(Photo from official River Plate website)
The Red Bulls won by a 2-1 scoreline for their second straight preseason scrimmage, this time beating River Plate’s reserves this morning in Pilar, Argentina. They got goals from Dane Richards and Andrew Boyens and solid second-half keeping from Jon Conway to beat a River team that used five regulars, including Marcello Gallardo.
They grabbed a quick 1-0 lead in the 3rd. John Wolyniec _ the lone striker in a 4-5-1 _ played Khano Smith down the left wing. He centered the ball to Richards, who slotted the ball home. River equalized in the 33rd when Gallardo passed to Ruben Sambueza in the corner, and the latter’s cross was deflected into the net by Red Bulls’ trialist Aklie Edwards for an own goal.
But the Red Bulls won it in the 73rd minute. Sinisa Ubiparipovic sent a corner far post, and Boyens headed it down. It bounced off a River defender, but the Kiwi went upper 90 for the winner in his preseason debut.
It was pretty chippy with seven yellows, Gallardo getting into it with Matt Mbuta and Juan Pietravallo getting sent off after an 87th-minute tackle from behind. Shocking. No, actually, it’s not. Juan Pablo Angel sat out vs. his old club, but Jorge Rojas and Alberto Celades played well again. RBNY used a 4-5-1 (or 4-1-4-1, with a d-mid). Here’s play-by-play at Red Bulls Reader and video from The Offsides.
The Red Bulls are 3-1-2 this preseason, and face Argentinos Juniors on March 3 at 10 a.m. (7 am ET).
Scoring Summary:
RBNY: Dane Richards (Khano Smith) 3
CARP: Own Goal (Aklie Edwards) 33
RBNY: Andrew Boyens (Sinisa Ubiparipovic) 73
RED BULLS First Half – Danny Cepero, Aklie Edwards, Kevin
Goldthwaite, Carlos Mendes, Jeremy Hall, Khano Smith, Alberto Celades,
Jorge Rojas, Luke Sassano, Dane Richards, John Wolyniec.
RED BULLS Second Half – Jon Conway, Jack Traynor, Mike Petke,
Andrew Boyens, Chris Leitch, Juan Pietravallo, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Nick
Zimmerman, Danleigh Borman, Matthew Mbuta, Dominic Oduro.
CLUB ATLETICO RIVER PLATE – Mario Vega, Mateo Musacchio, German Pezzella,
Facundo Quiroga (Mauro Diaz 46), Rodrigo Archubi, Marcelo Gallardo, Nicolas
Domingo, Martin Galmarini (Nicolas Losanno 46), Gustavo Fernandez, Ruben
Sambueza, Andres Rios.
