New York City FC overtakes rival New York Red Bulls in the table with a 2-1 victory in the Hudson River Derby

Across the street from Citi Field, in a few years, there will be a new stadium adjacent to the home of baseball’s New York Mets. It will be a state-of-the-art facility capable of filling thousands of fans and will be New York City’s first soccer-specific field.

But that will be in a while. Tonight, they played this game in Queens for the first time, where grass is laid on the Mets’ dirt fields and corners are taken on grass laid on the warning track in the outfield.

Yes, this is the character of the Hudson River Derby. Soon, New York City FC will host their hated cross-river rivals, the New York Red Bulls, in their own stadium. But for years they have gone to the city’s two baseball parks to host their games.

It’s not that the result of the game was indicative of the playing conditions. With Emil Forsberg starting on the bench for the New York Red Bulls, they had been unable to string together passes and struggled uphill from the start, and Forsberg’s late addition was not enough to overcome a 2-1 deficit against NYCFC.

It’s a notable turnaround for City, who began the season by losing four of their first five games and have now won six of their last seven to position themselves as the hottest team in Major League Soccer.

There was much pomp before this game: The West Point Paratroopers descended from the sky, bringing with them the game ball before the game began.

Almost immediately, the Red Bulls were on the defensive. Young Malachi Jones broke the wing and threw a ball to Hannes Wolf. The former Borussia Mönchengladbach winger showed excellent patience as he hesitated not once, but twice before capitalizing and taking the lead in just three minutes.

The first attempts to equalize the score did not give positive results for the visitors from New Jersey. An attempt by striker Dante Vanzeir to cut the ball was unsuccessful and was followed by a shot at the post by Scotland striker Lewis Morgan.

Although it was physical, the match never became a typical derby derby. This matchup has seen a lot of that in the past, but in thirty minutes, that energy was absent. It was briefly shown after RBNY’s Elias Manoel collided with NYCFC’s Matt Freese, but quickly dissipated.

A late opportunity was wasted when in a 4v2, Manoel decided to shoot himself, rather than pass to either side, prompting a furious Morgan to shout at his team-mate.

It seemed like the Pigeons were destined to enter the half with the lead. Cameron Harper had different plans when he unleashed a 25-yard attack that went down and tied the score in stoppage time. The young penguin slipped face down in the rain as the Red Bulls gained momentum in the half.

“I told them at halftime, I don’t want to see anyone disappointed because we’re 1-1,” NYCFC coach Nick Cushing told reporters after the game. “Because this is a derby and this is MLS, which is super competitive. But we played very, very well, and if we go out and play like that in the second half, we will win the soccer game.”

It wasn’t until the 65th minute that Cushing’s prediction came true. NYCFC continued to apply pressure on the flanks and Wolf finally passed the penultimate ball to Tayvon Gray, who crossed it so it could be tapped in by substitute Mounsef Bakrar’s foot to give City a 2-1 lead.

Meanwhile, the Red Bulls’ biggest weapon had yet to be deployed. Forsberg, newly arrived from RB Leipzig, was not fit to play for the full 90 minutes. With RBNY without their most dynamic player until the 69th minute, his attacks always felt like they were missing something.

The best Forsberg offered that night was a threatening pass to Manoel, but when the Brazilian tried to force his way through the defence, he ran into a dead end.

RBNY had no effective chance left. They tried pinging the balls overhead, but nothing worked. As time passed, the challenges came stronger. Red Bulls captain Sean Nealis was sent off and the book on the match was closed shortly afterwards.

New York’s two best teams could meet again in the MLS Cup Playoffs. Between now and then, who knows what kind of animosity or momentum will build as the city continues to divide between reds and blues.

But for now New York is blue, and the most popular team in MLS moves on.