Emil Forsberg scored a last-second free kick to earn a 1-0 victory for the New York Red Bulls over Chivas de Guadalajara on Thursday night at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
RBNY take all three points from their first Leagues Cup match.
Forsberg slipped the ball between the Chivas player on the ground and the jumping wall, finding the lower right corner of the net for the last play of the game.
"It was a great fight from our team," Head Coach Sandro Schwarz said. "When you are always in the game and you have to keep the focus, to keep the intensity, then you have the chance also to win with the last situation that was created. It’s a really good feeling, and not only for the result, more for the performance and the intensity."
Forsberg scored his 11th goal across all competitions this season and his 21st goal for the club across all competitions. This was Forsberg’s first career Leagues Cup goal.
"I think it was a great game, it was a fun game for everybody," Forsberg said. "I think we did a good job defending first half. I think Chivas had the most of the ball, playing very good, created some big chances, but I think we defended fantastically with everything we got. They're a great team playing great soccer, so it was hard for us, but everybody fought until the end. I think in the second half, we grew into it even more and more and I think we played better and better created chances. So in the end, very satisfied, very proud of the team, proud of everybody."
Forsberg has tallied seven goal contributions in his last seven appearances across all competitions. The Swedish international currently ranks seventh place in franchise history for most goals scored by a midfielder in a single season with 11.
"Fantastic feeling to get the win in that last moment for us, after some hard weeks, very, very, very, very good feeling," Forsberg said. "Everybody should be proud of themselves for what we did today. But like I said, we do it day by day now. We take day for day. Tomorrow is training again. Focus on Sunday. So yeah, enjoy tonight and tomorrow and back to hard work."
A.J. Marcucci turned in a clean sheet in his start. Marcucci earned his first career shutout for New York across all competitions.
"It was a great performance, every time they played behind us, he was ready and read the situation and good moments," Schwarz said of Marcucci. "There weren’t so many chances from the opponent, but his attitude and his body language there throughout the entire game. It was a really good job from A.J. today."
He has now posted a 3-0-1 mark in his four career matches across all competitions for the Red Bulls.
The top four clubs from each Leagues Cup league-specific table advance to the Knockout Rounds and will be placed in a fixed bracket to compete in the single-game elimination matches beginning with the Quarterfinals (four matches). Four MLS clubs and four LIGA MX clubs will advance.
New York will travel to TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio to battle C.F. Monterrey in their second Phase One match of 2025 Leagues Cup.
Kickoff is set for 8:30 p.m. ET with coverage on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV in English and Spanish, and New York Red Bulls Radio presented by Sports Illustrated in English via the New York Red Bulls app and NewYorkRedBulls.com.
