Carlos Coronel was unhappy with himself as the New York Red Bulls prepared to kick off their Audi MLS Cup Playoffs campaign, starting with a daunting Round One matchup against the Columbus Crew, the side that had just defeated RBNY 3-2 in the regular-season finale.
So much so that it provoked soul-searching in the predawn hours.
“When the playoffs started, I wasn’t in my best form,” Coronel later told reporters in Spanish. “The last game of the season, against Columbus, I didn't play a good game … The truth is that I started two weeks ago, it was always a prayer there in the morning – like three or four in the morning – that woke me up, and that helped me a lot.”
Coronel would be well and truly vindicated. The Red Bulls pulled off one of the postseason’s shock results, stunning the defending champions with a series sweep delivered by three consecutive Coronel saves in the penalty shootout during the decisive Game 2, above and beyond the 10 stops he made in the run of play across the two matches.
It was a profoundly sweet breakthrough for a goalkeeper who’s been in the Red Bull system since his academy days, starting with the global network’s Brazilian outpost in São Paulo and continuing through several years in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg before landing at RBNY in 2021.
The 27-year-old credits his faith with helping him manage the ups and downs of his trade. He joyously displayed words to that effect inscribed on his undershirt ('All glory to God') as he and his teammates celebrated before the home fans at Red Bull Arena.
“It's a message also to everyone that always, when you're going through something difficult, that anything can happen,” explained the Brazilian-born Paraguay international, “and that it will pass too, and the good will come.”
Prepared for big moments
Upsets of that scale are usually built on goalkeeping heroics – just ask Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF about Atlanta United's Brad Guzan – and Coronel had done his part. Afterwards, Red Bulls head coach Sando Schwarz was quick to hail the influence of goalkeeper coach Jeremy Proud, describing the match-specific preparations Proud, Coronel and backup ‘keeper Ryan Meara worked through at the training facility, not only on PKs but with possession buildouts and box defending, to fortify Coronel’s confidence.
“Every goalkeeping staff, and goalkeepers, will go through and analyze what they think might happen,” Proud told MLSsoccer.com this week. “The goalkeeper that's in the game, they either have to use that intuition, instinct that they feel in the moment, or they go with maybe what the data said.
“In the Columbus game, it was outstanding. That comes through training, through experience, through analysis. In leading up to the last game, Carlos, Ryan and I sat together and shared our insights, opinions. But then at the end of the day, he has to go on the field and make the plays.”
It provided deliverance not only for Coronel’s self-acknowledged autumn dip in form, and a disappointing shootout loss to Pachuca that ended RBNY’s Leagues Cup at the group stage in July, where he was unable to make a save across six rounds of spot kicks.
“I started a little frustrated because I don’t go to the right corners [on the Crew’s first four penalties],” said Coronel after the Game 2 triumph. “But we analyze also every play from Columbus. Then for sure, I have to give a little credit also to Ryan and Jeremy, because this was teamwork. I did not start how I want, but I finished very well. For sure we analyzed, and in the end I followed also what we analyzed together, and in the end it worked.”
Among the league's best
The Red Bulls' reward: A Hudson River Derby clash with their crosstown antagonists New York City FC in a juicy Eastern Conference Semifinal at Citi Field on Saturday (5:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass). It’s the first-ever postseason edition of this rivalry, and there’s something of a mirror effect considering the Cityzens pulled off a surprise of comparable proportions on FC Cincinnati in their Round One series, backstopped by some truly superb glove work from Matt Freese.
As Hudson River Blue’s Matthew Mangam recently noted, Freese ranked among the league's elite in save percentage, goals prevented and other metrics during the regular season. Pigeons fans were irate when he was left off the shortlist for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award, lamenting the lack of wider recognition of Freese’s MVP-level contributions to NYCFC’s season. That outcry continued as he was overlooked by US men’s national team coach Mauricio Pochettino these past two months, despite a strong statistical case for being the top American ‘keeper in MLS, and perhaps beyond.
