Let me introduce myself to the footy community, since I’m more known around these parts as a hockey writer.
I learned that I loved the sport of football in the late 80s, and played goalkeeper for all of high school, some college, and again, as an adult I played for a pick up league, indoors, here in New York City. I am a fervent supporter of Manchester United. This summer, I’ve been blessed, or cursed depending on your perspective, with tickets to many New York Red Bulls home games. The seats are quality, if only for the experience, and will put me a very passionate, very positive environment. For those who are unfamiliar, if you turn on any Red Bulls home game, the large group of people continuously chanting and singing songs in unison, holding on to each other for dear life, and cheering the loudest when the home team scores is lovingly called The South Ward.
The Ward gives me an interesting perspective of the game, one that I am used to. As a keeper, I see the game from goal forward. The view from that angle is akin to how I witnessed the game as a player. You may laugh incredulously, since I never played professionally, and certainly couldn’t now (I’ve had much too much beer in my life for that), but it does make a difference.
So, here are my thoughts from The South Ward
Going into this match, the Red Bulls have played 18 games, which is three more than the Montreal Impact team they’re chasing in the standings. The importance of each match cannot be discounted, as the Eastern Conference is very tight from top to bottom.
Last match, against the Philadelphia Union, centerpiece striker Thierry Henry had zero tries at net, and overall the Red and White only had 9 tries on goal, most of which were not quality chances. Their defense looked a mess, and their attack was atrocious. They were missing key pieces, with Tim Cahill, among others, out of the lineup. That left the attack cold and lifeless. It all ended in a game the Red Bulls just couldn’t afford to lose, as the Union are hot on their heels in the standings. It didn’t help that Lloyd Sam had momentary lapse of reason that ended in a red card and one game suspension for the midfielder, and left the Red Bulls a man down for nearly 60 full minutes.
With that said, there have been grumblings that coach Mike Petke’s game management skills leave a lot to be desired, and his claims of having a skilled side that can provide a tremendous attack are totally false.
Needless to say, the Ward needed a hero, setting the scene for the Houston Dynamo match this Sunday afternoon.
The Red Bulls defense got a much needed boost from the addition of Markus Holgersson, who lived up to his billing as a major physical force on the RBNY backline. After the defensive failure against the Union last week, anything would have been better. He threw his weight around effectively, but he couldn’t make it out of the game without getting booked for a yellow in the second half.
Now, here comes the attack. Among my own circles, I have not been shy about how much I dislike the play of Eric Alexander. It seems that he has difficulty with even the most fundamental services, and cannot provide the skill and creativity needed to play professional soccer. He, in past matches, seems to be unable to lift the ball effectively, make forward passes that have enough pepper on them, and refuses to pass to space, preferring to attempt to hide in the blades of grass on the pitch.
The first half of yesterday’s game was no different, and I was wondering if I could get enough money together to bribe coach Petke into removing him from the Starting XI. Then the unthinkable happened. For the first time in this season, Alexander made a brilliant forward pass, into space, and Fabian Espindola broke his goal-less drought to put the Bulls on parade. Johnny Steele got the insurance tally, from another brilliant pass that started with a switching fields play from side line to side line.
Maybe Petke really does know what he’s doing.
The Ward got to go home happy.
The team the Bulls are chasing? The Montreal Impact choked on Saturday night, losing to a completely beatable Colorado Rapids team. Maybe there’s hope for catching up to the Impact, who still have 3 games in hand, and lead RBNY in the standings by a point.
Thanks for reading – as always feel free to leave comments below and follow me on twitter @BigMick99 and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
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