HARRISON, N.J. — Here are three things we learned about the New York Red Bulls’ 2-0 win over Atlanta United Sunday afternoon at Red Bull Arena.
Post-match fireworks
It wasn’t an official promotion by the club, but there were some fireworks after the final whistle when Atlanta midfielder Miguel Almiron appeared to take exception to Red Bulls coach Chris Armas waving his arms and gesturing to pump up the crowd just before the final whistle.
Atlanta coach Tata Martino raced over to Almiron to intercept him from a possible confrontation as Armas walked over to shake hands with the Atlanta technical staff.
Armas offered his hand to Martino, who didn’t shake it, but patted him on the arm instead.
“I went to separate him from Miguel because I think they were arguing and I went to take Miguel out of it,” Martino said through a translator. “I don’t know what they were arguing about, but I saw that they were starting to talk and I went to take Miguel out of it. I like coaches with a low profile.”
https://twitter.com/JogaBonito_USA/status/1046476217694728192
All White, All White, All White
The biggest question coming Into the match was who Armas was going to select to fill in for a suspended Bradley Wright-Phillips.
Ultimately, Armas went with Brian White, the rookie who earned his second start on Sunday.
Although White didn’t score his second-ever MLS goal, the 22-year-old gave the Red Bulls just want they needed from him — a solid 90-minute shift. White had a pair of chances, two headers that missed the target, but he was constantly in motion, working for his teammates with and without the ball.
It didn’t go unnoticed in the Red Bulls locker room.
“The other guys who stepped in did a great job, especially Brian White,” winger Danny Royer said. “I think he worked his butt off and he was always dangerous in the attack. He worked really hard defensively as well. He did a great job.”
Added defender Tim Parker: “I think what Brian White did up top and Marc [Rzatkowski] in the midfield and [Alex Muyl] on the wing, every guy knew they had to give exactly what we need of them to give today. It was a complete team effort, the whole 11 guys played lights out today.”
Shut ‘em down
The Red Bulls became just the third team to shutout Atlanta’s high-octane attack, which leads MLS with 65 goals.
To do that, it took a concerted effort from every player on the field. It started with the front three initiating a high press that forced numerous turnovers, especially in the first half. From there, Rzatkowski and Sean Davis limited Almiron’s time and space. The influential playmaker had 44 touches and completed just 60.9 percent of his 23 passes.
Rzatkowski, meanwhile, had 73 touches — the most in the match — and completed 83.3 percent of his 48 passes, while adding three tackles. Davis completed 88 percent of his passes and had a game-high five tackles.
“It’s not a one-man job, also not a two-man job,” Rzatkowski said. “It was everyone in the team. Kaku was coming back into the game and was helping us, [Aaron Long] and Tim also combined, [Michael Amir Murillo] made a really good job today. It was teamwork.”
Armas joked that Rzatkowski and Davis “must be mentally fried right now” because of having so much to take in on both sides of the ball in the match.
“You can see both sides of it, they’re incredible,” Armas said. “They were incredible, so disruptive.”
Fullbacks Kemar Lawrence and Murillo were tackling machines, quieting Chris McCann and Julian Gressel, while Parker and Long were again dominant in the air and kept Josef Martinez in check. The league’s leading scorer was held without a shot and had just 19 touches.
“The whole week of training we weren’t really too happy with each other. We weren’t happy with the way we were figuring things out and then come game day things got easy,” Parker said. “That’s credit to the guys, the scout team that obviously replicates Atlanta, and credit for us for obviously figuring things out on game day.”