Soccer: New York Red Bulls II’s firepower carries team to 3-1 win over Orlando City

by Andrew Garda

garda@montclairlocal.news

The New York Red Bulls II snapped a two-game losing streak Friday night with a 3-1 win over the Orlando City B, driven by goals from Junior Flemmings, Vincent Bezecourt and David Abidor, as well as solid goalkeeping by Evan Louro.

Orlando City dropped to 1-3-1 with the loss while the Red Bulls improved to 2-2-1.

The match often seemed chippy and heated but for head coach John Wolyniec, that’s to be expected.

“You know, it’s a competitive game,” he said after the win. “It’s two MLS II teams and a bunch of guys that want to prove themselves, so a chippiness sometimes starts from one play or could be the result of the way the game goes.”

He went on to say that the physicality and hard play wasn’t anything the team worried about during the game.

The action truly started with Flemmings’ goal in the 16th minute of the game. On the score, Flemmings — who had been out for seven and a half months prior to this season due to injury — wove his way through defenders and slipped the ball past the Orlando City goalie for his first goal of the season.

Flemmings credited his coaches and agent for helping him get back on the field.

“Mentally, it is very frustrating,” he said after the match. “But I wanted to play this beautiful game again so I got to do what is best to get back onto the pitch and I did.”

Wolyniec was very pleased to have his forward back on the field.

“I think Junior showed last year that in USL he can be a dangerous player and he had a really frustrating offseason due to injury,” the coach said. “We are going to have to be patient with him and I have been over the first few games. Now, he is feeling a bit better and you can see him getting results.”

Orlando City battled back, though, and tied the game in the 34th minute with New York down a man due to injury. Louro did a great job during a flurry of shots just prior to the goal, at one point saving three shots in the span of less than a minute, but he just missed on the B’s goal.

The match seemed to slow down at that point until Bezecourt scored a nice goal a short time before the half. On the play, defender Justin Bilyeu made a sharp pass to Bezecourt, who directed it toward the corner of the goal.

It was Bezecourt’s fourth goal in five games and his coaches think the main club will be taking notice.

“He is clearly playing confidently and I think he is trying to prove something, which I hope all of our guys are,” Wolyniec said.

Wolyniec feels that things seemed to be falling into place on the field for the prolific midfielder.

“He seems to be in on every goal we have and every chance we create. If you talk about Vincent, the first thing you ever talk about is his ability to make plays whether it be on the finishing end or setting-up end and that’s what we love about him.”

“It is clear that he is one of the most dangerous players for us on the field right now.”

At the start of the second half, Orlando City surged and worked hard to get quality chances on Louro, but struggled to finish. That bought New York time to get back on track and take the game back over, culminating in Abidor’s score in the 87th minute of the game.

The Red Bulls entered the game coming off a six-day layoff, which came on the heels of three games in eight days. They now have another break until April 22 when they head back on the road to face the Rochester Rhinos.