After a spirited and tactically-coherent 1-0 victory over Atlanta gave New York Red Bulls an optimistic start to the MLS is Back Tournament, a limp 2-0 loss to Columbus Crew on Thursday night zapped much of the momentum.
Chris Armas rolled out the same lineup that faced Atlanta and the opening ten minutes saw Red Bulls continue their confident play from Saturday with incisive possession in the Crew half. However Columbus took near-complete control for most of the match, cementing their grip on the game when Gyasi Zardes took advantage of a disorganized RBNY backline (with Aaron Long in particular dragged out of position) to slip past David Jensen to take a 1-0 lead.