Pat Noonan credited his FC Cincinnati players for their resilience after a difficult start to the season, as they look to put together back-to-back MLS wins against the New York Red Bulls.

Cincinnati only took three points from their first four league games of the campaign and were also dumped out of the CONCACAF Champions Cup in humiliating fashion, squandering a 3-0 first-leg lead to lose 5-4 on aggregate to Tigres.

But they went into the international break off the back of a 4-3 victory over CF Montreal, with Kevin Denkey scoring a last-gasp winner for the Orange and Blue after they were reduced to 10 men.

Asked about the importance of that win, Noonan said: "It means you go into the break with some positive feelings, some momentum. That's all we really needed.

"We'd like it to look a bit different, but they fought and that's all you can ask for. Resilience, whatever word you want to use, they showed good character.

"You always want to see fight in the group, and when things aren't going well, it can go a lot of different ways, good and bad, for different reasons.

"You just ask that the guys care and fight and be professional when dealing with adversity. It's a long season and this is one moment, but it's a promising moment."

Cincinnati are one point and one place below the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference, though Michael Bradley's side need a response after losing 6-1 to Charlotte FC prior to the international break.

Bradley was not too disheartened by that result, though, saying: "We're building something, we're on the path to becoming a really good team. 

"But unfortunately, nights like that are part of it sometimes. We have to be able to take the lessons, we have to learn and we have to be able to move forward."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

New York Red Bulls – Julian Hall

In the Red Bulls' heavy defeat to Charlotte last time out, 18-year-old Hall scored his fourth goal of the season and the seventh of his MLS career. 

The only teenagers with more regular-season goals for the club than Hall are Eddie Gaven (16), Jozy Altidore (15) and Mike Magee (nine).

FC Cincinnati – Kevin Denkey

Denkey scored his 17th regular-season goal for Cincinnati in their win over Montreal prior to the international break, notching the winner in the 94th minute. 

Including the postseason, each of Denkey's last four goals have been game-winning efforts.

MATCH PREDICTIONS: DRAW 

Cincinnati have recorded back-to-back shutout wins against the Red Bulls. This is the eighth time Cincinnati have achieved consecutive clean sheet victories against a single opponent in MLS, but they have never extended any of those runs to three in a row.

They won a seven-goal thriller against CF Montreal on March 22, but they are not favoured by the Opta supercomputer to back up that result in New York.

That is due to the fact they have conceded 14 goals in their last three games across all competitions, their second-most in any three-game span (15 in October 2021, all in MLS).

The Red Bulls, though, suffered only their third defat by a margin of five or more goals last time out, having previously lost 5-0 to D.C. United in 1998 and 6-0 to Sporting Kansas City in 1999, so they do not enter this match full of confidence, either.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

New York Red Bulls – 39.4%

FC Cincinnati – 34%

Draw – 26.6%