New York City FC and the New York Red Bulls met Saturday night at Sports Illustrated Stadium with the Hudson River Derby back in the spotlight and both clubs tied on 18 points. Kickoff was set for 7 p.m., and the game carried the feel of a midseason pivot after NYCFC beat the Red Bulls 3-1 in the U.S. Open Cup two weeks earlier.
It was the 28th all-time regular season meeting between the teams, and the numbers leaned slightly toward NYCFC, which held a 12-11-4 edge in the series. The Red Bulls, though, have made their home ground a difficult place for their rivals, going 12-5-2 against NYCFC across all competitions at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
That backdrop gave the match extra weight because neither side arrived with much separation in the table. The Red Bulls were 5-5-3 with 18 points, and NYCFC was right beside them at 5-5-3 and 18 points. In a rivalry this tight, a single result can reshape the tone of the stretch ahead, and both clubs came in knowing how little room there was to give away.
One of the players carrying the sharpest momentum into the night was Julian Hall. The Red Bulls forward had just recorded his first MLS hat trick in a 3-2 win over Columbus Crew, becoming the youngest player in league history to score a hat trick at 18 years and 50 days old. He had nine MLS goals on the season and had scored in back-to-back matches against NYCFC across all competitions at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Red Bulls head coach Michael Bradley said Hall’s rise has changed the way the club thinks about his role. He said the team is trying to make Hall’s game “even more complete” and keep raising the bar for him, and added that Hall has been “really, really important” because of his presence, speed, work rate, goal scoring and understanding of how to come off defenders. Bradley also said Hall has “taken our ideas of football and really gone with it,” and that the club will “count on Julian in a big way.”
That is what made this derby more than another meeting in a crowded schedule. The Red Bulls had the home edge and a forward in record-setting form, while NYCFC had the recent knockout win and the steadier hold on the regular-season series. The result would not settle the rivalry, but it would tell the next version of the story, and Hall has already become one of its most important names.
