New York Red Bulls vs. DC United | 2018 MLS Match Preview

New York Red Bulls vs. D.C. United
2018 MLS Regular Season — Week 26
Red Bull Arena — Harrison
August 26 - 7 pm ET
WATCH: FS1, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

Atlantic Cup foes New York Red Bulls and D.C. United renew their long-standing rivalry Sunday at Red Bull Arena as part of Heineken Rivalry Week.

The Red Bulls come into the game off a three-game road stand that included a coast-to-coast trip to Vancouver and a midweek clash against NYCFC and came away with five points, capped by a wild derby draw at Yankee Stadium. Meanwhile, D.C. United have won three straight and are unbeaten in their last five following a 2-0 home win over the New England Revolution.

This is the second of three matches with the Red Bulls handing D.C. United their first loss at Audi Field as Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his 100th career MLS regular season goal in the 1-0 victory on July 25.

New York Red Bulls

New York Red Bulls (15-6-4) raced ahead in the first half, but couldn’t take advantage of nine-man NYCFC and settled for a 1-1 draw Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

Wright-Phillips opened the scoring with his 12th goal in 12 MLS regular season derby encounters, latching onto a Danny Royer cross and heading inside the far post in the 37th minute. David Villa leveled after halftime and NYCFC looked stronger in the second half despite red cards to Eloi Amagat and Ebenezer Ofori.

“We're not going to get emotional about this,” Chris Armas said. “We went to Vancouver, got a point. We came to New York City where they haven’t lost and got a point. When things were level, we thought we were the better team. That’s that. One point on the road, tough place to play, a derby match, which they're always interesting. And then there's the other side, we're up two guys and couldn't get the game winner so there will be some initial frustration, but short lived and on to the next one Sunday."

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: M - Florian Valot (torn left ACL), D - Kyle Duncan (torn right ACL), M - Vincent Bezecourt (MCL sprain), D - Tommy Redding (shoulder surgery)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Luis Robles — Michael Murillo, Tim Parker, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence — Tyler Adams, Sean Davis — Marc Rzatkowski, Kaku, Danny Royer — Bradley Wright-Phillips

D.C. United

Since the home defeat to the Red Bulls, D.C. United (7-9-6) have won four of their next five without a loss, including a 2-0 victory over struggling New England Sunday at Audi Field.

Luciano Acosta remained hot, opening the scoring in the 13th minute a week after scoring a hat trick against Orlando City SC. After the Revs were reduced to 10 men on Scott Caldwell’s second bookable offense, Zoltan Stieber came off the bench to add an 89th-minute insurance goal for the Black-and-Red.

“What I’m pleased with today is that we had to dig in and show a physical presence… Something our team haven’t dealt with in the greatest way over the last year-and-a-half,” Ben Olsen said. “That’s what [New England] do, they came here to pick a fight and we did well at matching a very physical team.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Chris Durkin
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: D - Taylor Kemp (labrum surgery), D - Nick DeLeon (knee injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Bill Hamid — Oniel Fisher, Kofi Opare, Steve Birnbaum, Joseph Mora — Russell Canouse, Junior Moreno — Paul Arriola, Luciano Acosta, Yamil Asad — Wayne Rooney

All-Time Series

Overall: New York Red Bulls 28 wins, 111 goals … D.C. United 34 wins, 132 goals … 13 draws
At New York: Red Bulls 16 wins, 53 goals … D.C. United 13 wins, 55 goals … 7 draws
Last meeting at New York: New York Red Bulls 3, D.C. United 3 (Sept. 27, 2017)

Officials

Referee: Dave Gantar
Assistant Referees: Michael Kampmeinert, Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
4th Official: Marcos Deoliveira
VAR: Alex Chilowicz

Dylan Butler -

@Dylan_Butler