New York Red Bulls 2, LAFC 4  

Two second-half goals help LAFC (17-3-4, 55 pts) defeat the New York Red Bulls (11-10-4, 37 pts), 4-2, on Sunday night at Banc of California Stadium.

LAFC remained perfect at home, improving to 10-0-3 overall and the only team left in MLS without a loss at home in league play.

LAFC quickly grab a 2-0 lead as Jordan Harvey and Latif Blessing tallied back-to-back goals in a two-minute span.New York responds with two goals of their own to end the half as Cristian Casseres Jr.and an LAFC own goal level the match, 2-2.

LAFC regained and held onto the lead as Carlos Vela converted a penalty kick for his 23rd goal of the season and Eddie Segura finished the match with the insurance goal in the 71st.Casseres Jr. raised his season total to three goals in his 14th match.

The 19-year-old Venezuelan midfielder has three goals and three assists on the season.It was just the second time in 2019 that New York has allowed four goals in league play, both of which have come on the road to Western Conference teams.

New York returns home to host the New England Revolution on Saturday, August 17 at Red Bull Arena. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. EST with coverage on MSG, MSG Go and New York Red Bulls Radio on TuneIn.Scoring

Summary: 

LAFC - Jordan Harvey 1 (Vela) 23'LAFC - Latif Blessing 4 (Beitashour, Atuesta) 25'NY - Cristian Casseres Jr. 3 (Kaku) 42'NY - OG (Tyler Miller) 45'LAFC - Carlos Vela 23 (PK) 61'LAFC - Eddie Segua 1 (Vela) 72' 

Misconduct Summary:NY -

Tim Parker (caution, unsporting behavior) 8'

NY - Cristian Casseres Jr. (caution, unsporting behavior) 46'

NY - Kemar Lawrence (caution, unsporting behavior) 48

'NY - Alex Muyl (caution, unsporting behavior) 76' 

New York Red Bulls: 

Luis Robles ©; Tim Parker, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence, Rece Buckmaster, Marc Rzatkowski (Alex Muyl, 59'), Sean Davis, Cristian Casseres, Jr., Kaku, Daniel Royer (Tom Barlow, 75'), Brian White (Bradley Wright-Phillips, 67') 

TOTAL SHOTS: 11; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDE: 4; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 1 

LAFC: Tyler Miller; Jordan Harvey, Eddie Segura, Tristan Blackmon, Steven Beitashour, Latif Blessing, Eduard Atuesta, Mark-Anthony Kaye (Josh Perez, 82'), Diego Rossi (Lee Nguyen, 82'), Adama Diomande, Carlos Vela © 

TOTAL SHOTS: 12; SHOTS ON GOAL: 6;

FOULS: 16;

OFFSIDE: 3;

CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: 3 

Referee: Drew FischerAssistant Referees: Adam Wienckowski, Jason White4th Official: Baldomero ToledoVAR: Jose Carlos Rivero

Attendance: 20128

POST GAME QUOTES
SUNDAY, AUGUST 11, 2019
LAFC VS. NEW YORK RED BULLS


BOB BRADLEY, LAFC HEAD COACH

RE: LAFC’s attacking success

“It’s not about offense and defense, we’re a team that has talented attacking players and we’re
excited that we can bring Brian [Rodriguez] in it. We work hard to try to then have attacking
ideas so we’re not a team that just wants to put balls out wide and cross, some teams do that.
If you have a striker who’s great in the air and depends on crosses, then maybe you do more of
that, but we try to be a team that creates chances in different ways so we have to have
attacking ideas. I mentioned that we need to have a way that we can created chances when
teams play in a low block, in other moments we need to be able to go in transition and go fast.
So those are all the things we try to work through and you can always get better because the
timing of certain balls, certain plays through windows, the quality of a guy on the move taking a
touch so he’s in on goal, there’s a lot that needs to get looked over but we’re working on that
stuff throughout the week, throughout the year, throughout two years. That’s the fun part
about football, everybody enjoys that that’s a big part of how we try to push them in training.”

RE: Continuing to grow

“You just try to keep growing from game to game, from season to season. Obviously, a player
like Carlos [Vela], it’s not like he hasn’t been in these kinds of games and he knows what all of
this is about but we also have young players. For young players to get more and more
comfortable, to understand what’s going on in a game, to keep playing and doing the same
things if something goes wrong. The first goal, we were defending, the ball came out and Latif
[Blessing] received, they closed him down fast and he lost it, so at halftime he’s disappointed
with himself but that happens in football. You’ll never lose those balls in there if you just kick
the ball up the field in there all the time but that’s not how we want to play. We understand
that teams are going to try at certain moments to press us hard and we still say, “come off, we
can pass it in there. There’s enough room, they can receive it in the right way so that now sets
up the next pass.” I think we get more and more confident at that but there’s all these different
levels to keep going so that’s what separates good from great from the best.”

JORDAN HARVEY, LAFC DEFENDER

RE: On scoring his first goal in front of the home crowd in California
“It means a whole lot. I wish it would have been in front of the supporter section. It would have
been a little bit crazier, maybe some beer would have been tossed my way. It was amazing and
it made it a little bit extra special because my wife is pretty early on in her pregnancy. I was
telling the guys that the probability of me scoring again was pretty slim, so I thought I had to do
the ball under the shirt this time around. California is a special place, having my family here is
very special and so it’s been a long time coming, now two years with LAFC. I was really grateful
to have that moment.”

