It was a coolish night at Red Bull Arena with a bit of a wind, but somehow the reserves for the New York Red Bulls got hot from the start of the match till deep into the second half. As soon as Referee Andrew Chapman blew his whistle to start the US Open Cup Qualifier, the rookies came out charging.

Conor Chinn scored two goals in the first half to give RBNY the lead. The first shot was a long distance rip that was stopped by Union keeper Chris Seitz, but gave the rebound to Chinn. After the original rebound was shot, Chinn got a second bite of the apple and converted his first US Open Cup goal in the 16th minute. His second goal came at the run of play when Luke Sassano was at the far side and crossed a good ball that went towards goal and Chinn got his right heel on it and tapped it in the net in the 41st minute. The only goal conceded was from Mr. US Open Cup himself Sebastien LeToux who chipped the ball over NY keeper Greg Sutton in the 68th minute. Even though Philly threatened all match long, they never got that equalizer to force extra time.

Brian Nielsen was the only starter from this past Saturday’s league match to play with the rookies and reserves in this US Open Cup Qualifier and looked very good bringing up the ball on the left side in the midfield. For the first time you saw some of the Super Draft players like Tony Tchani, Chinn & academy standout Juan Agudelo plays on the field. This was the best first half this club has played since the friendly against Santos.

Tony Tchani controlled the midfield and distributed the ball beautifully. Brian Nielsen showed some more of his skills bringing up the ball on the left side. Juan Agudelo had some chances, but couldn’t covert either losing the ball, or the Philly defense stopping those shots. If you thought this was the senior side playing like this, you would be wrong. The reserves and rookies did a heck of a job sticking to the game plan and controlling the match. If most of their chances weren’t wasted, this could’ve been a six goal destruction.

Sadly for the Union they have lost Sebastien LeToux for a good amount of time. Andrew Boyens with a hard challenge took him down in the 81st and was stretchered off the field. Early reports have come out that it was a right knee injury & they Union were down to ten men the rest of the night. After four minutes of stoppage time, the final whistle was blown and for the Philadelphia Union they were eliminated in US Open Cup Qualifying.

What happened after the match from the Union side Head Coach Peter Nowak wasn’t pleased. Once everyone left field Nowak kept his side on the field and forced them to do suicide runs. After he got them to stop the Union went back into the locker room and Nowak threw out the press to scolded at his expansion side some more.

What will happen the rest of the season with Philadelphia I don’t know, but one thing is for sure. Peter Nowak probably doesn’t want to hear that dreaded “E” word called Expansion Team. But for the New York Red Bulls, they will advance to the next Qualifier on Wednesday night, May 12th against the New England Revolution.

Special US Open Cup Qualifier Re-Cap Show
Wednesday, April 28th 8:30PM EDT – 5:30PM PDT NY Vs PHI