Elias Manoel scored the Red Bulls’ lone goal. (USA TODAY Sports)

The Red Bulls scored two goals on Saturday night.

The problem was one of those were for Charlotte FC as they settled for a 1-1 MLS draw in Charlotte, N.C.

Red Bulls center back Andres Reyes put the ball into his own net in the 74th minute, negating Elias Manoel’s tally in the 43rd minute before a crowd of 32,540 at Bank of America Stadium.

“We gave them a big gift in their hands today,” Red Bulls head coach Gerhard Struber said. It’s very painful for me, my coaching team and my boys, this was absolutely not necessary to go home with an equalizer against Charlotte. This is only on us today. The equalizer feels like a defeat. We are very unhappy about the second half and how we lost our momentum.”

Struber wasn’t finished as he talked about the disparity between the first and second halves. The Red Bulls played well in the opening 45 minutes. So as much over the final 45.

“I think forgot our principles in the one moment and then the momentum flew away,” he said. “The first half showed a completely different picture from the second half. We lost our focus and our concentration in shifting moments. Especially I think, in the fullback area. Our spine sometimes wasn’t our standard, sometimes it was passive. Only in this space, especially the goal what we conceded was exactly this direction. I think we could come in so easy for checking moments in this situation, but it was in the sleeping mode and not brave enough to come in for checking moment and I think this killed the momentum in the second half.”

The result left the Red Bulls at 1-1-3 and six points in the 1,000th game in club history, while Charlotte FC moved to 1-2-2 and five points.

“We felt that it was a good game,” Red Bulls captain and defender Sean Nealis said. “It was in our hands but we just kind of lost momentum at the end and I think we’ll learn from it.”

Manoel lifted the visitors into the lead late in the first half with his first goal of the campaign. He has scored three MLS goals and all three against the North Carolina side.

“I think he was [very good], especially against the ball,” Struber said. “He worked very, very hard. Exactly this direction what we expect from Charlotte. He was very disciplined, and he was also the leader of a good transition moment. Yeah, I think he came a little bit from the blind side against the center back and it was of course, a mistake from them. But also, I think right now he looks for moments like that. He came in a very good pressing moment. He is growing but of course he has also many tools and improvements for him to be stable and constantly on a great level.”

Added Nealis: “He’s a great talent and he’s a young kid he’ll keep learning and keep growing in the game and thankfully, he’s on our side. So he’s great to go up against in practice and I think he’ll get better and he’ll have a long career.”

Then came the own goal as Reyes accidentally put Kerwin Vargas’ left-wing cross past goalkeeper Carlos Coronel to knot things up.

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.