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Matchday Musings: Atlantic Cup
A slightly too lighthearted look ahead to the Red Bulls' upcoming fixture
Photo credit: Irish Mailborski
Ah rivalry week, a time honored American tradition. Well it’s not really rivalry week in MLS, the only other rivalry matchup this weekend is the California Classico between the Galaxy and the Earthquakes, but the Red Bulls are playing DC United for the heralded Atlantic Cup, personally my favorite rivalry trophy in the league. Everybody loves a good rivalry trophy, it’s a nice physical representation of bragging rights to taunt other fans over, and in a good rivalry everyone knows who currently possesses the trophy. Army holds the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, the Vancouver Whitecaps hold the Cascadia Cup, Cal holds the Stanford Axe, and the Red Bulls hold the Atlantic Cup, something they’ll look to lock up for another year.
Bulletin Board
The Red Bulls thrashed TFC in one of their most dominating performances of the season the last week. Really one of those games where everything seemed to click, the midfield controlled the game, chances were created and more importantly converted, TFC’s attack was virtually non-threatening and Elias Manoel had an absolute thunderbanger of a goal. That said, anyone who reads this…column(?) knows that TFC is a bit of a mess right now, so while there are plenty of positives to take away from that game, it’s hard to know what can be applied to stronger opposition. That point doesn’t really matter too much for this game, this week’s opponent isn’t really any better. But what does matter is a certain Lewis Morgan is finally back from his brief sabbatical with Scotland at the Euros. Emphasis on brief, the Tartan Army finished dead last in their group, and failed to put a single shot on target in 2 of their 3 games. Truly the most dismal performance by Scotland in a major tournament since, well the last one. And the one before that, and the one before that. Maybe they should’ve given Morgan more playing time. What’s also important is that Frankie Amaya has officially left for Toluca, leaving a pretty substantial gap in the midfield. The team will likely look to 19 year old Ghanaian, Ronald Donkor, to fill that role in the interim until Peter Stroud returns from an injury or the team makes a splash in the upcoming transfer window. Of course Donkor could just end up seizing the spot for himself full time, but regardless of who plays there, it will be a fairly massive and important change.
It’s been a bad month for DC United. That was fun to write, so I’m going to write it again: it’s been a bad month for DC United. The wonderful world of Ted Lasso might be a ‘nein schadenfreude’ zone, but we here at the Metro Soccer Report do not subscribe to that philosophy. The Black and Red have lost their last 3 games, and are coming off of a 4-1 shellacking at home to the Houston Dynamo. They haven’t won a game since May 11th, and have only managed a measly two draws in their last 8 games, a run which I’m happy to remind you started with a separate 4-1 defeat at Audi Field to THE New York Red Bulls. Things only seem to be going further downhill in the nation’s capital, star striker Christian Beneteke, who’s 14 goal tally is the second highest in the league, will be missing the game with a red card suspension. Considering he alone has more than half of the team’s total goals this season, that’s a pretty seismic loss. The only real hypothetical advantage for DC heading into this match, is that they are led by Troy Lesesne, who was the Red Bulls’ interim head coach last season. There’s no other coach in the league who really understands the strengths and weaknesses of so many Red Bull players, but that wasn’t really too helpful for them in the reverse fixture.
Lesesne has been experimenting a bit with tactics in the last few weeks, bringing out a different formation in virtually every game. When a team’s in a stretch that bad, sometimes the coach just throws everything at the wall and hopes something sticks. That does mean they’ll probably be a little bit of disorganization on DC United’s end, but it does make it a little hard to predict just how they’ll play. That said, there are some things we can count on. With Beneteke out, DC will need a little bit of extra attack so a 3-4-3 could be on the cards, but then again they may just try to bunker the game away and hope for a lucky counter to get a result. They’ll likely try to play most of their attacks through the right side, as that’s really where they are strongest with former Red Bull Jared Stroud (Peter’s brother) who leads the team with 8 assists, and Aaron Herrera who was leading all right backs in votes in the last All-Star Game update. It’ll be strength vs strength, as they’ll be going up directly against John Tolkin in what should be the big position battle to watch. DC United has a lot of promising young talent like Ted Ku-DiPietro, Jacob Murrell, Jackon Hopkins, Kristian Fletcher, Garrison Tubbs, and Matai Akinmboni. While all those players seem posed for bright futures that could make DC a dangerous team in coming seasons, they’re just not physically developed enough yet to be collectively threatening. Even without Amaya, Forsberg (probably), Coronel and maybe Morgan (hard to know how many minutes he’ll get), the Red Bulls have much more quality and shouldn’t have too much trouble. It’s always worth remembering, rivalry games can be a little unpredictable sometimes.
