The Red Bulls and Rapids have produced some memorable games in the last decade, from their (now defunct) annual 4th of July matches to the 2012 home opener which saw the Red Bulls steam roll the visitors behind goals from Kenny Cooper and Thierry Henry. The Rapids form this season has been manic. At times they are capable of the beautiful, but the nearly record breaking scoring drought and their consecutive games without a win, dating back to last season, were never far behind. While they have seemingly begun to put the pieces together, they have still struggled to find the results. It is exactly the sort of trap game that has caught the Red Bulls in the past. On this warm April evening, would they suffer the same fate? The Red Bulls entered the midweek match sporting the only undefeated record in the league after six games, but could not find a fourth win on the night.
The first half was a mixed bag. New York controlled possession, but every Rapids counterattack looked dangerous. New York walked the tight rope on several chances throughout the half. Luis Robles came up big on two Dominique Badji breakaways, with an assist from the post on the second. Ironically, it was a deep free kick tapped in by Gabriel Torres that would become the opening goal. Despite falling behind for the second straight game, the Red Bulls regained their composure. Eventually, they would find the equalizer thanks to Bradley Wright-Phillips penalty. The Red Bulls continued to push to find the winner, to no avail. Wright-Phillips would have several more chances in the second half, all off the mark, including missing an open net from a tough angle, a shot deflected wide, and an open header at the back post.
After the match, Jesse Marsch spoke to the tactics employed over the last several games, with teams starting to figure the Red Bulls out. “I think teams are sitting back now trying to clog things, playing direct, playing forward, trying to counter us, inviting possession through the middle and trying to jump on us – two teams in a row have kind of done that – and at home I think especially that’ll be a factor more than on the road and then we’ve got to figure out how to deal with it, both by being better with the ball in possession and creating more chances, and then also finding ways to press them even when they don’t want to try to play and they’re just going to try and play direct. And a lot of that it has to do with some of the reactions when we lose the ball, I’m doing a better job of having the guys around the ball react quicker and go back and try and win it. Sometimes we did that in the second half and almost created opportunities, so yes, a little bit of a gameplan against us that we saw in two games.”
The Red Bulls have had the lion share of possession, but have had trouble breaking through. In the first half alone, the Red Bulls had over 75% of the possession, although most of it was in the middle of the field. The midfield trio, so fearsome less than two weeks ago, looked out of ideas and sync. Opponents can sit back and absorb the pressure, and look to strike on the counter. While the Bulls have managed to stay undefeated, there is still more work to do.
Goalkeeper Luis Robles had this to say on the “trap game”. “To be perfectly honest with you, I do not believe that we overlooked this game. The reason that the older players came in and said that they wanted to play in this game is because in the past we have overlooked teams, we have dropped points at home, and so we wanted to show that this is a different mentality. Unfortunately, we fell flat today.” The Red Bulls may have been aware of the dangers of the obvious trap game, but couldn’t manage to avoid falling into its trappings. Overall though, the depth of the team will be called into service this coming weekend in New England for a rematch of the 2014 MLS Cup Conference Finals. They will face a Revolution side that is just starting to click and has gone unbeaten since a loss to NYCFC on the road.
“Yeah it probably is a step backwards, but in the end it’s still a draw so we’re still undefeated so we need to stay positive and we’ve got a tough match coming on Saturday and we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to physically recover and now make sure that we’re ready to go to New England and get a result, but I think we want to continue to move forward in both the way we play and in the results so right now, the focus is moving forward.” True words spoken by Marsch, the man at the helm. Despite the point, the Red Bulls are hungry for more, but at a loss on how to find it. Maybe the team’s chip on their shoulder is gone, or maybe these games are just magnifying the team’s growing pains, but the Red Bulls will need to dig deep to get a result in New England.
Sacha Kljestan understands the pressure of two straight games where the team dropped points at home and the implications going into the weekend clash. “It was already a big game. We had that one figured out that they’ve been on a good run here, and that’s going to be an important game. They knocked us out of the playoffs last year so, we’ll have some revenge on our minds, but we have to stay positive, go there, and try to get a good result, and get ready for a really important game against a good team.” New England will likely be a bit of a different test for the Red Bulls. Since the start of April, the Revolution have been the dominant team in most of the games they have played and will likely attack more, playing perfectly into the Red Bulls style. The trick will be maintaining the high pressure system employed this year, in spite of playing three games in the span of 6 days. Luis Robles hinted at changes this coming weekend thanks to the congested schedule. “You can expect that this weekend there will be some lineup changes; not because guys didn’t play well enough but because depth does exist on this team and that guys are good enough to get a chance and they’re going to get a look in New England, a tough place to play.”
Main Photo By: Rob Tringali
