Jesse Marsch:   “They have to do what they have to do. It’s better than going on the road to Houston.” (FrontRowSoccer.com Photo)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch took no glee that archrival New York City FC has been forced to play a home game well away from Yankee Stadium.

NYCFC was forced to host its Sept. 23 game against the Houston Dynamo at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn.because of a Yankees’ make-up game two days later. Stadium ground crews need three days to turn a soccer pitch into a baseball field.

“It’s hard,” Marsch told reporters after training at the Red Bull Training Facility Wednesday. “I understand they don’t own their stadium. It makes it difficult. They have to do what they have to do. It’s better than going on the road to Houston.”

That still would be an 118-mile one-way trek from the New York City line to East Hartford.

Until 2010, when Red Bull Arena was built, the Red Bulls were second-class citizens to the two NFL teams at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

“It’s nice to have Red Bull Arena,” Marsch said. “What a great place to play, even for Open Cup games and everything else. Just to have a place like that to call home, we’re very lucky.”

The Red Bulls will host NYCFC in the third and final Hudson River Derby encounter of the season at RBA at 7 p.m. Friday.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.