Red Bull New York earned a 2-2 draw against the defending MLS Cup champion Inter Miami CF at the recently opened Nu Stadium in Miami Saturday.
Coming into this marquee matchup, Red Bull had lost four of their last five matches against the Herons dating back to August 26, 2023.
Red Bull went to their bread and butter early on in the match, pressing Inter Miami high up the field. This forced Miami to pass the ball around their backline repeatedly and nearly led to a few turnovers.
Eventually, Lionel Messi managed to break the siege by playing a long ball towards the edge of Red Bull’s 18-yard box to his teammate Mateo Silvetti. Silvetti’s aggressive first touch took him into the box where he was bumped into by Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty. Silvetti went to ground but no penalty kick was awarded.
Inter Miami earned its first corner in the sixth minute and Messi played it short to a teammate who passed it back to the former Barcelona star. Messi then shifted the ball quickly from left to right and created space for himself down the wing before crossing into the heart of Red Bull’s 18-yard box to designated player German Berterame who missed the ball.
Red Bull beat Inter Miami to the punch in the 15th minute when winger Cade Cowell played a ball from his own half up field to 18-year-old forward Julian Hall. Hall then won a race to the ball against two Miami players, assumed possession and cut back on the edge of Miami’s 18. With the Miami players marking him going the opposite direction, Hall had the time and space to pass the ball to forward Jorge Ruvalcaba who was open inside the 18. Ruvalcaba then calmly slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of the net for his first MLS goal.
In the 21st minute, Inter Miami earned its first scoring chance when midfielder Rodrigo DePaul got on the other end of a through ball inside the Red Bull 18 before taking a right-footed shot that was saved and held onto by Red Bull goalkeeper Ethan Horvath.
Despite a few scoring chances from Inter Miami, Red Bull looked poised and precise in possession and like this match on the road against the defending champions wasn’t too big for them to this point in the match. Then, in the second minute of first half stoppage time, Inter Miami equalized. Red Bull had done well with and against the ball until they allowed DePaul the time and space to send a cross from almost near the sidelines to the backpost. There, it was one-timed into the bottom right corner by Mateo Silvetti.
In the 54th minute, with a bit of luck, Inter Miami took the lead: Messi was dribbling towards goal from outside the 18 when the ball was knocked away from him by a Red Bull player. The ball rolled over to Berterame inside the 18, who then scored into the bottom right corner of the net, making it 2-1.
Seven minutes later, Cowell crossed into Inter Miami’s 18, but Miami goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair got a hand on it. The ball deflected to Robert Voloder, a Red Bull center back, who athletically kicked the ball into the net, however, upon further review, Cowell was called offside, reversing what would’ve been the game-tying goal.
- 65th minute: Cowell subbed out for Rafael Mosquera
- Ruvalcaba subbed out for Mohammed Sofo
In the 77th minute, the hard work of the boys in red and black paid off with Adri Mehmeti scoring his first MLS goal and tying the game at 2-2.
- 86th minute: Eric Choupo-Moting was subbed in for Emil Forsberg
- Gustav Berrgren came in for Mehmeti
In second half stoppage time, Messi earned a free kick when two Red Bull players made slight contact with him. The free kick was from 23 yards out and it all would come down to this; stop Messi and Red Bull walked away from a hostile environment with a point, give up a goal and come up empty-handed.
What happened was, Messi skillfully avoided the wall with a left-footed strike that curved towards the right post and Horvath dove and kept it out. It was the biggest save of the match in one where the Red Bull goalkeeper made five saves.
Inter Miami rattled off 16 shot attempts (seven on goal) compared to just five (two on goal) for the visitors from New Jersey. It’s remarkable that Red Bull was in the match given the stats, but while the numbers don’t lie they can’t account for heart and this young Red Bull team showed a lot of heart tonight by scraping out a point on the road against the defending MLS Cup champions.
Also of note is that Julian Hall now has at least one goal contribution in three straight matches. That made him the second-youngest player in club history and the sixth-youngest player in MLS history to do so. The Manhattan native also became the seventh-youngest player in MLS history to record a multi-assist match at 18 years, 18 days old.
During the post-match press conference, Red Bull New York head coach Michael Bradley gave his thoughts on this big early regular season match in Miami.
I’m really proud of our team, really proud of the players, and the way they went after things, it’s obviously a really good opponent. The atmosphere tonight in their new stadium was incredible. And I keep saying it, for a young team, for a new team, to have a night like tonight where we were pushed and tested and had to live the flows of a game. We had moments where we were doing a lot of the things that we would like to do, where we were dangerous, where we scored an excellent first goal. One, zero, obviously, then their response is strong, and so we have to be able to deal with some parts of the game that play out on their terms. We go down one in the second half. And just the willingness of every guy on the field to keep going, to keep playing, to keep running, to stay after the game. That part was that part was special, and that’s the sign of a really good team.
One of the themes of this year for Red Bull has been their youth movement. Tonight, three players 18 years old or younger took the field for Red Bull: Matthew Dos Santos (17), Adri Mehmeti (17) and Julian Hall (18). Hall described the play that led to the game-tying goal and how happy he was that his teammate opened his MLS account.
I saw an opportunity. I saw space to get the ball and just try to create space for myself, to get it across the goal. And you know, I’m happy that Adri got his first goal for the team and it’s a great moment for him.
Red Bull will next be in action on April 15 when they take on Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC of the United Soccer League Championship at Sports Illustrated Stadium in the round of 32 of the U.S. Open Cup.
