We didn't agonize over our selection for this week’s Major League Soccer game of the week since Sunday features a match that league commissioner Don Garber has coveted for more than decade: the New York Derby!

So when expansion New York City FC travels south along the West Side Highway and across the Hudson River to take on the New York Red Bulls (7pm ET, FoxSports1) it will mark the first time the two Big Apple teams have met. Despite the expansion team's current form—NYCFC has just one win and Red Bull is winless in three—this game is worth watching because the atmosphere should be electric as Red Bull Arena is sold out for one of the few times since it opened in 2010.

As Garber began the push for a second team in the New York area, one that would actually play in one of the five boroughs, many outsiders questioned his logic. After all, fans reasoned, New York already had an MLS team and it wasn’t like demand for the Red Bulls (or MetroStars, as they were when the idea for a second Big Apple team was still a glimmer in Garber’s eye) was so high that there was an obvious need for a second New York team.

But Garber and many other MLS insiders insisted that a rivalry, a derby, would be good both for the Red Bulls and MLS as a whole. Time will tell if he is correct but early indications seem to back this. NYCFC’s attendance, despite—or maybe because of—playing at Yankee Stadium has been outstanding.

Through five dates, the New York newcomers are averaging 27,739, third-highest in the league and about 10,000 more per game than the Red Bulls are averaging despite playing in a beautiful soccer-specific stadium that holds 25,000.

The hope from MLS headquarters is that games like this one will have a carry-over and the rivalry between the two teams will generate more interest and help Red Bull at the gate. So far, interest among soccer fans in the area has been high with Twitter hashtags like #NYCSoccerWarz and #HudsonRiverDerby inviting plenty of good ol’ fashioned New York smack talk.

THE SUBPLOTS

The subplot is the plot and it has as much to do with the respective fanbases as the players. Most Red Bulls fans seem to look at NYCFC fans as poseurs and Johnny-come-latelies, soccer fans who for 19 years couldn’t be bothered to support MLS even though there was a team in—or at least near—their city.

They didn’t have to endure the hardships that come from watching MLS from its embryonic stages and clumsy early years and all the missteps and chaos along the way.

NYCFC fans sneer at the Red Bulls with their blatantly corporate owners who put their product on the jersey, in Jersey, and don't consider this underachieving team a true representation of the Big Apple.

So Red Bull Arena will sell out this weekend. But how many of the fans will be wearing the blue of the visitors is the biggest question regarding the attendance. 

Once all the Twitter banter and inevitable pre-game taunting is done, an actual soccer game will be played. The Red Bulls (3-1-4) lost for the first time last week at New England but that followed a pair of ties.

The Red Bulls have only scored one goal per game during this mini-slide and that’s a cause for concern, especially against a NYCFC defense that has been fairly stout.

Before being undressed by Seattle last week for three goals, NYCFC (1-5-3) had allowed just seven goals in eight games. It’s the other end of the field where they’ve struggled, scoring just six goals—a big reason why it hasn't won since its second game. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH

If there’s one player in this game who can be expected to live up to a big game, it’s NYCFC’S David Villa. The Spanish national team’s all-time leading scorer has played in a few classicos and derbies from his days at Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, not to mention a big game or two with Spain, with which he won a European championship and World Cup. 

In City’s first-ever home game, Villa rose to the occasion and scored a goal and an assist. After missing three games with a hamstring injury, he came off the bench last week against Seattle and looked lively. NYCFC did not score in the three games Villa missed so his presence, experience, and skill should go a long way toward helping those scoring woes.

On the other side of the field, keep an eye out for Dax McCarty, the Red Bulls' midfield engine who is playing some of the best soccer of his 10-year MLS career. He’ll be tasked with keeping U.S. international Mix Diskerud from getting Villa in dangerous positions while also linking with attacking midfielder Sacha Kljestan. As goes McCarty, so goes the Red Bulls.

THE X-FACTOR

You just know a player with long-standing ties to the New York area is somehow going to play a big role in the outcome of this game.

For NYCFC maybe it’s Long Island native and St. John’s alum Chris Wingert or native New Yorker and former Seton Hall player Jason Hernandez, who grew up in northern New Jersey.

For the Red Bulls, maybe it’s Kljestan, a Californian who played his college ball with Hernandez at Seton Hall or homegrown player and Jersey boy Matt Miazga, who is expected to start in the back line before leaving for duty with the U.S. U-20 national team. Or perhaps it will be Long Island’s Mike Grella, who has been a nice addition to the Re Bull attack after returning home from several years in England. 

For these guys, this game is personal. 

PREDICTION

It’s hard to see a lot of goals in this one, given how each team has scored of late. But Red Bull is in better form and playing at home and, likely, with a bit of a chip on its shoulder. It’ll be physical and intense but Red Bull should claw out a 1-0 win.

Brooke Tunstall is an American Soccer Now contributing editor and ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.