The New York Red Bulls were once again victorious in the East Coast Derby, with a 2-0 win against D.C. United at the Red Bull Arena, which sends them up to second, in the Eastern Conference table.
The opening chance of the match happened to be the first goal in the derby, with Bradley Wright-Phillips, opening his account for the 2015 MLS season, with a fantastic strike in the 25th minute. Dax McCarty played an incredible long, through ball to the English striker, Wright-Phillips ran into the open space to meet the pass and with a brilliant piece of control, the 2014 MLS Golden Boot winner, slotted the ball past the reach of Bill Hamid, to give the Red Bulls the lead.
Lloyd Sam came close for the hosts five minutes later when a lofted ball came across to Wright-Phillips, but the striker left it for Sam, but the Ghana winger couldn’t exploit the chance. DC had a chance of their own in the 35th minute when Rolfe was played in, but Luis Robles did well to clear the danger. This created a counter attack for the Red Bulls, however the hosts failed to capitalize of the chance, and the danger was cleared by DC.
D.C. United came out the barricades shooting in the second half; the visitors instantly put pressure on their rivals, with the DC attack attempting to break down the Red Bulls defence early on in the second half. Sal Zizzo tried to spark some life back into the hosts, when the winger fired a shot from range, but Hamid made easy work of it, and smothered the ball in the 55th minute. Chris Rolfe came close again for DC when his brilliant volley looked goal bound in the 60th minute, but an unfortunate curl of the ball, saw Robles catching the ball.
Sam doubled the lead for the Red Bulls in the 71st minute after Wright-Phillips won the ball in the middle of the park, the English striker then laid the ball off to the Sam, down the right wing, the winger then cut into the penalty box, and smashed the ball at the near post, past Hamid, to make it 2-0 to the hosts. Robles was called into action again for the Red Bulls when Taylor Kemp whipped in a great cross towards Rolfe, but Robles made a fantastic reaction save, to keep his clean sheet in the 75th minute.
Sam nearly had his second when the winger and Wright-Phillips again combined to create a chance for the Red Bulls, Sam latched onto a Wright-Phillips through ball, but Sam’s shot from the edge of the penalty box, narrowly missed the goal. Sam came close again when a New York counter attack saw the Ghanaian winger through on goal, but Sam took too long to let his shot fly and Hamid made a good save to deny Sam his second goal of the game. In the dying moments of the game DC were awarded a penalty when Davy Arnaud was brought down inside the penalty box, and the referee pointed to the spot. Chris Pontius stepped up to the spot, and blazed the ball into row Z with a terrible spot kick for DC, which summed up DC’s performance tonight.