The New York Red Bulls jumped out to an early two-goal lead, riding that to a 2-1 victory over Hartford Athletic and will be moving into the Round of 32 of the U.S. Open Cup.
The first half was stellar for New York, with plenty of shots on goal, with two finding the back of the net. The second half saw Hartford pushing for a goal -- and eventually an equalizer.
"I can see in this direction we can learn to be focused, forget decisions from the referee, forget situations or infights from that," Head Coach Gerhard Struber said. "Be focused, stay focused, this is more the message what can I give my voice and what can we learn from the second half."
Lewis Morgan found the first goal for New York, scoring in the 18th minute.
"It was something we spoke about is having a fast start especially the opposition," Morgan said. "We knew they were going to start quick -- and we know that we had to come out fighting -- and lucky with that dash a couple goals probably should have had a little bit more, but it was a good to start to the game and obviously, you can see that those two goals are pivotal."
New York is now undefeated away from Red Bull Arena this season, with three MLS wins and an Open Cup victory.
"Teams have a responsibility, when we play away from home, when they are playing in front of their own fans to try and attack and really exploit those spaces," Morgan said. "We put ourselves up against any team and we really take advantage of that when we are on the road. It is just about trying to win games at different styles when we are at home. We know that as attacking players, but the thing is we always take chances, so we just need to be a little bit more clinical in front of goal and then things will start turning around."
Dylan Nealis was removed in the first half due to a knock, while Frankie Amaya was removed at halftime to manage minutes as the team heads to Orlando for an MLS match on Sunday.
"We can see how many chances we create today also we score today," Struber said. "Orlando is a completely different game on Sunday against a completely different level. We have to stretch our mindset and I'm looking forward for this game on Sunday."
