Last night, on a glorious summers eve, the New York Red Bulls took on El Salvador C.D. FAS for their first meeting in the 2014 CONCACAF Champions League. The Last time we saw the Red Bulls in CCL play, they failed to earn a victory and didn’t make it out of the group.
C.D. FAS weren’t exactly the favorites to win this match and it didn’t go their way from the get-go. The Red Bulls put out most of their younger and less-experienced roster and it the pieces still seemed to work together wonderfully. Saër Sene and Tim Cahill were up front, with the usual midfield out there with Lloyd Sam and Ambroise Oyongo. The modified backline were Roy Miller, Armando Lozano Sánchez, newcomer Damien Perinelle, and Rich Eckersley, who hasn’t seen time since the spring. Even the Red Bulls’ own players were surprised by the play of some of their squad’s notable reserves, with Cahill noting, “Armando, who everyone thought was never going to play again, played outstanding tonight.”
Head Coach Mike Petke was a bit more guarded with his comments about the back four. “There were some breakdowns, but they were cool, calm and collected enough to clean up after themselves.”
The game started off pretty well for the Red Bulls. Miller filled the role of a holding or supporting midfielder, with Eckersley playing more defensively for the first half. In the second half, they switched roles. Cahill had numerous shots on target and many great passes to Sene, but only one finally came about. He ended up with an assist to Sene in the 11th minute of time. Eric Alexander kept going back on defense as well; he played more of a rather defensive role.
The visitors held their own in the first half, with Issahaku getting a decent shot off an enormous threat from a counterattack; the Red Bulls have been consistently vulnerable to strong counter attacks this season. Still, the potent Red Bulls attack had a plot of their own. The main part of Petke’s plan for the match was to exploit the wings, and it worked wonderfully, netting Sam a goal in the 70th minute. “Our whole gameplan tonight, for the road here, was to exploit the wings; that was 100% in scouting…for someone like Lloyd, specifically likes getting out wide, going out getting one-on-one plays; this was a game designed for him.”
In fact, Sam was open for most of the game and could’ve scored more if he was in possession of the ball more frequently. Sene also had some amazing chances tonight off the head of Cahill, but couldn’t finish any of them. Petke acknowledged that as well, stating how important it was for Sene to play the full 90 in order to get match fit for Major League Soccer regular season play.
The stats for this match are a bit shocking: the Red Bulls had 18 shots (8 on-target), while C.D. FAS had 12 (3 on-target). Most surprisingly, C.D. FAS had more corner kick opportunities (6) than the Red Bulls (5), but were unable to capitalize against the new-look defense.
C.D. FAS came to Red Bull arena knowing they were going up against some world-class talent; they seemed disappointed that they couldn’t go up against Thierry Henry. The manager Emiliano Pedrozo said: “Not only was I disappointed, but our players wanted play against a world-class player like Thiery Henry” He also stated about the match: “We came with a mentality to learn. This was a great opportunity for us. We also gave younger players an opportunity to play and it was a good experience for us.” More than likely, they’re not going to make it out of the group, leaving the top spot to either Montreal or to the Red Bulls to get into the knockout round. Overall, the Red Bulls played a great match and did very well to open their CCL campaign with their first even win in that competition.
