Despite having to settle for a draw, New York Red Bulls’ Dave Van Den Bergh was pleased to escape from newly opened Rio Tinto Stadium with a win on Thursday night.  The midfielder opened the scoring with an unassisted left footed shot in the 31st minute.

“It was a corner to the far post, a great ball in by Mike Magee. I think (Seth) Stammler headed it in. Beckerman cleared it off the line, and you kind of have a feeling for where he’s going to hit that stuff out, so I just kind of drifted towards that spot and it just came perfect to my left foot. It’s easy from there, really.”

“Oh, we needed a result badly. We lost three in a row. Especially with teams closing in on us, we needed some kind of a result. Although we went up on the scoreboard, I think 1-1 was kind of the run of play, really.”

The Big Apple side knew going in this would be a difficult environment with this being the inaugural match in the new stadium.

“It’s tough to play on the road, especially when a team is so pumped up to play for the first time in their new stadium, and the crowd gets so into it. They get the referee with them, the whole game. It’s tough to get a result, but I felt out of these last three games we need to get five or six points. We get one (tonight).”

With a point in hand, the Red Bulls move on and turn their focus to their push to make sure they qualify for the playoffs.

“We’re having a tough task ahead of us. But one home game, that needs to be three points – that is key. And then the last game in Chicago is going to be a spicy one with everything that’s happened between our two franchises.”