The New York Red Bulls will look to end a dismal second half of the season, during which they picked up three wins from 16 games, on a high note against a strong Columbus Crew side on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at the Red Bull Arena.
The Red Bulls secured their 15th-straight playoff spot despite a 5-1 home loss to local rivals New York City FC on Sept. 28 and will hope a win on Saturday can lift them above the current 7th position they hold in the Eastern Conference. If not, they will most likely play Columbus again in the first-round best-of-3 series in the playoffs, depending on results.
In his pre-match press conference, head coach Sandro Schwarz revealed that Wikelman Carmona is back in training after suffering a thigh injury that has ruled him out since July. Swedish international Emil Forsberg and Scotland International Lewis Morgan escaped the recent international break unscathed. Captain Forsberg was eased back into the fold by Schwarz with half an hour against NYCFC, an hour against Toronto FC in which he scored a penalty and another half hour against Atlanta United two weeks ago after missing three months with a lower-leg injury.
“It’s good to have 90% of all our players in training, Kyle Duncan and Roald Mitchell are out,” Schwarz said. “It’s good to have these competitions for positions now in each position — which we needed to find our starting lineup and be ready for the last home game in the regular season.”
The Red Bulls are also without center back Dylan Nealis, who was sent off against Atlanta.
New York’s last win came against Toronto FC, but Schwarz has since switched to a back three against Atlanta. Despite the loss, Schwarz attributes it to “behavior” more than tactics and has said he will stick with the formation.
“We play with three center backs, wing backs and then we play more in a one-on-one situation against Columbus,” Schwarz said. “We have to think about it but I’m sure we will have a good solution for Saturday.”
Defending MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew are coming off the back of a 4-0 win against the New England Revolution where Romanian left-winger scored a hattrick. The Crew is a lock for second place in the Eastern Conference as they trail first-place Inter Miami by eight points and are ahead of third-place FC Cincinnati by a margin of seven. As such, head coach Wilfried Nancy may not want to risk stars Cucho Hernandez and Mohamed Farsi ahead of their playoff run.
The Red Bulls can move up as far as fifth if they win by more than a goal and NYCFC lose to Montréal. Charlotte FC, in sixth, are ahead by one point and play D.C. United on the road.
