Across the street from Citi Field, within a few years’ time, there will be a brand new stadium adjacent to the home of baseball’s New York Mets. It’ll be a state of the art facility enough to fill thousands of fans as New York City's first soccer-specific ground.

But that’s a while from now. For tonight, they played this fixture in Queens for the first time - where grass is laid out on the Mets’ dirt infields and corners are taken on turf put down on the warning track in the outfield.

Yes, this is the character of the Hudson River Derby. Soon, New York City FC will be hosting their hated cross-river rivals - the New York Red Bulls - in a stadium of their own. But for years, they’ve gone to the city’s two baseball parks to play their matches.

Not that the host side minded the playing conditions. With Emil Forsberg starting on the bench for the New York Red Bulls, they hadn't been able to string together passes and battled uphill early - with Forsberg's late subsitution not enough to overcome a 2-1 deficit to NYCFC.

It's a remarkable turnaround for City - who started the season losing four of their first five and now have won six of their last seven to stand as the hottest team in Major League Soccer.

Almost immediately, the Red Bulls were on the back foot. Youngster Malachi Jones broke down the wing and whipped a ball into Hannes Wolf. The former Borussia Mönchengladbach winger showed excellent patience in hesitating not once, but twice before cashing in to take a lead just three minutes in.

Early attempts to even the score found no positive results for the visitors from New Jersey. An effort from forward Dante Vanzeir to cut the ball back was unsuccessful and was followed up by a shot off the woodwork from Scottish forward Lewis Morgan.

While physical, the match never truly boiled over into the trademark scrappiness or fisticuffs of a derby. This matchup has seen plenty of that in the past, but tonight that energy was absent. It sparked briefly after RBNY’s Elias Manoel clattered into NYCFC’s Matt Freese, but it quickly dissipated.

It appeared as if the Pigeons were destined to go into the half with the lead. Cameron Harper had different plans as he unleashed a 25 yard strike that went bardown and evened the score in stoppage time. The youngster penguin-slid on his stomach in the rain as the Red Bulls took the momentum into the locker room.

'I said to them at halftime, “I don't want to see anybody disappointed because it's 1-1,”' NYCFC coach Nick Cushing told reporters after the match. ‘We played really, really well - and if we go out and play the second half like that, we'll win the football match.'

It wasn’t until minute 65 that Cushing's prediction came true. NYCFC kept building pressure on the flanks with Wolf ultimately playing the penultimate ball to Tayvon Gray - who crossed it in so it could be tapped in by the foot of substitute Mounsef Bakrar for a 2-1 advantage to City.

All the while, the Red Bulls’ biggest weapon hadn’t yet been deployed. Forsberg, the recent arrival from RB Leipzig, wasn’t deemed fit enough for a full 90 minutes. With RBNY down their most dynamic player until the 69th minute, their attacks always felt like they were missing something.

The best that Forsberg offered on the night was a threatening through ball to Manoel, but as the Brazilian tried to samba his way through the defense, he met a dead end.

RBNY didn't have an effective chance left in them. They'd try pinging balls over the top but nothing worked. As time wound down, the challenges came in with more force. Red Bulls captain Sean Nealis was sent off and the book on the game closed soon after.

The top two teams in New York could very well see each other again in the MLS Cup Playoffs. Between now and then, who knows what kind of animosity or momentum will build as the city continues to split itself between red and blue.