Perhaps the New York Red Bulls had some leftover resentment from the 2024 MLS Cup Final, which they lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy six months ago, because when the two sides met on Saturday night at Sports Illustrated Stadium, it was a bloodbath.
The Red Bulls thrashed the defending MLS champions 7-0, doling out some retribution for December’s title match, in which the Galaxy rode two early goals to a 2-1 victory and kept New York’s wait for a first league crown intact.
The seven goals tie a franchise record set on May 21, 2016, against NYCFC.
“I think the best thing was that we kept on going,” Red Bulls captain Emil Forsberg said. “We kept on playing the way we wanted to play, and I think that’s why we scored seven goals today. We played forward, we played fast, we tried to hurt them as much as we could. I’m very proud of the team and our performance today. We didn’t stop after two, three-nil. We kept on going, and it’s fantastic.”
Both Forsberg and veteran striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored two goals each in the game’s opening 50 minutes to put the Red Bulls out of sight. With two assists, Forsberg became just the second player in franchise history to score multiple goals with multiple assists in a single MLS match.
Choupo-Moting, who once was a leading man for German giants Bayern Munich, is beginning to find his footing in his first year in MLS with four goals in his last six matches.
His six goals this season are tied for the most amongst MLS newcomers this year.
“In a match like tonight, it’s not every day we can celebrate like this,” goalkeeper Carlos Coronel, who picked up his fifth clean sheet of the season, said. “I mean 7-0 made us very happy. It’s not only about the result, but how you play. We showed that today, with the quality. We have to keep this quality and, in every game, we have to improve. If we find the right way, we can have a good season.”
For as much as there is satisfaction in this sort of blowout against this specific opponent, the result does wonders for a team that had been muddling through the early portions of the 2025 season. New York had won just one of its last three MLS matches, including a 4-1 beatdown at the hands of Inter Miami, and was mired in the middle of the Eastern Conference table.
This at least suggests there is a way out of that rut.
“We are satisfied. We are happy about the result,” head coach Sandro Schwarz said. “We are happy about the quality with which we have seen today, and our standing with the supporters was great, great atmosphere today. But yeah, of course, tomorrow we start our focus for the next game.”
