CHESTER, Pa. — The New York Red Bulls won’t get a chance to return to the U.S. Open Cup final after bowing out of the 2018 tournament with a disappointing 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday.
But they still have another title on their mind.
“I know guys are bummed because we don’t get to continue in this tournament,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “But overall, there’s still a really good feel this team can do something special this year. And there are still trophies to be won.”
While an elusive MLS Cup remains the ultimate end goal, the Red Bulls, under head coach Jesse Marsch, certainly take the Open Cup seriously, as their run to the final last year showed.
But Marsh also knew he had to be careful how he managed minutes Saturday, with the Red Bulls playing their fifth game in a 15-day stretch. That meant, for instance, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Daniel Royer only entered the contest midway through the second half, with Wright-Phillips’ 77th-minute goal enough to slice the Union’s lead in half, but not force extra time or penalty kicks.
“Our guys really went after it and we were operating on fumes,” Marsch said. “We were playing with like half a deck. The way that U.S. Soccer allowed this fixture date to take place, I think for me, is not in the spirit of the tournament. That’s all you can really say. It’s clearly an advantage for one team over another. But I don’t want to make excuses. Philadelphia got the win and they’re moving on.”
The Red Bulls, who advanced to this point in the Open Cup with a 4-0 win over rivals New York City FC, certainly had some scheduling challenges after drawing in Columbus last Saturday and beating Seattle on Wednesday.
So the fact that they were able to fight back vs. Philly after falling behind 2-0, and maybe would have found the equalizer if not for a big Andre Blake save in the 81st minute, pleased Marsch, who called his team’s effort “amazing.”
And as they now move into the dog days of MLS summer, that was a positive sign for the Red Bulls coach, as was the fact they emerged from the busy stretch unscathed.
“The last thing we wanted was injuries,” Marsch said. “We honor this tournament by the way we treat it, but given the workloads for all of the different guys, we felt the biggest way to derail our season was to pick up injuries to our key guys. … So the fact that we got through this in a healthy manner means that we’ll still give ourselves a chance to push on with the season.”
But before they look ahead to the rest of what they think could be a special season, starting with Saturday’s game vs. FC Dallas (6 pm ET | UniMás, Twitter - Full TV and streaming info), the Red Bulls will be given three badly-needed days off to rest.
“I hope everyone gets a chance to get a mental refresher,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “When you look at the schedule for the rest of the summer, it doesn’t get any easier, so we know we need to utilize the next few days and recharge.”