RE: On the team’s technical dribbling

“I don’t think [our back heel passing] is by design, we’d rather keep possession with a 1-2 touch
obviously. Red Bull closes spaces down really quick and so sometimes you have to rely on some
way to get out of it. I don’t normally have those little tricks up my sleeves, it’s Latif [Blessing] it’s
[Mark-Anthony Kaye], it’s [Eduard] Atuesta around the midfield. You find yourself in tighter
spaces and sometimes you have to come away with those things.”

RE: On the game

“I kind of felt like it was a sloppy game. I felt like at moments we couldn’t connect passes, but
then we had some really bright moments.”

CARLOS VELA, LAFC FORWARD

RE: On tying the record for combined goals and assists in a season

“I think for me that record is more important than just goals because in the end, I’m not a
striker, I’m not just scoring goals, I’m not always just in the front waiting for the ball. I’m trying
to involve all of my teammates, I’m trying to help them, I’m trying to make some plays for
them. So that’s more important because I like to make assists too. This is a good record and I’m
trying to do my best.”

RE: The team’s success

“I feel great because we’re trying to be the best team in this league so we need everyone
involved. We need all the players in every game because we know every player is important to
win something important. We have every player doing the best job possible. That’s the
mentality we are working on. We’re really happy and I hope we can keep doing those things.”

STEVEN BEITASHOUR, LAFC DEFENDER

RE: On how the team has improved in responding to adversity

“It’s a learning curve from last year to this year. I think we’ve improved tremendously. I think
last year, this game would [end with us] either drawing or possibly losing. We don’t like to give
up leads at the end of the half like that, [against] Atlanta the same thing happened, but it was a
good response in the second half and it was similar this week. We’ll look at film again to see if
maybe at the end of the halves we could be a bit more conservative. The response was great.
The young guys did not shy away from the moment and it’s important that we continue to
proper football and continue to play our style and it payed off in the second half.”

RE: On the team’s playing style

“The coaching staff does a great job with instilling confidence in all of the players, whether
you’re Carlos [Vela] or a young guy or a rookie making your debut. [Coach Bob Bradley] wants
guys to be on their front foot, he doesn’t want players being timid because when you play timid
you get exposed. Whenever we play we try to anticipate what’s going on, we don’t try to react
and that helps us be on the front foot, especially against a team like the Red Bulls who like to
make things frantic. They like that back-and-forth and it got away from us a little bit in the first
half, but we were able to come back in the second half and be a little more composed.”

EDDIE SEGURA, LAFC DEFENDER

RE: Team’s chemistry

“The truth is that game after game the team’s chemistry is being reflected. The team is doing
an incredible job. Our form, and how we play is how our coach wants us to play. When it comes
out great, we enjoy it a lot. Game after game we try to do the best possible. We have had great
results and the work put in is showing. We all have the same drive to do better.”

RE: Today’s defensive performance

“I’m very happy and like I said, we always want to carry ourselves. Today it was Jordan [Harvey]
and I who scored. Our offensive game is incredible. We can say it’s a part of our defensive as
well because they [the offense] always help us but today was our turn. We now look toward
the next game to demonstrate our ability. We’re going to keep working hard.”

CHRIS ARMAS, RED BULLS HEAD COACH

RE: Overall thoughts on tonight’s game

“It was a fun one, it was fun getting to play against them, the best team in the league in a
building where they haven’t lost all year. They’ve been pretty dominant so we came here to
make them uncomfortable, to challenge our press against them, and we went toe-to-toe with
the best team in the league. I think it’s a strange one where we limit [Diego] Rossi on the night
and [Carlos] Vela on the night and they score three set pieces and the timing was tough. I think
when you talk about good teams, for sure we can see why they are so good. But I think you can
see that we’re a good team and I thought you could see that. When you talk about the good
teams, to go on the road, to be disciplined, to make it hard on the opposition, to go down a
couple goals, to stick together, and to come back into the game. Then when things are right
there for us in the second half, there’s a penalty. Rece Buckmaster, I don’t think he had a good
game, I thought he was excellent, I thought he was phenomenal tonight, so it’s a shame the
penalty goes against him. I’m really proud of our team.”

RE: Takeaway’s from tonight’s game

“All of our principles we’ll work on for sure, but in the biggest games against the best teams you
have to be disciplined, and that means being smart how you use your body and your
aggressiveness around our defending box, how you defend the set pieces, how you deal with
their weapons, which we did a good job at. We limited a lot of what we tried to against them
and we thought that our pressing created a number of transition moments, which they were
aggressive and they got close on a bunch and we scored a few. We learned a lot about
ourselves tonight because the best team is challenging and in the best games, they reveal who
we are and we’re proud of who we are.”

LUIS ROBLES, RED BULLS GOALKEEPER

RE: On the game

“It was a frustrating one. We gave up four goals and I know that we can do some good stuff in
between, but and the end of the day—as a goal keeper—if you give up four goals it’s a bad
night. When we look at our goals: three set pieces, it’s just really disappointing.”

RE: On focusing on set pieces in training
:
“Whenever you play a game, after the game you evaluate what could have been better and
today it’s going to be set pieces. So, this week, we’ll look at that.”

RE: On Carlos Vela:

“This guy leads the league in assists and goals. He’s doing something right. We just looked in
the locker room and the ball he’s playing, it’s a great ball. It doesn’t have a ton of pace, but it’s
precise.”

RE: On taking positives from the match
:
“The really big positive to me is the way we reacted to being down 2-0. For us to come back is a
positive thing because it wasn’t as if we were at home, we were at their place. The game could
have easily gotten out of hand and yet we responded so quickly and made it interesting

Last edited by Dave Birnbaum; 08/12/19 02:34 PM.