HARRISON – Red Bull New York (2-1-0, 6 pts) tasted defeat for the first time this season, losing 3-0 to CF Montréal (1-2-0, 3 pts) on Sunday. It’s Montréal’s first win over Red Bull since April 2023.
On paper, Montréal was not favored by all means. For a club that entered Sunday’s match allowing eight goals through their first two matches of the campaign, Montréal should not have had the first half they did.
The first half for the visitors from Canada was by far their best of the young season. It was by far the worst for Red Bull in their first season under head coach Michael Bradley.
In the eighth minute, Montréal forward Prince Owusu handed his club their first goal of the season on a penalty kick to make it 1-0. Things continued to unravel for Red Bull as a familiar face made the scoreline 2-0 in the 44th minute.
After being traded by Red Bull in February and coming off the bench in Montréal’s first two matches, midfielder Wiki Carmona broke through on a cloudy day. Carmona’s goal on Montréal’s free kick made it 2-0 for the visitors.
Bradley spoke on how he tried to motivate his club following the frustrating start in the first half.
“Just to keep going,” Bradley said postgame. “The first half wasn’t what we wanted, but there [have] been a million examples of teams that go into halftime down 2-0 and find a way to get the first goal and get themselves back into the game and I thought even at halftime we still had really good chances to play and find the next goal.”
The misery continued as the second half marched on for Red Bull. In the 68th minute, disaster struck again as the former Red Bull Carmona earned himself a brace and put Montréal up 3-0.
From 2021 to 2025, Carmona in all competitions had six goals with Red Bull New York with none coming in league play last season. In his third match with Montréal, he got his revenge against his former side.
Now, through three matches this season, the Red Bull attack have not had anyone other than Julian Hall score. Their huge signings from the offseason in Jorge Ruvalcaba and Cade Cowell, zero goals scored. Captain Emil Forsberg and Eric Choupo-Moting, who started his first match of the season Sunday, zero goals.
“I thought we had moments where our ideas and some of the things that we tried to do were good. But certainly for the day, we didn’t create enough. We didn’t manage to take our football and our control of the game and turn it into enough big chances.”
Sunday’s loss will no doubt be a learning moment for the club. What was supposed to be an easy match on paper, turned into a nightmare.
“Hard lesson today, but an important one and we’ll use it the right way.”
Now, New York will head up North to Toronto on Saturday as they take on Toronto FC. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
