Bradley Wright-Phillips, left, tries to hold off Orlando's Tommy Redding. Photograph by New York Red Bulls

By ANTHONY J. MERCED

All of the statistics from Sunday afternoon’s New York Red Bulls loss to Orlando City favored the team in red except for the one that matters — the scoreline. A 1-0 defeat saw 61% possession and more than 100 more passes wasted.

“For me, it’s obviously disappointing,” Coach Jesse Marsch said. “Given the control we had at different stages of the game, to come out with no points but for me that looked like us, that felt like us. I thought the spirit of the team, the commitment to go after the game, the commitment to make it hard on a hot day when we haven’t trained in the heat at all and in front of a great crowd in a hostile environment. In all ways now I think that we made big strides in a game that wasn’t a result.”

New York surrendered the game’s only goal in the 34th minute when Servando Carrasco scored off a corner kick. The team was once again vulnerable defensively, this time with Tyler Adams being the victim of poor marking. From there Orlando was comfortable with picking its moments to hit the Red Bulls on the counter. Had it not been for the goalkeeper Luis Robles, the scoreline could have been far worse. Robles made a key save one-on-one against Cyle Larin late in the second half.

“There are certain key guys on your opponent that you need to be mindful of and Cyle is one of them,” Robles said. “Cyle is a very good player. He’s scored a lot of goals in that situation, so being able to see some of his tendencies on film this past week helped me in this situation.”

The issue for the Red Bulls is how they can convert statistics into results. New York is winless in four games, and while there seems to be little sense of urgency now, it is nothing compared to last year when the team got off to a 1-6 start. The schedule gets more difficult with games against D.C. United, Columbus and Chicago in the coming weeks.