The first Hudson River Derby of the 2024 MLS campaign takes place on Saturday as New York City FC host the New York Red Bulls at Citi Field for the first time in the regular season.
Both sides were victorious in their midweek affairs, with the Pigeons claiming a 2-1 triumph over the Philadelphia Union to move into fifth in the Eastern Conference, three points below the Red Bulls in third, as the latter handed DC United a 4-1 defeat.
Match preview
New York City will head home on a high, winning successive away matches in the regular season for the first time since July 2022.
That exceeds their total for away victories in this competition from a season ago (one), and they have a chance this weekend to win three straight MLS fixtures twice in the same season for the first time since 2022, when they claimed three or more consecutive victories on four occasions.
On their recent two-game road trip, the Boys in Blue found the back of the net five times, which is as many goals as they managed in their opening seven regular season matches this year.
In their previous encounter at Citi Field, Nick Cushing's men suffered a disappointing 2-0 defeat to the Colorado Rapids, only the third time they had failed to score domestically in Queens.
The Pigeons have netted multiple times in five of their last six games this season and boast a 100% record when doing so (six wins).
They have failed to score in three successive matches versus the Red Bulls in all competitions and have not won against them since 2022 (2-0 at Yankee Stadium).
After taking a second-half beating against Inter Miami at the beginning of the month, the Red Bulls have unleashed their attacking firepower, scoring four goals in each of their last two games.
This group have done this in typical Red Bulls fashion, having 40% possession or fewer in those two triumphs versus the New England Revolution (4-2) and DC.
On Saturday, the Red Bulls can win consecutive away matches in this competition for the first time all year and also match their number of victories as the visitors from the previous domestic campaign (four).
One noticeable improvement under new manager Sandro Schwarz has been their quality in the attacking third, scoring 24 goals in 13 domestic encounters after netting just eight at this stage a year ago.
With just two defeats to this stage of the 2024 campaign, it is the fewest for this club after 13 league contests since 2011 (two).
While the Red Bulls are unbeaten in their last three matches versus NYCFC, they have not claimed three points away from home against them since a 1-0 triumph at Yankee Stadium in 2021.
Team News
Maxi Moralez is back training with the Boys in Blue after rupturing his ACL last season but sat out on Wednesday, as did Rio Hope-Gund with a leg injury.
Strahinja Tanasijevic will be sidelined for this game after the league suspended him for an additional match on Friday, Monsef Bakrar came off the bench in midweek after missing their match last weekend with a lower-body issue and Talles Magno was once again an unused substitute.
Alonso Martinez scored in the early going on Wednesday before Hannes Wolf notched the winner in first-half stoppage time, his first as a member of NYCFC in the regular season.
The Red Bulls were missing Ronald Donkor in midweek due to a back issue, Peter Stroud continues to recover from ankle surgery, while Roald Mitchell and Serge Ngoma are dealing with knee injuries.
We saw four newcomers in the Red Bulls starting 11 on Wednesday with Kyle Duncan, Andres Reyes, Cameron Harper and Elias Manoel, replacing Dylan Nealis, Sean Nealis, Wikelman Carmona and Dante Vanzeir.
Goals from Manoel, Harper, Lewis Morgan and Cory Burke helped the Red Bulls to a comfortable victory over the Black and Red this week.
New York City FC possible starting lineup:
Freese; Gray, Martins, Risa, O'Toole; Sands, Parks; Wolf, Rodriguez, Fernandez; Martinez
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Coronel; D. Nealis, S. Nealis, Eile, Tolkin; Edelman, Amaya; Carmona, Forsberg, Morgan; Manoel
We say: New York City FC 1-0 New York Red Bulls
The Red Bulls have shown themselves to be a quality attacking side, but we believe it will be much harder to penetrate the Pigeons' backline, which have conceded a goal or fewer in four of their last five home fixtures.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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