Bradley Wright-Phillips started the scoring inside five minutes to see his side earn the 2-1 win in the first ever meeting against rivals New York City FC.
It did not take long for the first goal of the Hudson River Derby to occur as Bradley Wright-Phillips opened the scoring in just the fourth minute of the match. Lloyd Sam cut back a couple of times down near the byline and floated the ball back towards the middle of the area where Wright-Phillips volleyed his effort into the back of the net to give the Red Bulls the early 1-0 lead. NYRB were gifted that goal a little because R.J. Allen did not continue the play as he thought the ball went over the line giving Sam a bit of space.
NYCFC seemed to grow into the game as they were able to move the ball around a little bit and pressured the hosts back line by winning a couple of set pieces but failed to take any of their few half-chances. Chris Wingert thought he had scored the equalizing goal around the 20th minute after providing a good finish on Pablo Álvarez' free kick. However, he was just slightly offside and the side referee made the right call to rule out the goal. Five minutes later, Sam went in on a 50/50 challenge and the ball popped out to Felipe who forced Josh Saunders to make a good save.
In the 35th minute, Red Bulls' Matt Miazga was sent off for his second yellow card of the evening. But that did not stop the home side from continuing to attack as they did so in the second half. Five minutes after the restart, the home side would go close to finding their second goal of the game as Sam would use his pace to get around Saunders but his shot would be headed away at the last moment.
Two minutes later, Wright-Phillips would score his second goal of the game on a counter. Lloyd Sam moved the ball down the right part of the pitch and eventually sent a wonderful pass across the pitch to Sacha Kljestan and the former Anderlecht midfielder set up BWP for the easy tap in.
Head coaches are most often judged on what substitutions they make to get their club back into the game and Jason Kreis made a couple of good calls as two of his substitutes were a part of the buildup of their first derby goal in the 76th minute. Felipe did not clear his line properly and the ball fell to Kwadwo Poku who then worked the ball out wide to RJ Allen. Allen hit a low cross towards the far post where the other substitute, Patrick Mullins, provided an excellent finish to pull one back for NYCFC.