The Union laid a 3-1 rout down on perennial rival Red Bull New York on Saturday in North Jersey, with a highlight-reel goal from Cavan Sullivan at the center of it.
Milan Iloski and Neil Pierre also scored to extend the Union’s unbeaten run in league games to seven, and edge them up to 12th in the Eastern Conference at the final whistle (6-10-6, 24 points). They’re now just one point back of ninth, the last playoff spot, now held by Toronto FC.
As pretty as Sullivan’s goal was, Iloski’s opener had to be described as all goals counting the same, no matter how ugly they are.
Sullivan worked out of a jam to spring Danley Jean Jacques down the right flank, he hit a hopeful cross, and Iloski crashed into Dylan Nealis as both men went for the ball. Neither got it, and the prize bounced away to an unmarked Indiana Vassilev.
From there, Vassilev either woefully scuffed a shooting chance, or made it look like he did while passing back to Iloski. But the end result was Iloski gratefully tapping in from near the goal line.
Andre Blake made a fine save in the 31st, then got lucky when Ronald Donkor shot an easy rebound shockingly wide of the net. Blake made an even better one seven minutes later after Red Bull’s young phenom striker Julian Hall pushed off Nathan Harriel, and was lucky once again when Harriel got up just in time to block Jorge Ruvalcaba’s long-range attempt.
The Union’s turn for a shocking miss came in first-half stoppage time. Iloski settled a bouncing ball and squared it through the 6-yard box for Pierre, but Justin Che beat him to it to clear off the line. The ball went back to Iloski, and his follow-up was blocked by a sliding Nealis.
The second half started with fireworks: Hall shot off the post with Blake stranded a mere 12 seconds after kickoff.
Nine minutes later, the big boom struck. Jean Jacques hit a superb cross-field pass to Sullivan on the right wing, he trapped it expertly, cut in, and lashed a shot to the far corner of New York’s net.
The traveling Union fans in the upper deck erupted, Sullivan ran to their corner to celebrate, and a whole lot of jaws elsewhere likely dropped.
New York (7-10-5, 26 points) looked flattened at that point, and Pierre put them in an even deeper hole off a free kick play in the 65th.
Iloski hit the service from the left flank, Bruno Damiani jumped to flick it in the box, and Pierre crashed the back post — losing his footing along the way, but doing enough to slide the ball in. Red Bull goalkeeper Ethan Horvath, a former U.S. national team regular, could only stand on his line and watch.
Remarkably, that was the fourth goal in nine games for the 18-year-old centerback, who spent the first half of the year at Danish club Lyngby (in which the Union have an ownership stake).
The hosts got their goal in the 74th from one of the only veterans on the field for either team, 37-year-old striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. He entered the game as a substitute at halftime, when New York manager Michael Bradley switched to a two-striker setup to match the Union’s usual setup.
But that was all Bradley’s players could muster. Instead, it was the visitors celebrating not just a win, but one of the most comprehensive performances of Ryan Richter’s tenure so far.
