Under the Friday night lights at Montclair State University’s Soccer Park, the top team in MLS NEXT Pro’s eastern conference defeated Red Bull New York II 3-0 behind three second half goals.
Despite a late push from the Baby Bulls, Crown Legacy’s speed in transition was too much to handle. There was an early chance for the visitors involving a long direct ball being taken down by Nathan Richmond inside Red Bull’s 18-yard box. Richmond settled the ball and took a shot that was blocked by Erick Londono.
In the 16th minute, Benjamin Rodriguez, who recently signed his first MLS NEXT Pro contract, was shoved to the ground inside Crown Legacy’s box and the referee turned the other cheek. Four minutes later, the referee had to intervene when Dennis Nelich slide tackled Jack Neeley by the touchline. Nelich was lucky to not be shown a straight red and instead earned a yellow card for his challenge which angered Crown Legacy FC’s players. For his role in the pushing and shoving, Willian Sangoquiza was also cautioned and the teams played on.
Between the 41st and 43rd minutes of the match, Crown Legacy FC earned three straight corners and all were defended magnificently by Red Bull II and goalkeeper and Morristown native Tobias Szewczyk who punched away one cross.
At halftime, the visitors made two changes, subbing off midfielder Willian Sangoquiza for Wyatt Holt and center forward Michael Ayovi for Hugo Mbongue. Mbongue paid immediate dividends, drawing a foul inside the 18-yard box that earned Crown Legacy a penalty. Szewczyk stopped Mbongue’s tepid penalty but left a rebound that was slammed into the back of the net by Mbongue to give Crown Legacy a 1-0 lead in the 57th minute.
Just five minutes later, Richmond capitalized on a turnover by Deven Cadigan and scored 1-on-1 with Szewczyk to make it 2-0.
At this point, Red Bull II had trouble creating with possession and instead opted to play long balls. One long ball off the boot of Aimar Modelo nearly found Montclair native Roald Mitchell, who came into tonight’s match the leading active scorer for Red Bulls II with 16 goals in 23 matches, but Crown Legacy goalkeeper Jahiem Wickham came off his line and grabbed the ball before Mitchell could get to it.
In the 70th minute, Crown Legacy FC put the match out of reach when Mbongue pounced on a turnover inside Red Bull II’s half. Mbongue passed it to Magic Smalls who laid it off to Adrian Mendoza who finished near side, making it a 3-0 hole for the hosts.
The hosts actually had three of their four shots on goal in the second half. One of them coming from Benjamin Rodriguez in the 68th minute and another from Paul Sokoloff in the 79th, but Wickham made easy saves on both of them. Red Bull II also earned three straight corner kicks during the 79th minute, but couldn’t capitalize.
Rodriguez described how ironically the Baby Bulls had more of the ball and more chances in a second half where they gave up three goals.
They’re a good team, very well structured, and in the first few minutes we didn’t really figure out the midfield, but then after me, Deven (Cadigan), and Nevi (Benedetti) started rotating in the middle, I thought we had a lot of success and found the ball a lot more. And then we went into halftime, and that was kind of the point of halftime — you know, rotate in the middle, that’s how we’re going to break them. And then I thought we did a good job doing that.
Red Bull New York II head coach Dominik Wohlert spoke about the environment at Red Bull II and how sometimes he has to accept that his players will make mistakes.
That’s the environment that we want to create. It’s also the environment where yes, we want to play our style of football, but we allow the guys to make these mistakes, and it hurts for us in that moment. But tomorrow it’s fine. It’s good that it happens here instead of happening in Sports Illustrated Stadium. Little things like this — make the mistakes here, learn from them, and don’t repeat them again.
Red Bull II were missing two key players in tonight’s match in captain Nate Worth and the forward tied for third on the team in goals, Mijahir Jimenez. Both had signed short-term agreements with the first team and were on the bench for the first team in their most recent game against Philadelphia.
Wohlert touched on the progression of both Worth and Jimenez and how what they’re experiencing now is part of the process of being a MLS NEXT Pro player.
First of all, I hope I don’t see them anymore this season. Like the best thing is, I want them to stay there, and I mean that really in a good way. I love these kids, but that’s again the pathway. That’s our reward. The reward is signing contracts. The reward is being in first team training sessions. The reward is sitting on the bench like Nate and Jimenez are experiencing now. That’s our reward, and that’s why we work hard in the facility on the pitch.
The 18-year-old Rodriguez who may be in Worth and Jimenez’s spot one day, described what it’s been like to see so many of his teammates get called up to the first team.
To see Nate (Worth) and (Mijahir) Jimenez just play with us a few weeks ago, and now they’re on the bench in the first team — it really inspires a lot of us and gives us confidence and gives us the want to be in their shoes one day.
As far as Red Bull II’s MLS NEXT Pro season, there is no respite as the team will play New England Revolution II, who are third place in the East, next Sunday August 2. The Baby Bulls are 1-1 against New England this season, having most recently lost 2-1 on the road.
