New York Red Bulls won the first New York derby on Sunday night, thanks to two goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips and a spirited 10-man rearguard action, after Matt Miazga picked up a second yellow card just before half-time.

After all the hype and symbolism that had led up to the contest, it was almost a surprise when a game broke out after the first whistle. After a breathless start – which many had predicted - there was another surprise in the type of game it was, even before Miazga’s dismissal.

In the opening moments, the hosts looked rampant, with Lloyd Sam in particular tormenting RJ Allen down the right flank, by way of welcome to MLS.

And in the fourth minute, it was Sam’s twists and turns inside the box – again on the right – that saw the Red Bulls take the lead. As Sam squeezed the ball across the face of goal, Josh Williams and Pablo Alvarez were caught ball-watching to leave Bradley Wright-Phillips with the simplest of touches home for the first goal in this rivalry.

Before the game, Dax McCarty had told his team in the huddle that if any of them couldn’t get inspired by this sort of atmosphere they should step off the field, and in the opening 15 minutes, roared on by the majority of a sellout crowd, the Red Bulls threatened to overwhelm NYCFC with their pressing game.

With Mix Diskerud off form, and David Villa clearly still not fit, it was left to less celebrated players to ease NYCFC into the game. Khiry Shelton, as his coach noted after the game, can be prone to rookie errors, but he’s also a willing runner whose positivity and runs at the Red Bulls defense began to cause problems as the first half went on.

Before 20 minutes had elapsed, Shelton had got Miazga the game’s first booking as the young defender jumped in rashly as his opponent sprinted towards goal. And by the time Miazga bundled Shelton over awkwardly to earn a second yellow in the 36th minute the game had already begun to swing in NYCFC’s favor, as the corner count began to pile up.

Still, as so often in their debut season, the visitors couldn’t find a finish to go with their build up play, and while the Red Bulls were under pressure for the remainder of the match after Miazga’s dismissal, what was perhaps most impressive about their performance was the danger they produced on the counter.

Their second goal came on just such a attack. With NYC’s wide men pushed up in search of an early equalizer in the second half (“too soon” was Kreis’s assessment afterwards), the Red Bulls scored the decisive goal on a wicked counter in the 52nd minute.

Lloyd Sam picked up the ball deep on a three-on-three break and set off up the field before curling a beautiful cross field ball into the path of Kljestan on the left. Kljestan barely broke stride as he chested the ball down into the left side of the box, before sweeping the ball across the face of goal for the onrushing Wright-Phillips to touch home his second.

NYC kept pressing and as the game went past the hour, Kreis began to play his substitutes. First Poku for the disappointing Diskerud, then Patrick Mullins for a frustrated looking Villa, who was booed off cheerfully by the Red Bulls fans. Then former Red Bull Medhi Ballouchy entered the game for Alvarez in the 70th minute.

There was still a cautious look to the NYCFC play though, as the fear of another Red Bulls counter seemed as present as the imperative to score. Indeed in the middle of this round of substitutions Wright-Phillips should have had a hat-trick when he raced free on goal – only for Saunders to block the ball with his foot as the striker tried to shoot low past him.

It meant NYC were still in the game and with Mullins looking more direct than his colleagues their threat increased. Indeed it was Mullins who swept home a low Allen cross into the box in the 77th minute to set up a frantic finish.

The fact that it never quite came may be testimony to the Red Bulls organization in defense or perhaps NYCFC’s ultimate lack of chemistry and guile at this stage of their evolution. Either way the Red Bulls saw out the game for inaugural bragging rights in New York, and as the focus shifted back to the symbolism of the game again, a credible first installment in what has the makings of a legitimate rivalry.