New York Red Bulls vs. Seattle Sounders FC | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

New York Red Bulls vs. Seattle Sounders FC
2018 MLS Regular Season - Week 16
Red Bull Arena — Harrison
June 13 - 8 pm ET
WATCH: ESPN+, MLS LIVE on DAZN (Canada)

The New York Red Bulls continue to slog through a brutal stretch of games spread across two competitions with a second consecutive week of double games beginning with a Wednesday night showdown with a Seattle Sounders FC team that comes off an emotional come-from-behind win over D.C. United.

The home team has won each of the last four meetings between the two clubs. The Red Bulls are 3W-1L-2D at home in MLS play against Seattle, the lone loss coming in 2010.

New York Red Bulls

After an emotionally charged 4-0 win over New York City FC in the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday, the Red Bulls (7-4-2) battled the Columbus heat and a red-hot Crew SC team at MAPFRE Stadium on Saturday with New York fortunate to come away with a 1-1 draw.

If not for Luis Robles’ heroics, Crew SC should have had more than just a Gyasi Zardes goal, his 10th of the season in the 26th minute, from a dominant opening 45 minutes. The Red Bulls regrouped at halftime and rallied in the second half, earning an Alex Muyl equalizer in the 57th minute.

“Sometimes draws feel like draws and sometimes they feel like a win; this one felt like a win,” Jesse Marsch said after the game. “Because of how hard the first half was for us. When we went in at halftime I looked at 11 faces and they were searching for answers a little bit, they were exhausted.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: D - Michael Murillo, D - Fidel Escobar, M - Kaku
Injury Report: OUT: D - Kyle Duncan (torn right ACL), M - Vincent Bezecourt (right knee MCL sprain)

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

Notes: Kaku has nine assists this season, the most in the league. Just 16 players had at least 10 assists in all of 2017. … The Red Bulls have lost just one MLS home match since the start of last July – only LAFC (which have played just five home matches) have fewer. They are first in goals against average (0.6), and second in both goals per game (2.4) and goal differential (+25) in that time.

Seattle Sounders FC

Trailing 1-0 on Darren Mattocks’ sixth goal of the season, Seattle (3-7-2) were staring at a devastating home defeat, which would have been their fourth loss in a row.

Instead, the Sounders rallied with Nicolas Lodeiro leveling four minutes later and Magnus Wolff Eikrem following with the 83rd-minute winner for the hosts for a much-needed win. While his team heads to Red Bull Arena still 11 points behind the playoff line in the Western Conference, coach Brian Schmetzer said his team still has a pulse.

“It’s a team game, I think they came to play, I think they all understood the place that we found ourselves in the table,” Schmetzer said. “I’ll just caution everybody here, we still have a long way to go, but there are some signs of life and signs of a little bit of momentum for sure.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: M - Osvaldo Alonso
International duty: D - Roman Torres, M - Gustav Svensson
Injury Report: OUT: F - Jordan Morris (torn ACL); QUESTIONABLE: M - Handwalla Bwana (right foot injury)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK: Stefan Frei — Kelvin Leerdam, Kim Kee-hee, Chad Marshall, Nouhou Tolo — Cristian Roldan, Nicolas Lodeiro — Harry Shipp, Clint Dempsey, Victor Rodriguez — Will Bruin

Notes: Since joining the Sounders, Lodeiro has won 3.4 fouls per game in league play, the most of any MLS player with at least 20 appearances. … The Sounders’ 2-1 win against D.C. United snapped a three-match losing streak. The two goals also equaled their total from their previous six matches combined.

All-Time Series

Overall: New York Red Bulls 4 wins, 16 goals … Seattle Sounders FC 5 wins, 18 goals … 3 draws
At New York: Red Bulls 3 wins, 10 goals … Sounders FC 1 win, 8 goals … 2 draws
Last meeting at New York: New York Red Bulls 2, Seattle Sounders FC 0 (June 19, 2016)