@archak It wasn't. Chelsea played the usual mix that you do in pre-season while the Red Bulls decided that they would give more importance to their cup game, literally a day before the Chelsea match, and then give the "B" team a go against Chelsea.
Hell, I think it worked for the Red Bulls. Last season when they played Arsenal it was all about Arsenal. Bradley Wright-Phillips did well to score but it was all Arsenal in the end but this year it was all about Tyler Adams, the 16 year old who scored against Chelsea!
We had a US Open Cup match so we had a choice of where we play the "B" team. The reason it was big news for us was that usually the owners, Red Bull, forced the management to play the "B" team for the domestic cup and then first-team for the "Star Friendlies" but this time we did the opposite. Fixture congestion was not exactly it but Red Bull should have been smarter about saying "yes" for this friendly.
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Praful Patel's AIFF responsible for state of crisis in Indian football
Fixture congestion led to Red Bulls fielding a reserve team against Chelsea. The senior team had a MLS match the day before the friendly.
After making their opponents stroll at amusement park (read: the matches played), DD got their share of amusement as well.
The Delhi Dynamos troop had a tension free day at an amusement park in Sweden. Here's a glimpse of the fun they had.
#HeroISL #LetsFootball