Thanks to the immediacy of social media, word began to filter in to some of the Red Bulls players and coaches before they took the field for Wednesday’s home match against Chicago.
New York City Football Club, with a match in Toronto that kicked off about 30 minutes before the Red Bulls-Fire match did Wednesday night at Red Bull Arena, was resting its star players, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo.
The message was clear: Saturday’s anticipated “derby’’ match against the Red Bulls at 3 p.m. at Yankee Stadium was already on the minds of NYCFC. Beating the Red Bulls was deemed more important than the match at hand in Toronto, which ended in a 1-1 draw.