Enemy Scouting Report - New York Red Bulls

(image via Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)

The Houston Dynamo have been a Jekyll and Hyde team in 2023. perfect at home and winless on the road. However, the team may come up against a New York team who are dealing with a perfect storm and finally get some much-needed away points.

Unless you were hiding under a rock for the last 7 days, you know the events that took place during the Red Bulls’ last match against the San Jose Earthquakes. Red Bulls Designated Player Dante Vanzeir was found to have used racially abusive language. The league dealt Venzeir a six match suspension as well as an undisclosed fine. Racism doesn’t belong anywhere. Now, the Red Bulls supporters will join forces during the match and walk out of the stadium after the national anthem, to show their discontent with how the organization handled the situation and asking for head coach Gerhard Struber to be fired. The air will be tense tonight at Red Bull Arena.

Red Bulls head coach Gerhard Struber isn’t on the hot seat purely because of the events that took place last Saturday. His team has been struggling this season, only winning 1 game out of the 7 matches the Red Bulls have played this season. While the team is defensively sound, not allowing more than 1 goal per game, offensively they lack opportunities. The high press “Red Bull way” is still there, but instead of adding pressure to the opposition collectively, the pressure New York provides is mostly in pockets of the field this season.

The Red Bulls lack of attack goes hand in hand with Lewis Morgan being out injured. The Scottish number 10 has missed the last 4 games for New York dealing with a hip injury and will be out against the Dynamo. Forwards Elias Manoel and Corey Burke will need to step up and put away the slim chances the team creates. Cristian Casseres is another player that Houston will need to contain since the Venezuelan midfielder does a great job at linking the teams defense and attack seamlessly. Going back to their defensive group, Colombian center back Andres Reyes has been the rock in the back for the team but is questionable for tonight’s match as he is dealing with a muscle injury. Again, the perfect storm hit New York just as the Houston Dynamo arrived.

New York Red Bulls Record: 1W-4L-2D

Results in the last 30 days:

March 11 – Minnesota 1-0 NY Red Bulls

March 18 – NY Red Bulls 2-1 Columbus

March 25 – Charlotte 1-1 NY Red Bulls

April 1 – Atlanta United 1-0 NY Red Bulls

April 8 – NY Red Bulls 1-1 San Jose

Past Match Staring XI (from mlssoccer.com)

There will likely be some variation but look to see many of the players in the graphic starting.

2023 Active Roster

Goalkeepers: Carlos Coronel, Ryan Meara, AJ Marcucci

Defenders: Jayden Reid, Matt Nocita, Andres Reyes, Kyle Duncan, Dylan Nealis, Sean Nealis, Curtis Ofori, John Tolkin, Hassan Ndam

Midfielders: Peter Stroud, Frankie Amaya, Lewis Morgan, Dru Yearwood, Cameron Harper, Wikelman Carmona, Omir Fernandez, Serge Ngoma, Cristian Casseres Jr., Steve Sserwadda, Daniel Edelman, Luquinhas, Bento Estrela

Forwards: Cory Burke, Elias Manoel, Dante Vanzeir, Tom Barlow

Will the Houston Dynamo be able to take advantage of the Red Bulls uncomfortable situation and pick up their first road points of the season?