Leagues Cup: NY Red Bulls vs. NYC FC Preview, Odds, Predictions, Picks

New York Red Bulls and the New York City FC clash in the first knockout round of the Leagues Cup. This Hudson Derby is the first in this competition and a kind of historic. The Leagues Cup isn’t that popular at the moment, but it has massive potential, so be sure that as time goes by, matches like this are going to be remembered. Coming into this battle, the Bulls are slight favorites per odds, and the bookies, though, that never played a big part in Hudson derbies. 

Preview

New York Red Bulls (+120) showed solid performances in their group. Following back-to-back losses in the MLS, they bounced back to win the assembly with New England Revolution and Atletico San Luis. 

The first meeting was against the Revs, whom the Bulls defeated after a penalty shootout. In one grueling and very fierce battle, we saw no goals during 90 minutes. After that came the clash with San Luis, and that one ended 2-1 in favor of the Bulls. 

Seven of their last eight games were with three or more goals, and five of the previous six ended with both teams netting. The majority of their games have seen three goals exact, to be precise here. 

New York City FC (+250) advanced to the next stage with a 5-0 victory over Toronto FC. Until that victory, we’ve seen the Citizens winning only once in the previous 17 events, which was one of the coldest streaks of all the MLS units.

They were defeated 0-1 in the Leagues Cup opener by Atlas but successfully recovered against Toronto. That triumph was extremely important for Nick Cushing and his crew, because it boosted their weak morale.

Eight of their past 11 events have seen fewer than three goals, meaning this team isn’t keen on playing offensive-minded and attacking football. Cushing’s mentality demands the protection of its own net first and attack later. Though, that’s not going well either. 

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Morgan, Nealis, Ngoma and Sserwadda are all our for the Bulls.

Meanwhile, the Citizens players are all ready to play. 

Head to Head 

So far, we’ve seen 25 Hudson River derbies, and the better team at the moment are the Red Bulls, who have 14 wins, compared to City’s eight, while three ended without winners. 

The most recent was in mid-May, with the Bulls winning 1-0, and the only goal was scored by Omir Fernandez in the 76th minute.

Predictions

The stakes are high here, because it is a one-game knockout stage, and on top of that, the fact that it is a Hudson River derby, adds more significance to the overall picture. These two teams have similar chances of advancing to the next stage, regardless of the odds favoring the Bulls, and we won’t meddle in picking the full-time result. Statistically, both teams scoring have the highest chances of happening here. We came to that conclusion after looking at the recent respective results and performances, and even though the last six direct encounters hadn’t seen such an outcome, this is the moment for breaking that streak. Odds are fantastic. 

Pick: Both teams to score +110