For the second time this season, New York City FC will be traveling to Red Bull Arena to battle Hudson River Derby foes, the New York Red Bulls. Last time around, the hosts sent NYCFC packing as RBNY jumped off to an early lead, never looked back, and left 4-0 victors.
On Wednesday, the two New York sides will meet in the US Open Cup for just the second time ever. Once again, RBNY had the better of the most recent occurrence in this battle as well. In fact, NYCFC are yet to win an Open Cup game after losing to former NASL side, the New York Cosmos in 2015 and 2016, and losing 1-0 to the Red Bulls in this cup last season.
After picking up that win against NYCFC, the Red Bulls pushed themselves all the way to the US Open Cup final where they met Sporting Kansas City who lifted the cup. While NYCFC hopes for their first US Open Cup win, the Red Bulls will be hoping they've improved enough to win the trophy for the first time in club history.
Team News
New York Red Bulls: A World Cup year is tough for American soccer schedules but on top of losing both Fidel Escobar and Michael Murillo to Panama for the FIFA tournament, the New Jersey-based club has also allowed both Tim Parker and Tyler Adams to represent the USMNT for international friendlies over in Europe.
Piling things on, the hosts will be without Kyle Duncan as the player tore his ACL early in the season as well as potentially being without Luis Robles who is listed as questionable due to a knee injury.
New York City FC: The World Cup will be affecting about half the teams in MLS, and NYCFC is one of them. Like RBNY, NYCFC have shipped off two players to represent the same nation. Both Ronald Matarrita and Rodney Wallace have earned the right to represent Costa Rica at this edition of the FIFA World Cup.
Then, also in similarity with the other half of New York, NYCFC has to worry about injuries as well. Fortunately for the blue half of the state, they'll be missing just one player through injury though it's sort of a big one. Yangel Herrera has an ankle injury and will not partake in Wednesday's match.
What's Next?
For the Red Bulls, they have three games remaining in the month of June following the US Open Cup game on Wednesday. First up, they travel to Ohio to face the Columbus Crew before returning home for back-to-back home games at Red Bull Arena, both of which will be against Western Conference opposition. First, we'll see a midweek clash of RBNY and a struggling Seattle Sounders side before eventually seeing a hot FC Dallas side come into town.
As for NYCFC, they also have three games remaining in June following Wednesday's clash. Also like RBNY, two of these games will take place at home with the first having heavy implications on the Supporters' Shield race at this point in the season. The winner of the NYCFC vs Atlanta United battle will sit at the top of the aforementioned table at nearly the midway point in the season.
Next, NYCFC will welcome a Toronto FC which have shocked MLS fans across the country, though, not in the way they've done in the past few years. Sebastian Giovinco and company are yet to get the ball rolling this season and have quite the task ahead of them at Yankee Stadium. Then, to conclude the month of June, the boys in blue will head over to face the Chicago Fire.
How to Watch
When: Wednesday, June 6 at 7:30 PM EST
Where: Red Bull Arena
Broadcast: USsoccer.com