The New York Red Bulls pulled off the biggest upset of the Major League Soccer season so far by beating the Columbus Crew in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. Columbus, the defending MLS Cup champion and practitioner of MLS's finest, crispest soccer, fell 1-0 to the NYRB at Lower.com Field in Ohio.
GAME ONE IS OURS ✅ #RedRunsDeep @AffinityFCU pic.twitter.com/sIKi9UnjUa NYRB is part of the global Red Bull soccer empire, a network of clubs soon to be overseen by former Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp.
They often share players across national lines; NYRB's star striker Emil Forsberg came to the club from sister club RB Leipzig in Germany. But crucially, they also share a playing style known as "Red Bull soccer" — and NYRB's stunning victory over Columbus showed that style at its highest form. NYRB's win came against the odds, but it also came against the run of play: the team averaged just 22% ball possession throughout 90 minutes of action.
But that figure wasn't an accident: it was an intentional game plan from NYRB head coach Sandro Schwarz. “We wanted to play very dominant against the ball," Schwarz told mlssoccer.com after the victory .
“And then we had some moments where we defend deep, but all together. That's the key when you play against such a good team, especially in ball possession, then it's the key that you have to do everything against the ball together." That's Red Bull soccer in a nutshell: defending deep, pressing high in transition and letting th.
