New York: Sean Davis scored twice in the second half as the New York Red Bulls upset Chelsea 4-2 in the reigning English Premier League champions’ first game of their pre-season US exhibition tour.
The Red Bulls scored four times in the second half against mighty Chelsea FC on Wednesday despite using a roster made up of mostly of young developmental players.
They were also coming off a quarter-final loss less than 24 hours earlier to the Philadelphia Union in the US Open Cup competition.
New York head coach Jesse Marsch went with a youthful line-up and it paid off as midfielder Davis scored in the 73rd and 77th minutes and 16-year-old Tyler Adams scored in the 70th minute.
Franklin Castellanos scored in the 51st minute for the Red Bulls, who were playing Chelsea for the first time.
Loic Remy in the 26th minute and Eden Hazard in the 75th scored for Chelsea, who are on a three-game tour of North America.
Chelsea field vastly different sides in each half as just three players played the full 90 minutes.
It was a difficult Chelsea debut for goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, who came on in the second half. The Blues were without stars Willian and Juan Cuadrado as they were both resting after competing in the Copa America tournament.
Davis was in the right place at the right time on both of his goals in front of a crowd of 24,000 at the Red Bull Arena. He blasted a right-footed shot from the centre of the box in the 73rd minute to the top left corner to make it 3-1.
Just four minutes later he got his second on a poor clearance by a Chelsea defender. This time he hammered a left foot shot into the bottom right corner past Begovic to make it 4-2.
Sandwiched in between Davis’ markers was a goal by Chelsea’s Hazard, who pulled one back by scoring through a maze of players from just outside the box.
Adams, who was making his Red Bull debut after playing mainly with the under-17 team, gave New York their first lead of the game, 2-1, with a header that beat Begovic after a nice cross from Castellanos.
Remy opened the scoring for Chelsea with a nice hesitation move that froze Red Bull goalkeeper Kyle Reynish before placing his shot into the top half of the net.
Chelsea’s next game is Saturday against Paris Saint-Germain in Charlotte, North Carolina.