“Several American goalkeepers have had good years, and I think I'm one of them,” Freese told MLSsoccer.com this week, confirming that he’s had no contact from USMNT staff up to this point. “I'm very focused on the team right now, very focused on getting us to the MLS Cup. I think if you win an MLS Cup, things change, things happen differently; it’s the same story of individual success will follow team success … With that being said, I think it'd be a huge honor to be called up.”
Freese responded on the pitch by finding another level across the Cincy series. With 13 saves and conceding only twice in three matches despite FCC totaling 7.6 expected goals, his composure calmed those around him.
Then, like Coronel, he grabbed the spotlight in the shootout required to break a 0-0 deadlock in Game 3 at TQL Stadium, making three saves to complete the upset and earn Player of the Match presented by Michelob Ultra honors. Thus, an NYCFC squad who had posted just three clean sheets in their previous 24 games across league and Leagues Cup play booked their place in the Conference Semifinals.
“Good goalies steal games, steal playoff series, and that's what New York City had in Matt Freese,” NYCFC’s Spanish-language play-by-play commentator Roberto Abramowitz later noted on his podcast. “As the game went on, you never really got a sense in the second half that Cincinnati was going to score. It wasn't that feeling of dread, of ‘OK, how is this going to fall apart.’”
Coming up clutch
It was a virtuoso performance in a clutch situation, all the more remarkable given this is the Philadelphia Union academy product’s first season as an established first-team starter. What’s more, Freese had limited experience to call upon when it came to PKs. Most of his matchday exposure to spot kicks had come in MLS NEXT Pro action, where shootouts follow regular-season draws, an experimental rule implemented with player development, and entertainment for fans, in mind.
“Full transparency, my penalty shootouts this year, both in Leagues Cup and throughout the season, have not been at the level that I know they can be,” said Freese. “Penalties are probably my best or second-best attribute, and I didn't show that this year. I have to give myself a little bit of grace, because the Leagues Cup game against New England is the first penalty shootout on the MLS level that I've ever done.
“So I kind of tried to forgive myself a little bit and work on what was going wrong,” he continued. “Why was my athleticism not coming out? Stuff like that. I talked to Rob [Vartughian], my coach, about it as well, and I think I was overthinking it a little bit, and not letting myself enjoy the moment, not letting myself be myself, be athletic and be springy, have good hands.”
Thus this driven, extremely intelligent, painstakingly methodical 26-year-old assigned himself a mantra usually more often employed at youth levels: Have fun with it.
“So in the moment this past game,” explained Freese, “if you watch the video, I was laughing and talking and stuff like that, and just trying to enjoy it, rather than build up too much pressure. First and foremost, just trying to let myself be myself in there and make the save that I know my athleticism enables.”
All eyes on Saturday
Both GKs will call on their hard-earned mental strength in Queens on Saturday evening, where a large crowd is expected for the highest-stakes Hudson River Derby in the rivalry’s decade of existence. Their most recent meeting was one for Coronel to forget: NYCFC thrashed RBNY, 5-1, at Red Bull Arena on Sept. 28, completing a season sweep for the Pigeons.
Proud says he and his ‘keepers aren’t spending a single moment on the film from that one.
“That game's gone,” said the coach. “We can't dwell in the past. Goalkeepers [have] got to have a short memory. You move forward after a game like that; nothing really to say. Yeah, disappointing against your rivals, but that's life.
“He's very self-reflective, and we analyze all the games when it's necessary,” said Proud of Coronel, praising the trilingual netminder’s leadership and communication skills. “Sometimes you just have to move on. You move forward. And he's got a resilient mindset. Once that day has passed, all right, we're working, we're working towards the next game, the next training session. And he's grown a lot.”
Who will prove the difference-makers in this grudge match? It’s a massive boon to both sides that their ‘keepers have already established their big-game bona fides.
“This is going to be the quintessential Hudson River Derby,” predicted Freese. “It's going to be two clashing styles of soccer. It's going to be very intense. They're going to want it to be intense, and we're going to have to match that intensity.
“I'm really, really proud of the way that we have developed that this year. I think this is something that we were missing last year – when the going gets hard, can we match the intensity? Can we win duels? Can we stand up and fight for each other? That's something that we've grown a lot in.”
