On Thursday night, Head Coach Chris Armas and his coaching staff decided to mix up their starting line-up by giving several players their first starts of the season. Players like Jared Stroud, Ryan Meara and Marc Rzatkowski got their first starts of the 2020 season, while Tim Parker, who didn’t start in any of the MLS is Back Tournament group stage matches, returned to the Red Bulls starting XI.
“On a personal level, it has been a long time coming after waiting behind Luis [Robles],” said Meara. “It wasn’t easy, it was tough at times, but I tried to keep a good attitude, training hard and being a good teammate over the years. I think all of that was important.
“It was a big game for us tonight, we were disappointed coming back from Orlando. We felt like we didn’t do ourselves justice with a couple bad performances down there. So to put everything together right tonight against NYCFC, our big rivalry, was huge for us. We are thrilled for the three points, the shutout and we just want to build on this from here on out.”
Stroud got his first ever MLS start in a New York Derby, something the youngster from Chester, New Jersey will never forget. Head Coach Chris Armas explained to the press after the game why he opted to give Stroud his first MLS start in such a tough scenario.
“We started Jared Stroud thinking the beginning of this game would be a lot of counter-pressing and second balls, high energy and I think we were right about that,” said Armas. “We got outfouled I think 17-4 on the night, it was a very combative game.”
Meara, who tallied two saves for his fifth career shutout on Thursday night, felt like the win over NYCFC was needed in order to recuperate confidence after the team’s displays in Orlando.
“We all took an honest look at ourselves and realized that it wasn’t good enough. Now with this restart, games are coming fast, you look at our first three games -- tonight NYCFC, at Philly and at New England,” said Meara. “Tonight was a huge one for us because Philly and New England are tough places to go play. We knew we needed to get the win tonight, obviously it’s always an icing on the cake beating NYCFC. Coming back from Orlando, we were pissed off, there was no other way to put it, and we felt we had something to prove to ourselves, to our fans, to the league. I like to think we did that tonight.”
The presence of Rzatkowski in the midfield provided balance and solidity, while Parker paired-up well with Aaron Long in the center of the defense.
The coaching staff’s tactical decisions worked on Thursday night, especially considering that all the substitutions added offensive threat after the Red Bulls took the 1-0 lead.
Mandela Egbo made his MLS debut in a game Davis got his 100th MLS start. What Thursday night’s result showed is that the team has created an internal competition, which will prove to be vital, especially with more games getting played in a short period of time.
Playing time opportunities will be available for many players, and the Red Bulls hope to have more performances like Thursday night’s, in which the essence of team-effort really showed.
