Despite spending the vast majority of the match with the ball at their feet, Red Bull New York failed to come away with a victory against Toronto FC on Saturday. In a match where both teams desperately needed to win to stay in the playoff picture, Toronto found itself taking the three points with a 2-0 victory.
Toronto found themselves on the back foot for almost the entire game, but defended valiantly to keep a clean sheet in the most important game of their season so far. They were pushed back to only 32% possession in the match, but swept away every chance, cross, and pass that New York tried to throw at them to hold their two-goal lead
Toronto would claim a very early lead in the third minute when Theodor Corbeanu whipped a low cross into the box that beat Ethan Horvath and fell to defender Justin Che, who turned the ball into his own net, pushing his opponent into a playoff spot.
Toronto striker Josh Sargent, who played a part in forcing the own goal, produced at the other end of the pitch by making a goal-line clearance from a corner in the ninth minute, saving the lead for his side.
New York would pick up their end of the match immediately after the goal, creating three big chances within the next four minutes.
The Red Bull pressure would continue consistently throughout the first 20 minutes of the first half, with New York holding 67% of the possession and recording four shots, although none of them would be on target. Toronto in this time frame had not recorded a single shot on goal holding the lead.
New York’s best chance of the half would come in the 35th minute after Cade Cowell spun away from Jackson Gilman and drove a cross into the box that bounced around the six-yard area before falling to teenage star Julian Hall. His shot was met with a quick save by Luka Gavran to keep Toronto’s lead and was cleared with a bicycle kick by Lewis Morgan.
The mostly uneventful first half came to an end with Red Bulls trailing by one despite leading decisively in possession and shots.
Emil Forsberg would get a golden chance off the benchmark with a free kick in the 52nd minute that was inches away from being a penalty. Facing a wall with almost all 11 Toronto FC players in it, the Swedish midfielder lifted the ball too much, and saw the attempt go over the crossbar.
Red Bulls would continue their stretch of dominance over the ball into the 70th minute, barely letting Toronto out of their half and leading the match with 362 passes over Toronto’s 152.
New York almost found an equalizer in the 72nd minute after a counterattack into the Toronto half led to a cross by Jorge Ruvalcaba to the top of the box, which was slide-tackled by Jonathan Osorio, almost became a wonder goal into his own net.
Toronto extended their lead in the 82nd minute completely against the run of play on a counterattack of their own after a ball was played into Daniel Salloi at the halfway line and was left wide open to go on a solo run into the Red Bull box. The Hungarian international kept his composure and placed the ball cleanly past Horvath to secure the win for the Canadian side.
Hall would find a first goal for New York in the 88th minute after a fairly poor game by his standard, but it would be ruled out for offside, and Red Bull would stay off the scoreboard.
The final whistle blew after five minutes of extra time, and New York would find themselves in a disappointing defeat, failing to capitalize on the nearly 70 percent possession and 15 shots they put out.
Red Bull finds itself hanging on by a thread to the No. 8 seed in the East, with Toronto level on points but behind on the tiebreaker, and NYCFC and DC United still within reach.