In their last five road matches, the New York Red Bulls have had three clean sheets and allowed only two goals, bringing their road record to 6-4-1 on the season.
According to Head Coach Chris Armas, the reason why the team has been so successful on the road this season is due to their mental strength.
"I think one of the reasons we’ve been successful on the road got to give credit to the guys," Armas said. "Their mentality, sticking to their tactics and understanding that it’s not going to be perfect on the road, lots of times you’re not going to have the ball, lots of times there’s home field advantage to the other team."
The Red Bulls have been a part of four straight 1-0 games on the road, winning three. When speaking about the wins after training on Wednesday, Aaron Long said the wins are about the team finding a way to grind it out.
"I think a big thing is just grinding it out," Long said. "We know that once we get a goal we know how to pack it in, we know how to grind our results. Of course, we always have chances to score and we've had chances, but we’re very fortunate this year in getting a lot of shutouts, so I think that’s our pride and that’s first and foremost on the road for sure."
Long also credited the teams' tactics in making it hard for teams to score on them.
"I think it all goes to our tactics," Long said. "You know how hard we press up the field makes it so hard for them to play good balls, and then once it does get to our end we have a lot of guys there. They put out fires so I think that’s the biggest thing."
Long wasn't the only one giving the defense credit for putting out fires, Daniel Royer also mentioned how the defenses' ability to do so makes the job of the offense much easier.
"I think our defense is the key," Royer said. "It’s great having those guys in the back. When you see the entire season, there’s a lot of guys who can put out fires and they’re really compact and really tough to play against. When we have a good day of pressing, it’s really hard to play through us, so I think it’s pretty hard for the opponents to find solutions. And the flip side, we can create chances and score and so we get close results on the road, but most of the time good results."
The Red Bulls will now face a much tougher challenge, when they embark on the longest trip to date this season, having to fly all the way to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps, who have not suffered a loss in league play in their last five matches.
That being said, the team understands that adjustments will have to be made due to the travel and time difference, but the team also knows that mentally they're prepared for that challenge.
"When you go to Vancouver, a lot of the adjustments like the long flight and the time difference and everything," Royer said. "But that’s also about mentality, and I think we always have a good mentality and a great team spirit so no matter where we go, either Eastern or Western, it’s always about three points and that’s what we’re aiming for."