Stats Circle
New York Red Bulls MLS record: 9-7-4 (3rd-E)
DC United MLS Record: 4-7-9 (13th-E)New York Red Bulls Last MLS Result: 3-0 vs. TFC
DC United Last MLS Result: 1-4 vs. Houston DynamoNew York Red Bulls Top Scorer: Lewis Morgan (9)
DC United Top Scorer Not Currently Suspended: Mateuz Klick and Ted Ku-DiPietro (2)The Red Bulls have won 6 of the last 7 Atlantic Cups.
Fun Fact: The Atlantic Cup is awarded to whichever team wins the regular season series. The Red Bulls and DC United have both won the Atlantic Cup 14 times. With their 4-1 victory over DC back in May, the Red Bulls are primed to take this year’s edition, which would give New York the all time lead for the first time in the rivalry’s history.
Players to watch
Aaron Herrera
Herrera has been consistently one of the better right backs in the league for a while now, something which earned him his first call up to the USMNT back in 2021. However, he just couldn’t quite really establish himself at the very top of the position, which is why that was his only call up before he switched to playing for his father’s country, Guatemala. DC United should be grateful he made that decision, he would likely be at the Copa America right now if he stayed with the US, as he’s taken a serious step forward this season, to the extent where it would be fair to call him the best right back in MLS. He’s always been one of the best passers among his position, combined with impressive speed he’s basically the ideal wingback. In terms of shot creating action, he’s in the 96th percentile in the league. But these were always his strengths, what really sets this season apart from past performance has been his improvements defensively. At 27, he looks like a player entering his physical peak. He’s better in the air, he’s making more tackles, more blocks, and he’s just doing a better job muscling guys off the ball. There aren’t many defenders in this league as well rounded as Herrera. In fact outside of John Tolkin, there might not be any. If only he played for a team that didn’t make him do all of the work.
Lewis Morgan
Welcome back Lewis, we’ve missed you. While the team has managed to break through its scoring drought with 5 goals in the last 180 minutes, it’ll definitely be nice having the team’s most reliable scoring threat back in action. Though he might be a little rusty. He missed 4 games while at the Euros, and did not get very much playing time with the Scottish national team, only playing 11 minutes against Finland in a friendly and stoppage time against Hungary in their final game. His last serious playing time was almost a month ago, when he went a full 90 minutes against Orlando. Morgan’s a very physically fit player, and more likely than not, he should be able to step back into the lineup without significant issue. But it is something that Red Bull fans should be aware of, and it might take a little bit of game time for everything to start clicking again. It wouldn’t be out of the question for Sandro Schwarz to sub him on from off the bench, but considering his mere presence on the field just adds a significant element to the attack, he should probably be in the starting lineup.
Matt Miagza Model of the Week
Nobody
When Odysseus stabbed out the eye of the cyclops Polyphemus, he told the monster that his name was “Nobody”. That way if anyone ever asked the blind cyclops who did this to him, he could only say “Nobody”. Well like Polyphemus, I wish Nobody would stab out my eyes, because there isn’t anybody on DC United worth looking at.
That’s just a little banter, you guys look fine.
Prediction
It’s a fairly straightforward victory, as the Red Bulls repeat themselves and beat DC 4-1 for the second time this season to keep the Atlantic Cup exactly where it belongs.
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