UPDATE: The Round of 16 draw was conducted by the US Soccer Federation and it was determined that the New York Red Bulls will host the New York Cosmos in the next round.
On Tuesday night the Atlanta Silverbacks traveled all the way to New Jersey to face the New York Red Bulls in the Fourth Round of the US Open Cup. With both teams coming off a loss in their respective leagues, a win was crucial to boost team moral. As promised, Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch fielded a team full of starters like Bradley Wright-Philips and Lloyd Sam. With their starters, the Red Bulls proved to be too much for the Silverbacks and won the game with a comfortable 3-0 score line.
The Red Bulls dominated the first half and kept control of play. The Silverbacks looked disorganized at times in the back. The Red Bulls team were playing well together and were able to create chances. New York opened up the scoring in the 7th minute when Lloyd Sam received a pass from Wright-Phillips in the box and was able to put the ball past Silverbacks goalkeeper Steward Ceus.
After the goal, the Red Bulls continued to do a great job controlling the ball in the midfield and not allowing the Silverbacks any chance of creating a threat to their goal. The Red Bulls were rewarded with another goal in the 15th minute when Ronald Zubar was able to put away a rebound from the goalkeeper after Sacha Klejstan hit the initial shot.
The Red Bulls could’ve gone into the half with a couple of more goals, but they missed many chances. Their best chance for a third goal in the half came in the 37th minute when Dax McCarty passed the ball to Wright-Phillips in the box, but MLS’ top goalscorer from last year couldn’t keep the ball down and it went over the bar.
After the halftime interval the game continued to be played in the same rhythm. While Atlanta was able to take more shots, they only had one shot on target throughout the entire game.
Wright-Phillips put another ball over the bar after a pass from Richards in the box.
The Red Bulls sealed their ticket to the fifth round in the 70th minute after a beautiful play between Wright-Phillips, Mike Grellla and Sean Davis. Wright-Phillips started the play by passing the ball to Mike Grella. Grella, feeling the pressure of two defenders approaching, played a beautiful back heel pass to Davis who was able to shoot the ball past Ceus.
After their third goal the Red Bulls continued to dominate the game without receiving any threatening chances from Atlanta. It was an easy night for the Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles.
After the game, Wright-Phillips assured everyone in the tournament that the Red Bulls are taking the tournament seriously this year and hope to win the Open Cup for the first time.
“It is one of our targets this season,” he said. “Jesse (Marsch) made it clear that we want to win this cup. You can see from the team he put out that he means business.”
The Red Bulls will now have to wait and see whom they’ll face in the next round. The draw for the fifth round will be this Thursday morning.
FULL MATCH REPLAY: ATLANTA SILVERBACKS AT NY RED BULLS