Kansas City, MO (March 9th, 2015) – The New York Red Bulls earned a gutsy 1-1 road draw against Sporting Kansas City. Lloyd Sam evened the score in the second half with a beautiful curling shot that tucked in the top right corner of the SKC net. New York held on for the draw after Sporting put on tremendous pressure late despite being down to 10 men, after Matt Besler was shown red.
Whereas the result was acceptable considering the environment, the strength of opponent, and the difficult field conditions, the theme in the locker room was disappointment. It seems that the draw left the club wanting more.
“I thought the game was there for the taking for us. We weren’t good enough. We weren’t sharp enough and when we went a man up, we almost got too content. We thought it was going to be a walk in the park, but in reality it galvanized them and they started taking it to us a little more. I think the overall feeling is disappointment,” captain Dax McCarty observed.
Up until the final 20 minutes of the match, the Red Bulls were able to successfully dictate the pace of the game. The new-look midfield of Grella-Felipe-Kljestan-Dax-Sam seemed to control the pace of the match, even if Grella had some difficulty turning the corner off the wing. Short passing and intelligent runs were the name of the game as the much heralded midfield group looked to find their footing in their first league match. Whereas the result was far from perfect, the promise of a rhythm was there.
The Sporting defenders were able to neutralize 2014 Golden Boot winner Bradley Wright-Phillips by playing as physical as they could with him, a behavior that ultimately resulted in the Besler red. Coach Jesse Marsch spoke about BWP’s impact on the match immediately afterwards, “We would like to get Bradley more involved, that’s for sure. He did have a couple advantages that didn’t come his way or the way that we would want them to. Not sure about some of the offside calls, I’ll have to take another look at that again but I continue to feel strongly that Bradley will find his chances and we have a good midfield behind him.”
Marsch spoke about it again Monday during a conference call, “I don’t think he was an island. I felt that the way he was connected to the game and the way he was pressing… was all very good. I think the front three dictated the pace of the game, not just Bradley. Do we have to be better in the final third (and) have better ideas on how to find Bradley? Yes we do.”
Kljestan echoed the same sentiment, “I think our confidence in the final third and the final pass let us down tonight. I think us attacking guys come away disappointed because we could have done better. We should have had a little more patience, especially when we were up a man.”
Regardless, there was plenty of positive to take away from the game. For a club to go into Sporting Park, an incredibly difficult and hostile environment for any visiting team, let alone one that has had as much history SKC.
Something else came to mind during Sunday’s match. Even though the Red Bulls have a history of falling in road openers (2-7-4 on the road in the first match of the season), this team seemed in control of the match for most of it, having possession 56.7% to SKC’s 43.3%. That statistic is nothing to sneeze at, and McCarty knew it, ” Kansas City is a team that when you play them here at Sporting Park, they are always going to try and dictate the game. They always play on their terms and I thought for the most part we took them out of their comfort zone. I think we flipped the game on them a bit. That was a plan of ours going into the game. That being said, they are a good team and whenever you come here, if you can get out of here with a point it is always a positive.”
The Red Bulls are on a bye week this week, and one that will come as a grateful rest for Ronald Zubar, who was subbed from Sunday’s match after sustaining what Marsch called a minor “hamstring issue.”
They are back in action for their home opener against rival DC United on Sunday, March 22nd.
