PURCHASE, N.Y. – It’s about three points for New York City FC on Sunday, much more so than trying to build a rivalry with the New York Red Bulls.
That’s not to say NYCFC aren’t looking to kill two birds with one stone in the match at Red Bull Arena (7 pm ET; Fox Sports 1).
And head coach Jason Kreis said he hopes his team will gain some added motivation from Red Bulls comments he called “crass” following the last meeting between the teams in late June.
In that game, NYCFC took an early lead but suffered a 3-1 defeat, their second loss to their crosstown rivals.
“In both matches we had periods and stretches where we were quite good,” Kreis said. “We may think those periods and stretches were a bit longer than they want to say they were in the game, and I thought that was a little bit crass, some of the talking they did after our last match.
“We’ll remind our players of what was said, and we’ll hope we go into this game with a little extra motivation.”
Some of those comments focused on the lopsided scoreline.
“Not only to come to their place and dominate they way that we did in the second half, but realistically they only had the game for about 15 minutes,” Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles said after the match.
Then there was this from Red Bulls captain Dax McCarty:
“It was a great second half; some of the best we’ve played all season. Honestly we scored three, but it probably could have been five,” he said. “They were gassed, we had energy, we had life.”
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And finally, from midfielder Sacha Kljestan:
“They came in with a lot of energy, and we weren’t prepared. But after 15 or 20 minutes, we had the rest of the game,” he said. “We were creating chances and, in the end, we had a lot of confidence that we would win the game.”
It was the first time this season Kreis publically admitted to being irked about an opponent’s postgame comments.
“It’s not something I typically like to talk about,” Kreis said. “I prefer the players do their talking on the field, but I don’t feel every coach in this league is the same.”
