Red Bulls Douse Fire Midweek With Derby Looming
Rain slowly and steadily fell as the New York Red Bull’s midweek game loomed against the Chicago Fire. What had seemed like a dream just week’s ago after a big home win over FC Dallas had turned back into a panicked nightmare for the Red Bull’s fan base. The weekend loss against D.C. United hurt, but the possibility of dropping points first at home to Chicago Fire and then on the road to New York City FC seemed all too real and terrifying. Though, like the pregame rain, tensions would ease before the night was over.
The return of injured players Gonzalo Veron and Gideon Baah should have satiated some of those fears, but the dread was amplified thanks to a rivalry performance that may have rivaled some of the worst performances New York had put together throughout the year. Chicago, who had been the worst team in MLS through 11 weeks of the young season, should have been a salvo for the Red Bulls, but their reliance on bunker and counter, the Red Bull’s kryptonite, made them a far more dangerous foe for New York then one might think.
The first half played out just as it had countless games this season. The Red Bulls held an advantage on possession by 72.5% over the fire, and managed 5 total shots, although it should be noted that none were on target. To be fair, the Red Bulls had a number of grievances with the referee in the first half, including a missed elbow to Connor Lade’s face from David Accam, and several penalty shouts in the opening 15 minutes. Chicago had the best chance of the half just before halftime. Kennedy Igboananike received the ball just outside of the 6-yard box, but his shot was blocked at the last moment by Aurelian Collin. Collin came up big several times against the Fire DP, and one almost all of the battles. Arguably, he was the Red Bulls MVP in the first half.
As expected, Chicago did bunker, and Red Bull relied on hurling cross after cross into the box to create chances. This proved to be a fool’s errand as Chicago’s superior numbers made it impossible for the Red Bulls to get on the end of any of the numerous crosses. It was clear that if the Red Bulls were going to make anything out of the game, they would have to start to find space through the middle with combination play and better movement off the ball.
The second half was more of the same from the Red Bulls, but this time, they managed to find a goal. In the 58th minute, rookie Fire defender Jonathan Campbell coughed up the ball to Lloyd Sam. After a neat give and go with Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sam found a streaking Grella in the box. Grella slotted the ball home to the far post in a goal very reminiscent of his score against Orlando just a few games earlier. The goal was a huge relief for Red Bull fans as the win pushed them up above the red line once again.
While Collin may have been the MVP in the first half, Connor Lade easily surpassed him in the second half. The diminutive wingback was a terror for Chicago’s front line and regularly shut down streaking forwards as a last line of defense. All of this came after suffering a massive head wound in the first half after taking a nasty elbow from David Accam. Accam may have been lucky to escape the incident sans red card. Connor would again take another shot to the head in the second half from rookie Fire left back Brandon Vincent. This time, the foul was far less malicious, but may have been just as or more brutal. Connor ran into a challenge with Vincent to win a 50/50 ball on a pass from Collin. Vincent not only knocked Connor in the head during the challenge but landed on top of his head after falling over the Red Bulls right back. Lade valiantly stood up to the abuse and put in a massive performance.
Coach Jesse Marsch was equally impressed with Lade’s performance, not just on the night, but over the season so far. “…Connor’s a guy we know we can count on at any time. I always try to remind myself, and I said this last year, not to take him for granted because it’s easy to take a guy like that for granted because he’s always in it for his team, and to help his teammates be up for the challenge.”
While the Red Bulls had started out with a 1-6-0 record in their first 7, they have put together a very respectable 3-1-1 since the rocky start. With the blue team looming Saturday, the outlook is still good for the boys in red. Jesse Marsch said it best “You know, I mean, this is — it’s not like all of a sudden we’ve become a bad team. I know it’s still got all the makings of a good team. It’s been challenged in a big way, right? And the key was to try to continue to force feed certain messages so that we could get ourselves over the hump.” Red Bulls are still mostly the same team from last year, and the results are starting to go in their favor. Getting a handle on their road form should be priority number one, but picking up 3-points consistently at home will go a long way.
Scoring Summary:
NY – Mike Grella (4) (Lloyd Sam, Bradley Wright-Phillips) 58′
Misconduct Summary:
CHI – Joao Meira (caution, foul) 22′
NY – Aurelien Collin (caution, foul) 29′
CHI – Brandon Vincent (caution, foul) 78′
New York Red Bulls: Luis Robles; Kemar Lawrence, Aurelien Collin, Chris Duvall, Connor Lade, Felipe, Dax McCarty ©, Lloyd Sam (Gonzalo Veron, 67′), Sacha Kljestan, Mike Grella (Alex Muyl, 73′), Bradley Wright-Phillips (Sal Zizzo, 86′)
TOTAL SHOTS: 7; SHOTS ON GOAL: 1; FOULS: 8; OFFSIDE: 1; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 2.
Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Johan Kappelhof, Rodrigo Ramos, Jonathan Campbell, Brandon Vincent, Razvan Cocis, Joao Meira (Alex Morrell, 82′), Khaly Thiam (Nick LaBrocca, 62′), Kennedy Igboananike, David Accam (Gilberto, 72′), Joey Calistri
TOTAL SHOTS: 14; SHOTS ON GOAL: 2; FOULS: 11; OFFSIDE: 0; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 1.
Photo By Bill Twomey Photography
