Monsef Bakrar scored the tiebreaking goal in the 64th minute as host New York City Football Club earned a 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls in the latest installment of the Hudson River Derby on Saturday night.
NYCFC (7-5-2, 23 points) moved to 7-2-2 in its past 11 matches since losing its first three matches of the season. NYCFC notched its third straight one-goal victory thanks to Bakrar, who scored shortly after entering the contest as a substitute for Jovan Mijatovic.
After Malachi Jones blocked a shot by Wikelman Carmona, NYCFC quickly moved the ball up the field and made a series of passes.
James Sands slid the ball to Hannes Wolf, who quickly moved it to Tayvon Gray along the left side. Gray spotted Bakrar cutting to the net and the sequence ended with an easy tap-in from the middle of the box after Bakrar slipped past Red Bulls defender Kyle Duncan.
Before assisting on Bakrar’s first goal in 16 MLS matches since Sept. 20, Wolf scored for the second straight game, giving NYCFC a lead in the third minute.
Cameron Harper scored a tying goal late in the first half for the Red Bulls (6-3-5, 23 points), who scored eight goals in their previous two victories.
NYCFC goalie Matt Freese made three saves while Red Bulls goalie Carlos Coronel stopped two shots.
NYCFC opened the scoring on a nice passing sequence to get the ball into the offensive zone.
After making three passes to move up field, Santiago Rodriguez got the ball to Jones. Wolf got by John Tolkin, got a return feed from Jones and lifted a left-footed shot from the center of the box into the net as Red Bulls defender Daniel Edelman sped past him.
Right before stoppage time, the Red Bulls tied the score on a fortuitous bounce. Harper shook free from Thiago Martins after an NYCFC giveaway and then sent a hard off-balance right-footed shot over Freese and the crossbar that dropped into the left corner of the net.
–Field Level Media