New York City FC (1-6-3; 6 points) and the Chicago Fire (3-5-0; 9 points) face off Friday night at Yankee Stadium. Both clubs are coming off a defeat.

New York City fell 2-1 at the New York Red Bulls in the first ever Hudson River Derby. The Red Bulls scored four minutes into the match on a Bradley Wright-Phillips goal. The Red Bulls came out with momentum with a packed Red Bull Arena pushing the club. NYCFC were lackluster and very non cohesive in the first half, looking intimated.

Red Bull defender Matt Miazga was sent off shortly past the thirty-sixth minute of the 1st half, with a tackle in the midfield earning the young Red Bull his second yellow card of the match. Even with the man advantage, NYCFC were not able to capitalize in the first half.

It was much of the same story for NYCFC in the second half, with the club a man up and struggling to complete passes and create and concrete chances. The Red Bulls capitalized on City's desperate attack, creating a counter attack that lead to Wright-Phillip's second goal of the night. 

New York City scored a consolation goal for the 1,800 traveling fans dressed in sky blue, with Patrick Mullins scoring off a cross into the box. Mullins had come on for star David Villa, who struggled to create and chances and connect with his teammates. Mix Diskerud also came off in the second half, letting young Poku get some playing time in front of a raucous crowd. 

Chicago is coming of a 2-1 home loss to RSL, snapping their three game winning streak. Frank Yallop’s club played without DP David Accam, who served a one-match suspension. RSL opened the scoring with a 13th-minute goal by Alvaro Saborio. The away side doubled their lead in the second half, scoring off a nice passing play to make it a 2-0 game early in the second half. The Fire took one back with a Jeff Larentowicz penalty kick goal in the 88th minute.

Coach Jason Kreis spoke about the match, talking about how the club needs to take advantage of their home crowd. “At home it needs to be a different affair. We need to be the team that’s the aggressor at the beginning of the match and we need to go after this.”

The Fire have won the only ever matchup between the two sides, a 1-0 win at Toyota Field.

PROJECTED STARTING XI 

NYCFC (4-2-3-1): Saunders; Williams, Wingert, Hernandez, Allen; Jacobson, Grabavoy; Mix, Villa, Ballouchy; Alvarez

FIRE (4-5-1): Johnson; Palmer, Larentowicz, Adailton, Jones; Shipp, Watson, Amerikwa, Accam; Cocis; Maloney