Red Bulls, NYC FC meet for first time

For this derby, history begins now.

The Red Bulls and New York City FC will meet for the first time Sunday night in a matchup both the players and stateside soccer aficionados hope will one day climb the ranks, taking its place among the historic soccer derbies of European lore.

A long shot? Probably. But hey, every bitter crosstown rivalry needs to start somewhere.

"I think if you look around the world, in the big leagues that are respected, they have a massive derby, and I think this league is no different, [and] in a city like New York" it could especially take off, the Red Bulls' Bradley Wright-Phillips said after practice Friday (Wright-Phillips played a blip at a Manchester derby when he was with Man City).

And though the "Hudson River derby" is not even in the same stratosphere as its Premier League cousin, "in years to come, in a city like New York, it could be the biggest," he said.

Though the teams seem to be on opposite trajectories -- the Red Bulls are 3-1-4 and New York City FC is 1-5-3 -- the matchup is meaty enough thanks to the full return of NYC FC striker David Villa, who said he would finally be able to play a full match after suffering from various lower-body ailments for the past month.

The Red Bulls, meanwhile, lost their first game of the season last week, and have otherwise bounced back nicely from the loss of Thierry Henry -- thanks, in part, to Wright-Phillips, who has three goals and three assists this season.

"We respect them and we know they have a lot of good players," Red Bulls midfielder Dax McCarty said. "It's a matter of them getting healthy and putting it together. We know it's not going to be an easy game . . . It's the first matchup of what we hope becomes a fantastic rivalry . . . The first game is important to set the tone and establish that this is your turf.

And, as with most high-intensity games, McCarty said he expected the pitch to take on a fever pitch. "I don't expect it to be the prettiest of soccer at times because whenever you play a game with a lot of emotions surrounding the game, I think it turns into more of a battle and more of a fight," he said.

Sacha Kljestan noted that, at least for now, the rivalry is more with the fans than with the teams, but he added that fomenting the derby could be important to the growth and popularity of local professional soccer. In this instance, it's less rivalry, and more opportunity.

"The rivalries have to happen on the field and they have to happen in big games and big games that matter," he said. "This could be the start of something historic."

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.