New York Red Bulls II Draw Rochester 0-0
(HARRISON, NJ) – The New York Red Bulls II saw another home game against the Rochester Rhinos end in a scoreless draw. The teams have now met twice in 2016 and both games had the same result. For their part, Rochester has pushed New York each time they have played, but the young Red Bull team remains frustrated in attack against last year’s USL champions.
“I guess I didn’t see a lot [that was] different. It looked almost exactly the same.” said John Wolyniec reflecting on the trouble Rochester has caused them throughout his tenure as head coach. “We probably had a little better of a game, the chances we’d probably call even, so it’s a little disappointing in that sense. I was hoping that since the last game we have taken some steps as a team, as individuals, and I was kind of hoping that we’d show that in the results today. A 0-0 tie at home isn’t the worst result, for sure, but our expectations are high and, you know, at home, three points – we’d rather have the three points. It looked a little bit too similar to the last game for me. But, you know, not a bad effort for sure.”
The Red Bulls had a number of good chances throughout the game, but their inability to put shots on target came back to bite them. Junior Flemmings in particular had several opportunities to open up the scoring for New York but saw each of his efforts miss the target. Rochester was far more effective in front of net, but had trouble creating space as many of their shots were deflected or blocked outright. Rochester looked to have opened the scoring in the 55th minute when a Kenardo Forbes free kick found the back of the net. The goal would ultimately be waived off as a passive offside allowed the ball to get passed Ryan Meara.
Wolyniec has been very happy with Meara’s performances for the team this year.
“I think Ryan’s a really major part of the reason why we are top in the league in goals against,” he said. He’s been very good for us, a very calming influence, a very confident influence in the back. And, you know, with all the changes we had to make in the back today he’s been the consistent one. So you have to give him credit, with all the moving parts in front of him he’s been a constant in all that. So you have to give him a good deal of credit.“
The shutout extended stretched the Red Bulls unbeaten streak to nine, but the inability to secure full points against the Rhinos will surely be a point of contention for the Red Bulls. While keeping a clean sheet is great news for the Red Bulls, the game would ultimately have a cloud over it thanks to an early injury to Aaron Long, which will need further analysis this week.
“Yeah, [Aaron Long] felt his hamstring a couple plays in a row and was a little bit concerned that he wasn’t able to push it so we erred on the side of safety and tried to get him off as soon as we could. There’s no way to know how bad it is right now, and hopefully we got it early enough that it’s not too bad, but I’m sure there’s something there and he’ll be out for a bit.” Said Wolyniec
Up next for the Red Bulls is FC Montreal. Wolyniec was hopeful New York would keep opponents off the board. Montreal and New York nearly played to a scoreless draw in Montreal just a few weeks ago before Junior Flemmings stole three points for New York. NYRB II will look for a repeat performance this week.
Discipline Summary:
NY: Aaron Long, Caution 10′
NY: Speedy Williams, Caution 55′
NY: Brandon Allen, Caution 71′
ROC: Wal Fall, Caution 80′
Lineup:
NY: Ryan Meara, Konrad Plewa, Damien Perrinelle (David Najem, 46′), Aaron Long (Tim Schmoll, 22′), Zach Carroll, Dan Metzger, Devon Williams, Derrick Etienne Jr. (Florian Valot, 66′), Stefano Bonomo (Vincent Bezecourt, 77′), Brandon Allen (Zoumana Simpara, 88′), Junior Flemmings
Subs not used: Rafael Diaz
ROC: Tomas Gomez, Sean Totsch, Joe Farrell, Wal Fall, Brandon Beresford (Bradley Kamdem, 73′), Marcos Ugarte, Ryan James, Kenardo Forbes, Sofiane Tergou (Michel Guilavogui, 85′), Christian Volesky (Asani Samuels, 83′), Steevan Dos Santos
Subs not used: Adam Grinwis, Jordan Becker, Andre Fortune, Daninic Samuel
