Charlotte, Red Bulls battle for positioning in middle of East standings

Charlotte FC will look to put a frustrating blown lead behind them when they travel to Harrison, N.J., to face the New York Red Bulls on Saturday.

Charlotte (6-6-4, 22 points) blew a two-goal lead against visiting rival Atlanta United on Wednesday after running out of steam and missing last-minute chances. Now it looks for a positive result on the road, where it has just one win in six away matches (1-4-1) this season.

"They looked really energetic and scored a really good goal," Charlotte coach Dean Smith said of New York's 3-1 loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday. "But they conceded three goals at Philly. It looked like a 100-mile game, which is how we both play, so we've got to be wary of that.

"But again, we have to concentrate on ourselves."

New York (6-6-4, 22 points) conceded twice in the span of 10 minutes which broke a 1-1 deadlock in the second half of that loss to the Union, ending a four-game unbeaten streak.

"When you have a game that gets away from you a bit, when you have a game that leaves you disappointed and frustrated, then there's nothing better than to be able to turn around a few days later and play again," Red Bulls coach Michael Bradley said. "Everything about the last 48 hours has been (about) turning the players around mentally, physically and making sure we use the Philadelphia game in the right way."

Teenage phenom Julian Hall has been in rare form for the Red Bulls, scoring nine goals and adding four assists in 16 league appearances. He's registered five goal contributions across the last four games, and unlocking his agility and dribbling will be key to New York's attack.

However, the Red Bulls have also conceded the third-most goals in the Eastern Conference (35), meaning they'll also likely need to lock down the back line to pull out a positive result.

The match figures to be an important one for playoff positioning. Both sides, along with New York City FC, are tied for sixth in the Eastern Conference with 22 points, one point behind Cincinnati. Picking up points on Saturday would help both teams climb up the playoff ladder, or at least avoid a tumble down the standings.

--Field Level Media