With New York City FC set to host New York Red Bulls next week at Citi Field in the most consequential Hudson River Derby in the history of the rivalry, we decided to look back at the history between the two clubs.
Red Bulls dominated the competition in the early days, when they not only outplayed NYCFC, they had a psychological hold on what was then a young club. But that changed in recent years, with New York City sweeping two of the last three regular-season matchups.
Read on to learn more about this unfolding saga.
Hudson River Blue Staff
1. 30
That's the number of times these two teams will have played after next week's Eastern Conference Semifinal in the 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs.
New York City already have more head-to-head matchups with Red Bulls than any other club. Next on the list is New England Revolution, with 28, followed by Toronto FC, with 27.
Hudson River Derby | H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 32 | 47 | -15 |
Not only that, Red Bulls have more wins (15) over New York City, and more goals scored (47) than any other club in the league. They also have the highest goal differential (15). The truth is nobody pwns NYCFC like New York Red Bulls, but...
2. 10 vs 11
Those are the number of wins for New York City and Red Bulls respectively if you only count Major League Soccer matchups: When you remove the four non-league games contested between the teams the head-to-head is almost even, with Red Bulls enjoying a slight advantage.
Hudson River Derby | H2H: MLS Only
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 10 | 4 | 11 | 32 | 38 | -6 |
To be clear, Red Bulls dominated those four non-league games: Every one of them was a shutout. Red Bulls won the three US Open Cup matches by an aggregate score of 8-0, and the single Leagues Cup match last year by 1-0.
Notably, all four non-league games were all played at Red Bull Arena, because...
3. 3
That's the number of away wins logged by each team in the ten years of this rivalry. Home-field advantage is real: New York City tend to win in New York City, where they have a record of 7W-2D-3L, and Red Bulls tend to win in New Jersey, where they are 12W-2D-3L.
Hudson River Derby | Results by Host
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At New York City | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 18 | 1 |
| At Red Bulls | 17 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 13 | 29 | -16 |
| Total | 29 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 32 | 47 | -15 |
New York City's first away win was way back on June 24, 2017, when Patrick Vieira was head coach. Jack Harrison and Ben Sweat scored that afternoon, and Sean Johnson kept a clean sheet.
The remaining two games were more recent.
First, there was the 0-1 win at Red Bull Arena on July 27, 2022, when Taty Castellanos scored the only goal of the game. It was an unstoppable shot, and it came one month after Red Bulls defeated New York City 3-0 in the US Open Cup Quarterfinal in Nick Cushing's debut as interim head coach. It was the first time New York City swept Red Bulls in league play.
Taty Castellanos scores against New York Red Bulls, July 17, 2022 | Courtesy newyorkcityfc.com
