The budding rivalry between Orlando City and the New York Red Bulls was on full display in Friday night’s draw. Overall, there were eight yellow cards and one red in match. The game was full of contact and back and forth exchanges. If ever someone said soccer was boring to watch, last night could have changed their mind.
Second year forward Cyle Larin echoed these same sentiments. “I knew it was going to be like that. We’ve played them a lot of times and each time we play them; it gets chippy. It’s a good match against them. We play the same way as them, so it’s two very good teams playing.”
Fellow teammate Kevin Molino also saw the physical nature of the game. “It’s two teams playing each other and it was a really scrappy game until the final whistle blew. There was about a fifteen or twenty minute run where there was so much contact but credit to our players that we kept fighting but unfortunately for Cristian [Higuita] got a red card but this is the beautiful game of fútbol. Sometimes it will be tough and sometimes it easy but we just have to go out there and give the best for our team.”
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Jesse Marsch also noticed the physicality of the game, “We knew we were going to get Orlando’s best. They threw a lot at us and they were very aggressive and wanted to win a lot of battles at mid-field and it so it made for a very physical game… We came down here for three [points], but then you start playing the game. It’s not easy on the turf, and the crowd is incredible. Just an incredible energy to the crowd. I think it’s called the Ruckus, it feels like a ruckus, okay?”
The teams will meet again July 13th in New York. We’ll see if their history of hotly contested matches will continue.
