HARRISON – Red Bull New York (2-0-0, 6 pts) end February with a victory in their home opener vs the New England Revolution (0-2-0, 0 pts) Saturday, winning 1-0.
Since Sports Illustrated Stadium opened as Red Bull Arena in 2010, home openers for New York have seemingly brought good fortunes to the squad. Since 2010, Red Bull have posted a record of 10-3-3 in their home openers prior to Saturday’s match. The 2026 version was sure to keep that positive trend alive.
Even in a disappointing season like 2025, Red Bull have always been an excellent home side. There’s a reason why entering Saturday’s match, they have had the second best home record in the league since 2010.
One would assume with the warmer weather and sunny skies that fans would be eager to see Red Bull play their original 96 foes. To an extent, the fans that did come out cheered proudly for a club that had few great moments in 2025.
As a result, they were able to see a New York club win their second straight following their great season opener over Orlando City SC. Unlike the roaring start in Orlando, the goals weren’t present in the first half for Red Bull.
Patience is a virtue and in the 53rd minute, New York struck first. Off a great dish from defender Matthew Dos Santos, a nice heading pass from midfielder Adri Mehmeti found forward Julian Hall. Hall proceeded to head it in and give New York the 1-0 lead.
On the goal, it was a 17-year-old to a 16-year-old to a 17-year-old. The goal would be Hall’s third in two matches.
“It was more and more clear everyday that both of these guys [Mehmeti and Hall] needed to be on the field,” head coach Michael Bradley said postgame. “They are really talented young players, they both have really good mentalities, they come every day ready to train, ready to work, ready to push themselves. We’re really happy with the progress that they’re making.”
A lot of the attention will rightfully belong to the work of Mehmeti and Hall. The backline, though, deserves a lot of credit as well for how they performed on Saturday.
Two matches in and the concerns surrounding the defense have disappeared, especially after allowing zero goals on Saturday. Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Dylan Nealis and Justin Che were among the best rated players on the pitch Saturday. Goalkeeper Ethan Horvath earned the clean sheet as well.
“Defensively, you absolutely cannot talk about the game today without talking about the guys in the back,” Bradley said. “Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty had an excellent game, Dylan Nealis excellent, Justin Che excellent, Ethan Horvath excellent… they all had really, really good games.”
Postgame, Dos Santos spoke on how important those three defenders have been in his development as a player.
“Dylan, Justin and Jack [Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty] have been a really big help for me, knowing Jack’s been in the league for six, seven years and then Dylan being a vet on the team already, they’ve helped me a lot,” the young defender said postgame. “Dylan before the game talked to me, they give me information about the players I’m playing against, the systems I’m playing against, and then it’s just the communication on the backline, the shifting, they help me with all of that.”
Red Bull will now look to earn their third straight victory on Sunday, March 8 when they host CF Montréal. Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. on Apple TV.
