Five months after losing to the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, New York City FC found revenge with a 2-0 win over their bitter rivals on Saturday afternoon at Citi Field.
Goals from Alonso Martínez and Maxi Moralez propelled NYCFC to its first multigoal victory of the season and ended a three-game scoreless streak after being blanked by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC, CF Montréal, and DC United.
New York City's win was its 11th in MLS against the Red Bulls, evening the head-to-head record in league play at 11-4-11 with the away fixture to come on September 27 in Harrison, New Jersey.
NYCFC jumped up to 6th Place in the Eastern Conference, just three points shy of Nashville SC, in 4th Place.
New York City: 12 shots, 4 shots on target, 39.7% possession, 290 passes, 70.7% pass accuracy, 12 fouls, 4 corners, 1 save
New York Red Bulls: 11 shots, 1 shot on target, 60.3% possession, 525 passes, 82.5% pass accuracy, 16 fouls, 6 corners, 2 saves
Goals:
• New York City, Alonso Martínez, 13'
• New York City, Maxi Moralez, 50'
Attendance: 30,804
Alonso ends the slump
Martínez entered Saturday's match on a three-game scoring drought, including a missed penalty against FC Cincinnati — he did not look like himself during the slump, missing chances he'd usually score with ease.
He ended the shooting struggles in the 13th minute, as Justin Haak did well to force Emil Forsberg into a turnover. Hannes Wolf and Haak then combined for a quick one-two before Haak found Martínez, who struck the ball from outside the box over Carlos Coronel's outstretched hands to give his side the early lead.
ALONSO MARTINEZ 🚀🚀🚀 pic.twitter.com/ZucGCuCTVB
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 17, 2025
It was Martínez's seventh goal in 13 games this season, seventh in nine games at Citi Field. It was not only Haak's first career assist, but his first goal contribution since scoring a screamer against the Columbus Crew back on July 8, 2023.
NYCFC, despite only leading by one goal at halftime, had multiple chances to have a more comfortable cushion at the break, but couldn't take advantage.
Maxi comes up big in the Derby, again
Moralez loves playing against the Red Bulls. The 38-year-old midfielder, making his team-high 18th appearance against the Red Bulls across all competitions, made the most of his opportunity in the 50th minute.
Coronel misplaced a pass that Martínez pounced on, laying it off to Moralez, who faked a shot to fool a Red Bulls defender and Coronel. Moralez placed his shot in the back of the net for his first goal of the season and fifth against the Red Bulls — the most by any active New York City player, bringing him even with David Villa and Taty Castellanos for the most NYCFC goals scored against the Red Bulls.
MAXI HAD THEM LEANINGGG 🪄 pic.twitter.com/D41TBAYJKP
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) May 17, 2025
It was the first assist of the season for Martínez, and Moralez's first goal of 2025. It was also the first time NYCFC scored two goals in a game since the 4-3 road loss to Atlanta United on March 29.
"The emotion is: So happy," Moralez said. "To win this game, it's no easy win — the derby. "We played much better and tried to score more goals, but winning, especially here at home, I was so happy with these three points."
Moralez also scored his only MLS goal last season in the 5-1 rout at Sports Illustrated Stadium — he has a knack for scoring against the Red Bulls.
Andrew Leigh
Defense gets the job done again
NYCFC fans felt a shiver down their spine when they saw the Red Bulls beat LA Galaxy 7-0 a week ago. This time around, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Emil Forsberg had quiet games as a New York City backline consisting of Birk Risa, Haak, Thiago Martins, and Tayvon Gray shut out the Red Bulls, limiting them to just one shot on goal.
It was the first time NYCFC blanked the Red Bulls since drawing 0-0 at Yankee Stadium on September 16, 2023, in the first and only scoreless edition of the Hudson River Derby.
Matt Freese earned his sixth clean sheet of the season, tied for the most in MLS, with just one simple save in the first half. Freese totaled six clean sheets last year and has already tied that mark 14 games into this season.
"Today, I didn't have much to do, and it's really a reflection of how well the guys in front of me did," he said. "Back four was incredible, and the subs were also incredible ... it's really a team effort to get a clean sheet. One of my primary goals for this year was to get more clean sheets — I thought I did a good job saving shots last year, but I'd much rather be proactive in my positioning and be better organizing my defense and working more with them to prevent shots rather than just saving shots."
New York City will have eight days until its next match against the Chicago Fire, hoping for players like Kevin O'Toole and Keaton Parks to return from injury during the week.
• New York City, Julián Fernández, yellow card, foul 30′
• New York Red Bulls, Noah Eile, yellow card, foul 42'
• New York Red Bulls, Sean Nealis, yellow card, foul 54'
• New York Red Bulls, Kyle Duncan, yellow card, foul 63'
Officials
• Referee: Allen Chapman
• Assistant referees: Cory Richardson, Kevin Klinger
• Fourth official: Matt Thompson
• VAR: Greg Dopka
• Assistant VAR: John Krill
