New York Red Bulls II came into Sunday afternoon’s game unbeaten and with a shutout streak that had reached 405 minutes. For a team that changes week to week, that is not only surprisingly but speaks volumes about the system in place, the so-called, Red Bull’s way, of playing the game. Gideon Baah had been loaned to the team as part of his rehabilitation from a hamstring injury he had suffered over a month ago. Along with Baah, several players who have established themselves as role players with the senior squad were picked to start the match including Sean Davis, Alex Muyl, and Anatole Abang. In all, 9 players from the senior team would be starting and getting minutes for the “B” squad, something that was sorely lacking from years past.
New York Red Bulls II Lose To Charlotte Independence
For Charlotte, they had a number of players on loan from Colorado Rapids, as well as several former MLS players. Charlotte’s dynamic offense had only had a single game where they were kept of the scoreboard, their opening loss to Louisville, 1-0. Most recently, Charlotte had two consecutive games of scoring at 3 goals in a game. Their defensive issues had seen them concede 6 goals over their last three.
Charlotte would strike twice in the first 45. The first would come after just 13 minutes. Enzo Martinez had a free shot after a soft cross went through the box unobstructed. Martinez latched onto the mall and fired past Rafael Diaz. The goal ended the Red Bulls impressive shutout streak at about 418 minutes. The second came just about 20 minutes later. A ball served in from the right flank was deflected. As it knuckled into Gideon Baah, the center back swung his leg at it and missed. The ball would fall to Charlotte left back Patrick Solgig. Solgig blasted his shot from just outside of the 6 yard box high.
“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. You have to give credit to Charlotte, they came out and a lot of teams have a lot of energy coming here.” Said John Wolyniec after the game. “They’re excited, they have a very good squad if you look at that roster, and we came out definitely flat and it’s just disappointing for me because of our focuses before the game was a fast start so to come out that slow and give up that many chances straight away in the game was disappointing. Especially when we’ve been so good defensively over such a long stretch, so all good streaks come to an end and that one came crashing down.”
The Red Bulls were able to get a couple of chances on the night, but mostly came up short. The best chance of the night for New York came from Brandon Allen. Charlotte misplayed a ball back to the keeper. Anatole Abang was able to take advantage and intercepted the pass before dishing to Brandon Allen. The young forward’s point blank shot was saved by Charlotte keeper Cody Mizell, who commanded the box quite well all game long.
As the game wore on, New York found more of the ball and chances, but the may have been a product of Charlotte sitting back. Wolyniec had a similar opinion of the half. ”I think some of it was that Charlotte took their foot off the gas and that allowed us to come after them a little bit and some of it was that we couldn’t have played much worse in the first half. It was that combination of things that made us look like we were doing a bit more in the second half.”
One interesting note was the inclusion of Stefano Bonomo in the second half as a centerback. When the forward entered the game, it seemed like a very strange move. Bonomo seemed to do well though for being in a somewhat unfamiliar position. According to Wolyniec, Bonomo “…he’s been training there for weeks with the team and we’re just going to see how it is and maybe we continue to do that and maybe we don’t.”
Whether or not Bonomo moves back to the front line, the USL version of the Red Bulls (3-1-2) will be back in action next week against celler dwellers Pittsburg Riverhounds (0-2-3). New York has plenty to work on this week to get back to their winning ways.
GAME NOTES
Discipline Summary:
CLT: Patrick Slogic, Caution 28′
CLT: Zach Pfeffer, Caution 90′
Scoring Summary (Assists in parenthesis):
CLT: Enzo Martinez (Caleb Calvert) 13′
CLT: Patrick Slogic 33′
Lineups:
NY: Rafael Diaz, Justin Bilyeu, Gideon Baah (Stefano Bonomo, 46′), Zach Carroll, Konrad Plewa (Sean Teixeira, 85′), Sean Davis, Tyler Adams, Derrick Etienne Jr., Alex Muyl, Brandon Allen, Anatole Abang (Junior Flemmings, 72′)
Subs not used: Sam Ilin, Aaron Long, Noah Powder, Dan Metzger
CLT: Cody Mizell, Bilal Duckett, Patrick Slogic, Dennis Castillo, Henry Kalungi, Jun Marques Davidson, Yann Ekra, Enzo Martinez (Jorge Herrera, 67′), Caleb Calvert (Zach Pfeffer, 59′), Brian Brown, David Estrada (Joel Johnson, 85′)
Subs not used: Kyle Renfro, Jack Metcalf, Lewis Hilton, Alec Bartlett
Photo By Bill Twomey Photography
