The New York Red Bulls will face off against Atlanta United FC, FC Cincinnati and Columbus Crew SC in the MLS is Back Tournament in Orlando, Florida.
The Red Bulls landed in Group E during a live draw on June 11.
The tournament will kick off on July 8, with the top two teams from each group along with the four best third-place finishers will move on to the knockout stage, beginning with the Round of 16. Each match result of the group stage will count toward regular season standings.
The Red Bulls faced Atlanta United and the Crew during the 2020 preseason and hosted FC Cincy in the first game of the 2020 regular season. The Red Bulls defeated FC Cincy 3-2 in a game where Kyle Duncan and Florian Valot each got two assists. New York lost 2-1 to Atlanta United in a game that featured three 30-minute periods and drew 1-1 against the Crew in a Visit Tucson Sun Cup match.
Dates and kickoff times for the three matches will be determined at a later date.
Due to the fact that the teams that advance to the knockout rounds will play an uneven number of games compared to those that don’t make it out of the group stage, the results in the knockout rounds will not count towards the regular season standings.
However, what will be at stake in Florida will be a $1.1 million prize and an automatic berth in the 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League. Recently, the Red Bulls reached the SCCL semifinals in 2018 and quarterfinals in 2019.
Clubs that don’t make it out of the group stage will fly back to their home markets and prepare for the restart of the regular season.
The final number of matches and the schedule for the remainder of the 2020 MLS regular season will be announced in the coming weeks.
