NEW YORK — When you see a score line like 7-0, the first reaction is to think that a match just took place between two teams that didn't even belong on the same field together. As much as you could make that argument about the New York Red Bulls' 7-0 annihilation of New York City FC, Saturday's New York derby bloodbath was as much about one team being perfectly-suited to exploit not only the field conditions of their opponent's home stadium, but also one of their major weaknesses.

Yankee Stadium may be NYC's current home, but the Red Bulls feel right at home playing on the most narrow field in MLS. The small field is the perfect environment for a team with the pressing style and bulldog midfield possessed by the Red Bulls to suffocate even opposition that features the legendary Andrea Pirlo. Knowing this, the Red Bulls went into Saturday's derby intent on setting a trap. They let NYCFC try to build out of the back, then unleashed their pressing hounds in waves of white and red, forcing the home team into costly turnovers and making them pay.

"We wanted them to play out of the back," Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan told Goal USA. "We wanted them to think that they could play out of the back and then we could jump all over them, so we kind of invited them to play a little bit. In the first half our pressing wasn't top notch, but i think in the second half everyone was a little bit more committed and everyone was a little bit better."

"Today, especially, was a game where we thought possession was not going to be effective for us," Red Bulls midfielder Dax McCarty told Goal USA. "On a small field, we thought that winning second balls, winning individual battles, playing in their end, and forcing them into defensive mistakes was the way to be successful today.

"I've got to give a ton of credit to our coaching staff, they put together the game plan and it was effective," McCarty said. "We obviously caused them to make a lot of mistakes in the back, that led to a couple of goals."

Saturday's romp wasn't the Red Bulls' first at Yankee Stadium. Last year, they posted a 3-1 victory in their only visit to Yankee Stadium. Two emphatic victories on the home ground of their local rival can't be seen as a fluke, and the reality is the small field at Yankee Stadium is arguably better suited for the Red Bulls than NYCFC.

"Yesterday, we mapped out on our training fields the size of this field here and it's incredible how small the field is, and you have to adapt," Marsch said. "I know that, with the way that we run, and the speed at which we play, and the way that we press, we're always excited to come here because we feel like it's a chance to do the things that we do in an effective way."

Even before Saturday's thrashing, NYCFC has been struggling at home to produce consistent results, and it is starting to feel more and more like the narrow field conditions at Yankee Stadium—which is a byproduct of having to shoehorn a soccer field in a baseball stadium— are holding NYCFC back at home. The second-year club has managed just one win in seven (1-2-4), and has scored just seven goals in seven home games this year. Conversely, NYCFC is 3-2-1 on the road this year, having scored 11 goals in those six matches.

NYCFC coach Patrick Vieira doesn't buy into the theory his team's poor results are a product of playing on a small field.

"It's compact for both teams and we are aware of it, I'm aware of it, so that's not an excuse," Vieira said. "The size of our pitch on the training ground is the same so we are used to it. So it's just about myself trying to find the best way to win football matches at home."

Vieira did take issue with his team's set-piece defending, which is, at least in part, a product of the small field. Opposing teams with corner kick specialists have a distinct advantage as their kick takers are more than two yards closer to their targeting area. Yes, you can point out that NYCFC has Pirlo as a corner kick taker, so it should be able to also take advantage of the small field, but NYCFC doesn't boast the kind of target striker or attack-minded center back who could get on the end of corner kicks and crosses with regularity, and perhaps more importantly, NYCFC lacks the kind of big defenders or forwards who can defend set pieces well, like Aurelien Collin did for the Red Bulls on Saturday.

That would explain how Dax McCarty, one of the smaller players on the Red Bulls, could score a pair of header goals off perfectly-placed Sacha Kljestan corner kicks, yet NYCFC failed to truly threaten Luis Robles with any of its eight corner kicks.

Saturday's victory provides a needed confidence boost for a Red Bulls side that has spent the past month climbing out of the hole created by a 1-6 start. They are now 4-1-1 in their past six, just two points out of first place in the Eastern Conference, and next week will play host to a Toronto FC side that will be without Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. They also have delivered their fans the kind of historic derby victory that should keep them smiling for a long while.

Time will tell how NYCFC reacts to Saturday's embarrassment. Vieira made the point that it is better to lose one game 7-0 than seven games 1-0, but a thorough beatdown in a derby can have a crippling affect on team morale if players let it. Vieira will look to keep his team focused, just as he did when it was mired in a seven-match winless slide earlier in the season.

"Before the game, we were not a perfect team, and after the game we are not the worst team," Vieira said. "I know the team really well, I know the players really well, I know which aspect of the game we really need to improve. Like I said to the players after the game, I still believe we are a really good team, I am strongly behind the team and behind the players, and this is one off the games that we have to forget.

"It will be good to see how our team spirit is, because we have to bounce back from the game."

NYCFC won't have to wait long to try and exact some revenge for Saturday's whooping. The Red Bulls return to Yankee Stadium on July 3rd, and it's safe to say that's a date both teams will be anxiously awaiting.