Jorge Ruvalcaba scored twice in the first half to lead Red Bull New York to a 2-1 victory over Sporting Kansas City.
Ruvalcaba notched his brace, scoring in the opening moments of the match and again in stoppage time of the first half.
"The best teams find different ways to win," Head Coach Michael Bradley said. "It doesn't always play out in the exact way that you hope, and to have a team full of guys who are willing to do whatever it takes on nights like this, that's what separates good players from really good players and good teams from really good teams."
New York opened the scoring in the 4th minute of action, when Julian Hall intercepted a pass and played the ball to Gustav Berggren, who played a through ball into the path of Ruvalcaba, who took a touch past a Kansas City defender and placed a shot into the bottom left corner.
The Red Bulls doubled their lead in the third minute of first half stoppage time, when Rafael Mosquera grabbed a loose ball and played Hall through on goal, Hall then played a pass across to Ruvalcaba, who fired a right-footed shot into Kansas City’s net.
"We've pushed him hard to take the qualities that he has and make sure that they can hold up in harder games, in better games, in a different league, and he has really responded," Bradley said of Ruvalcaba. "He has unique qualities in terms of his ability to play off the left, move inside, shoot, dribble, slip little passes, and he's a guy that does an incredible amount of work against the ball for us."
Ruvalcaba scored his sixth and seventh MLS goals of the season and now ranks tied for first in MLS in goals scored among MLS newcomers. The winger has scored four goals in his last four MLS appearances, which ranks tied for first in MLS during that timespan.
"Anytime you change leagues, of course, it's different," Ruvalcaba said. "I think this league is a lot different than compared to Mexico, where I played four or five years, which is what I was used to, and I think at the beginning I kind of felt hit a little bit in the way I was playing in my, in my performances, and, and of course, I mean, we're a young team, we're, we're a new team, new coach, so it was kind of part of the process. I think every game, us as a team, we feel a lot better. I think the fans see the improvements as well. We've got to keep going down this road."
Hall became the third youngest player in MLS history to record multiple multi-assist matches in a single MLS season at 18 years, 60 days old.Â
Ethan Horvath made seven saves on the night to protect the win, which was his single game-high this season. The seven saves also rank tied for first in MLS in Matchday 15.Â
Julian Bazan made his MLS debut in the match, coming on for the final 10 minutes to see out the victory.
RBNY took 10 out of a possible 12 points heading into the World Cup pause.Â
"To finish the first half of the season with three points like this, you couldn't ask for a better way to cap off these first 15 games," Bradley said. "The group has worked incredibly hard from day one to throw themselves into a new way of playing, a new way of training, a new way of working in every way."
The average age of New York’s starting lineup in tonight’s match was 22.8 years old, which is the youngest starting lineup in MLS this season.
Red Bulls and MLS will pause league play for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, New York will return to action on July 22 against Philadelphia Union at Subaru Park.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 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 RedBullNewYork.com.
