning just three of eight matches with four defeats in MLS play.
Cincinnati is tied with New York as the league’s fifth-highest scoring team with 29 goals, but the team has a -3 goal differential, conceding a league fifth-worst 32 goals.
Head-to-head history
The Red Bulls largely owned the series against Cincinnati, winning five of the eight matches and dropping just two.
New York won the most recent meeting, 1-0, in Cincinnati back in October. The only other matchup between the two sides last year was a 0-0 draw.
Both Red Bulls losses in this series came during the 2020 season, when the Orange and Blue earned a 2-0 victory at the MLS is Back Tournament before taking a regular season 1-0 win over New York at Red Bull Arena in September.
The most notable meeting between the sides came prior to Cincinnati joining MLS. New York came from two goals down in the 2017 U.S. Open Cup semifinals, with Bradley Wright-Phillips scoring the game-tying goal in the 78th minute and the game-winner in extra time to earn the Red Bulls a 3-2 win in front of more than 33,000 at Nippert Stadium.
Player to watch – Midfielder Luciano Acosta
No one’s played a part in more MLS goals this season than the Cincinnati No. 10.
Acosta has tallied a league-best 10 assists and team second-best six goals, meaning that he has scored or assisted on more than half of the team’s goals in 2022. He has six assists in his last five appearances for the club – registering just three starts in that productive stretch.
The designated player’s last match on June 29 against NYCFC was one of the top performances of the season, when he scored the team’s opener and provided two assists to help Cincinnati earn a 4-4 draw.
Acosta joined the Orange and Blue last season but is no stranger to the league – spending four seasons with DC United from 2016 to 2019 and earning a spot in the league’s Best XI in 2018.
In between his two MLS stints, Acosta played for Liga MX’s Atlas. The 28-year-old landed in DC after beginning his pro career with legendary Argentine club Boca Juniors.
