RECAP: Red Bulls’ Road Ahead in Leagues Cup Following Chivas Win, 1-0
The New York Red Bulls beat Chivas de Guadalajara, 1-0, on Thursday night in a Leagues Cup stunner.
The team outside of the Eastern Conference playoff window scored a late goal from captain Emil Forsberg to send a minority of the 14,954 in attendance home happy.
Now, New York can possibly consider its options moving forward. Only four Major League Soccer teams are going to advance to the next stage of the 2025 Leagues Cup.
New York was not favored to be one of them.
Now, they can be.
That all depends on the next two games – beginning on Sunday night in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dream Result
Emil Forsberg struck the match-winning goal with the penultimate kick of the game to hand the New York Red Bulls a 1-0 victory against Chivas de Guadalajara on Thursday at Sports Illustrated Stadium. The mostly Chivas-backing crowd responded in turn by throwing bottles and food onto the field.
The game looked destined for penalty kicks with Sandro Schwarz using his last substitute in stoppage time to bring on Noah Eile ahead of the shootout. Both New York’s AJ Marcucci and Chivas’ Raúl Rangel had done their part and could have both earned clean sheets thanks to their performances.
12-time Mexican champion Chivas threatened in the 23rd through former NYCFC midfielder Richard Ledezma, who struck a right-footed shot from distance to force a save from Marcucci. Alan Pulido nearly struck before the end of the first half, but Marcucci negated the attempt to keep the match scoreless.
New York rotated heavily for this game. Players like Forsberg, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Daniel Edelman, and starting goalkeeper Carlos Coronel were all on the bench at kickoff. That began to change in the second half as more starters made their appearance.
Mohammed Sofo, who started up top alongside Julian Hall, struck with ferocity with a left-footed strike inside the box in the 68th minute but was denied by Rangel. Rangel then denied Choupo-Moting from close range in the 74th minute and made another stop in the 90+4th to deny Sofo again.
A free kick opportunity just outside the box would make for the last offensive play of the game as Forsberg converted in the 90+7th with a lightning strike into the bottom right corner.
Route to Go
The Red Bulls have two more games in the Leagues Cup “league phase”. First, the team will face CF Monterrey on Sunday before returning to Harrison on Thursday to face FC Juárez.
In all likelihood, New York cannot afford to lose either of these games if it wants to advance to the knockout phase of the competition. Only the top four performing MLS teams will join the top four Liga MX teams in the Quarterfinals.
What that also means is that goal differential will probably come into play. The 1-0 win against Chivas was huge, but it also means New York has the bare minimum of positive GD. For reference, Seattle Sounders FC have a +7 GD after crushing Cruz Azul, and Portland Timbers have +4 after beating Atlético San Luis.
That leaves New York with two options: win both games or draw one of the games before winning by multiple goals in the second.
Monterrey is coming off a 3-2 loss against FC Cincinnati on Thursday. In all likelihood, their tournament is over. However, a win against the Red Bulls and enough results going in their favor could mean Matchday 3 matters for them. In other words, you can’t expect them to lie down.
The team lost in the Apertura 2024 (Fall) playoff final to América, 3-2 on aggregate, after a strong regular season. So far in the Clausura 2025 (Spring) season, the team has been fairly strong with eight wins and four draws through 17 games.
On the other hand, Juárez has been a bottom-half table team in 2024-25 in Liga MX.
So if New York were to beat a team by multiple goals, something it has struggled to do consistently in MLS, it would be against them.
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