Why such terrible form?
L L L: that’s the form for RBNY in the past three fixtures up until May 26th. Last year’s Supporter Shield winners are taking a massive beating in the MLS Eastern Conference table. Last year, RBNY didn’t have too much trouble getting at least a point out of a match, but recent poor form has been costly. The answer could lie in the rather sloppy defending by the Red Bulls in the past few matches, lack of finishing, or both. In the next month, they are playing against Sporting Kansas City and New England. This is not going to be an easy six points. As of May 26th, they sit one spot, or two points below the playoff line with Columbus. With just three day’s rest after coming off a rather shocking defeat to Portland, they have to roll to Kansas City to take on the second best squad in the Eastern Conference. The main is question is “Why can’t they win?” or for that matter “When will the Red Bulls poor form end?”
Defending
The last match showed average defending, but it was not enough to spark a turnaround in form. The first goal was caused by a deflection. Luis Robles appeared to be going in the right direction at first, but the deflection threw him off completely, which caused him to miss the save he desperately needed to make. The second goal was allowed by just poor defending. It seemed like the effort by the RBNY defenders just stopped once the ball came remotely close to them. It was pretty much a one-on-one situation with Robles as soon as Max Urruti got a touch on the ball. The match against Chicago was the epitome of bad defending for any football club. In the game against the Fire on May 10th, Kosuke Kimura made an attempt to dance around the Fire’s Harry Shipp with the ball, which lead to an easy goal for the Fire that could have been avoided all together. In the 64th minute of the match, Robles got beaten by a cross that became a goal, completely catching him off guard. Quincy Amarikwa of the Fire got a nice, easy goal after Robles came out and didn’t even put a hand up to save the header from going in. Robles has let in nine goals, clearly hes isn’t in the greatest form as of late. He could play through it to “walk it off,” but resting him could “cool him off”. The Red Bulls’ defending needs something constructive to help them out, otherwise their form is going to be on a long, regressive spiral.
Finishing
The last piece that needs working is the finishing. The last match had so many chances that should have been capitalized on, but nothing came out of them. Bradley Wright-Phillips was spoon-fed by a beautiful pass from Thierry Henry, but Donovan Ricketts made the easy save. Wright-Phillips should have scored that ball, but he couldn’t chip it over Ricketts. In the 85th minute, there were three shots on goal, none of which went in the back of the net. Wright-Phillips had the chance, but it went into the crowd instead of the back of the net like it should have. Beating the goalkeeper for the MLS Best XI is not easy, but there were too many chances that went to waste in that last attack from the Red Bulls. However, not finishing means not scoring, leading to bad results, leading to poor form. It’s a complete regressive spiral. Now that players have been released by top Premier League clubs maybe the Red Bulls can sign one of them to help rescue this season.
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