Red Bull New York fell to CF Montréal for their first loss of the 2026 MLS season.
Montréal converted an early penalty, then Wiki Carmona slotted in a free kick to go up 2-0 before halftime. Carmona recovered a ball inside the 18 and scored, completing his brace against his former team.
"Today is a hard lesson, but an important one, for sure," Head Coach Michael Bradley said. "Just in terms of the understanding for our group, that obviously we have our ideas in terms of the football that we want to play, the game that we want to try to make, but if in a few too many areas our level comes down even just a little bit and we are not quite as good dealing with the moments of the game that play out the way the opponent wants to then the margins get tight."
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting made his first start of the 2026 MLS season.
Rafael Mosquera subbed into the match in the 61st minute to make his first appearance of the 2026 MLS Season. Roald Mitchell subbed on in the 85th minute to make his first appearance for RBNY since March 23, 2024.
"We did not manage to take our football and our control of the game and turn it into enough big chances," Bradley said. "A few times we play balls across the six-yard box in really dangerous ways and we did not have anyone running in there, that part, for sure, let us down a little bit today."
New York will embark on a two-match road trip, which will begin with a trip up North to face Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday, March 14.
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. ET with coverage on Apple TV in English and Spanish, and Red Bulls Radio in English via the Red Bull New York app and NewYorkRedBulls.com.
"It's a long season, and I think we're going to go into Saturday with a clean mind and be ready," Cade Cowell said. "[Bradley] knows that we're capable of doing really well. There's a lot of good things that we can watch in video that we did do today. It just didn't go our way."
