MONTCLAIR– The New York Red Bulls II (15-5-4) concluded the month of August with a 7-4 victory over the Columbus Crew II (4-15-4) at their home field, MSU Soccer Park on Sunday.
The Baby Bulls won their third and final meeting with Columbus of the season to sweep the season series.
The Baby Bulls benefitted from Nehuén Benedetti’s hat trick and Montclair, New Jersey native Roald Mitchell’s second brace of the season.
In the 10th minute, Benedetti fired a right-footed shot into the left side of the net to get the home side on the board. Columbus answered back five minutes later when Brent Adu-Gyamfi received a pass inside the Red Bulls II’s 18-yard box and beat goalkeeper Aidan Stokes inside the near post.
Two minutes after that, the Baby Bulls took the lead right back, when Rafael Mosquera squared the ball for Benedetti who ran onto the pass and chipped the goalkeeper who had rushed off his line.
One minute later, Mitchell received a pass inside the box from defender Matthew Dos Santos, turned with the ball towards the goal around a defender and scored with his right foot to stretch the Baby Bulls’ lead to two.
The scoring finally calmed down for the next 20 minutes. Then in the 42nd minute, midfielder Nate Worth played Rafael Mosquera in on the right side of the box. Mosquera then dribbled to the center of the box and unleashed a left-footed strike that beat the goalkeeper to make it 4-1 heading into halftime.
Columbus Can’t Complete Comeback in Second Half
The Crew II made three substitutions at the half, bringing on Chase Adams, Nicolas Rincon and Anthony Alaouieh.
However, this didn’t faze the Baby Bulls who picked up right where they left off, extending their lead to four on Roald Mitchell’s second goal of the game in the 47th minute. The goal was Mitchell’s fourth of the season.
The Crew II fought back despite being down by four. They scored their second goal of the game in the 63rd minute. A right-footed shot by Kevin Gbamblé went off Stokes’ hand and in to cut the deficit to three.
Four minutes later, Benedetti completed his hat trick when Mosquera dribbled inside the box and had the ball tackled away from him. The ball then came to Benedetti who calmly finished with his left foot, giving the Baby Bulls a commanding 6-2 lead.
In the 72nd minute, the Crew II scored the first of two unanswered goals: the first involved midfielder Tristan Brown crossing to the backpost for Adams who tapped it in; the second goal involved Cesar Ruvalcaba heading in a corner kick taken by Rincon. This brought the Baby Bulls lead to 6-4.
In the 81st minute, the Baby Bulls were awarded a penalty when Nate Worth was taken down. Andy Rojas took the kick sending it into the bottom left corner, but it was saved by Columbus goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes.
Almost at 90 minutes, the Baby Bulls’ Panamanian duo clicked on the final goal of the game. The play involved the Baby Bulls breaking out of their half on a counter attack. Mosquera got the ball and dribbled it deep into Columbus territory. He passed over to Mijahir Jimenez who took a touch before slotting the ball into the bottom left corner. Mosquera finished the game with two assists, which gives him a team-leading 10 on the season.
Postgame Reactions from the Baby Bulls
Winning gives the Baby Bulls a five-point cushion atop the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference standings. After the game, Mitchell described the first of his two goals.
I saw Matty (Dos Santos). I knew he was capable of playing that pass so I got in a good spot for him to play me in to my back foot, did a quick turn and then the defender jumped a little too early so I decided to fake shot it and then saw a little opening in the corner so I put it there.
Despite scoring a season-high seven goals, Red Bulls II head coach Michael Bradley had an issue with how his team played in the second half.
It’s concentration it’s now not knowing, not having a good enough feel for how to manage a game when you are in control and ahead and so that is how to still play football, how to still make the right decisions, how to still try to attack but to do it with intelligence and so yeah for a young group these are things that you have to learn. You learn on the job right, you learn along the way. So, yeah that’s a little of what we’re going through right now.
The international window will give the Red Bulls II a break from MLS NEXT Pro competition until September 13 when they face Huntsville FC on the road.
Mitchell described what the road ahead looks like for the Baby Bulls.
It was a very important win tonight. It’s something that we can’t be comfortable with though. Our next upcoming games are pretty serious. We have Huntsville (next). We just have to keep up the consistency and training intensity.
