Another week, another bit of speculation. This time, the story was about Sporting Director Andy Roxburgh, who will be reportedly leaving the New York Red Bulls after two seasons. Roxburgh seemingly dodged the question at Friday’s training session, saying “You have to focus on right now, we just don’t want to be diverted here by starting to talk about individuals cases, whether it’s me, other members of the staff or players. I think we’ve made that quite clear up to now. We just think it’s a deflection that we don’t need. We want everyone to focus on what we’re doing.”
Red Bulls face Columbus Crew
To that end, the Red Bulls have one more home match on their schedule and that is against Frederico Higuain and the Columbus Crew. The Crew come into this match after coming back from a 2-nil hole versus the Philadelphia Union last week. Also, the crew have had significantly better form of late, as they build momentum to the post season. On Last Word Radio this week, Columbus Dispatch reporter Adam Jardy gave a little scouting report on the Crew. “This year (The Crew) control their destiny. For what they’ve gone through this season, it’s a pretty strong accomplishment (to make the playoffs).”
Manager Mike Petke knows the challenge that Columbus brings to the field on Sunday. “They’re a team I respect and enjoy watching, because they are not afraid to play under pressure. For us, it’s about the balance, the balance of when we can step up and press. we know that they spread the field out, they love to spread teams out and build through the midfield with the numbers up, so we need to be very on the ball, if you want to say, defensively in the midfield and not be drawn out in situations that we don’t have to be drawn out so we don’t give them the time in the midfield.”
With Ethan Finley and Justin Miram carrying some of the load as Higuain struggles to reclaim his form, the Red Bulls will have to focus on that balance, and continue their stout defensive and transition play. Striker Bradley Wright-Phillips and the Red Bulls have been working on combating that, “Well we know they like to pass out the back and you know we’ve been working on that this week. You know I’m not going to say too much, I don’t know whose watching, so, yeah we’re ready for them. You know that we’re going to come out 100% and I think we can beat them.”
Petke echoed that sentiment, further talking about possibly easing up on the gas pedal, “I didn’t have to talk much about the importance of this game because they know the importance of this game, so that’s always a good sign. The guys are ready. I know now that coming out for this game on Sunday that we’re going to go at them.”
Wright-Phillips has a date with destiny, as he chases the MLS single season scoring record, now shared by Roy Lassiter and Chris Wondolowski. BWP sits three goals from taking over sole ownership, having tallied 25 scores to this poijnt in the season. Wright-Phillips has not commented on the record, instead keeping focus on the team, and securing a playoff berth. After hearing that his club had clinched, captain Thierry Henry let out a sigh of relief, “It was a long season, obviously it’s not over, but obviously getting through to the playoffs is something we were looking for. It does not look like it, it was a month or two ago we were not in the best shape, and we picked up the pace like every other team. When you see that the one that made it – New England picked up the pace, KC dropped a little bit but they were so [far] ahead that maybe they could have beat. Houston tried there at the end so, Philly was picking up the pace, Toronto was coming also, Columbus also – so we’re happy, but now we’re going to have to make sure that we can be in a good position now to try and avoid maybe that first Wild Card game or to beat the team that receives that game so we’ll see.”
Of course, rumors of Henry’s future still swirl about the club. This could, in fact, be Thierry Henry’s final match at Red Bull Arena. Everyone in the Red Bulls organization seems to be tight lipped about the situation with Henry, instead choosing to keep focus on the task at hand. Roxburgh put it succinctly, “Thierry has exactly the same mentality as the rest of us, he doesn’t want to be a distraction. What he’s saying is at the end of the season we’ll sit down, we’ll have a look at the situation and then decisions will be made. That’s basically it. Again, we don’t want to get involved in the whole speculation case because it just diverts everyone’s attention.”
As the curtain goes up on the final frame of the home schedule, It really has been amazing just how far this club has come since game 1. That roster was one that didn’t seem to be going much of anywhere. One of those players, one that spent 26 weeks of league play either riding pine, or playing with the reserves, is Richard Eckersley. With the Red Bulls short handed, it seemed like Eckersley’s inclusion in the Starting XI was due to a lack of options, as opposed to earning it, but after two quality outings, and despite getting a very Henry-esque verbal lashing from midfielder Dax McCarty during the last match, things seemed to have turned around for him. Petke had these encouraging words to add, “He’s been steady, his decision making has been good, he’s contributed on the offensive half but also helped in shutting teams down defensively. I’m very happy with what he’s done.”
Even though the focus is on the task at hand, and attempting to secure higher playoff seeding in order to avoid the dreaded play-in match, Petke already has an eye on the playoffs. It seems that Petke might be returning to the philosophy that earned New York the Supporters Shield last season. To that end, Petke said, “We have to, first and foremost, is defensively really lock it down, because of what I said before – going forward we know we’re going to get opportunities, and more times than not, we’re going to convert them. So it starts, for me, with a strong defensive unit, limiting the other team and keeping the ball out of the net because we know if we keep that zero, we’re going to get a goal or two.”
But before MLS’ Fall Fantastico begins, the Red Bulls have one last match at home, one against a foe they may face again in the post season.
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Photo Credit: Rob Tringali/New York Red Bulls
