A visibily tired Red Bulls squad ended their recent three game road trip with an uninspiring 1-1 draw against Chicago. The Red Bulls started a familiar lineup with a few exceptions. Dane Richards regained his place in the starting line up after playing in the Gold Cup, a move which saw Austin Da Luz dropped to the bench. The biggest lineup surprise though came in the Goalkeeper position as Greg Sutton was dropped after conceding seven goals in his previous two starts. This meant that Coundoul was given his first start since Sutton returned from his head injury, although Coundoul did not do a whole lot to demonstrate that he should be the first option for the Red Bulls. Otherwise, the lineup was pretty much the same as it has been the rest of the road trip.
It was a relatively uneventful first half that was played at a slow tempo. The Red Bulls did well to monopolize possession, although they weren’t necessarily too effective with it. In a surprising system, Henry played very, very deep; essentially like a third central midfielder that made the Red Bulls look almost like a 4-3-3. However by dropping back so deep, Henry basically left De Rosario up top by himself, which is certainly not the most effective way to utilize a player of De Rosario’s ability. That being said though, this makeshift 4-3-3 did pay its dividends in the first half. With the Fire set up in a traditional 4-4-2, the Red Bulls were able to capitalize on their man advantage in the center of the park (3v2) to dictate the flow of the game and control a lot of the possession. In fact, the Fire struggled to really assert themselves in the first half and establish a good, but sluggish rhythm. Although, the Fire were not without their chances as they effectively played on the counter against a slow and susceptible Red Bulls team. Virtually all the chances the Fire were able to create in the first half came off the counter as the Red Bulls were slow in transitioning on defense and the pace of Oduro and Nyarko, as well as the ability of Pappa were ultilized effectively as soon as the Fire won possession and almost made the Red Bulls pay on a few occassions in the first half.
Despite the wealth of Red Bulls possession in the first half, in large they failed to capitalize. A major factor in this was the lack of movement, or the reactionary movement, off the ball for the Red Bulls. Not surprisingly, Henry was at the center of a lot of moves for New York, but playing so far from the goal he did not cause too many problems for the Fire. In fact, despite his virtual absence in the second half, Henry still completed more passes than central midfielder Lindpere (you can find this and many more interesting stats on the MLS’s new Chalkboard application on their website). This stat demonstrates how deep Henry was playing and confirms the statement that he was essentially playing as a third center midfielder.
Regardless, the movement off the ball was very passive and reactive for the Red Bulls. What I mean by this is that many times players off the ball would be stagnant and react to the player who just got possession after he got possession, rather than anticipating ahead and making runs or moving before the player recieved the ball. Doing this slowed the tempo of the game because the player receiving the ball had take more touches by first receiving the ball then figuring out where to play, rather than being able to keep the ball moving on a touch. Doing so also made it easier for the Fire to defend as it gave them more time to organize themselves. It would have been nice to see a fresher team with a little more creativeity and tenacity in their possession. Granted argueably their most creative player, De Rosario was isolated and uninvolved up top for most of the game, which did not help things. Also realistically it was the team’s third game in eight days and that does not even consider traveling and more, so that certainly has to be a consideration in analyzing the game.
Things changed though in the 40th minute as the Red Bulls were finally able to find a break through. The goal itself was pretty lucky, but based on the run of play it was not completely undeserved. After Henry collected the ball roughly 40 yards from goal he directed the ball for straight to goal for Lindpere to get on the other end. Lindpere was close but Cuesta, a Fire defender appeared to cover the situation alright. However, he botched his clearance right into Lindpere, which then resulted in Lindpere ultimately retrieving the ball about fifteen yards from goal and delicately evading Sean Johnson, the onrushing Chicago keeper with a shot to find the back of the net. It certainly was not the prettiest of goals, however it did mark one of the few times that a Red Bulls player made a dynamic run off the ball. If you watch the replay, Lindpere already starting making his move before Henry got the ball, which also allowed Henry to play the ball on a touch, rather than taking more and slowing things down.
The teams went into the break with the Red Bulls leading 1-0. Things would stay that way until the 57th minute when a miscleared ball by the Red Bulls ultimately allowed Pappa of the Fire to control the ball about 25 yards from goal in a lot of space. Pappa curled a shot to the back post that probably should have been a routine save for Coundoul had he moved his feet properly. For whatever reason he seemed to expect the ball to dip much closer to him than it did. The replay showed that the ball bounced off the grass right around the six yard box. At this point Coundoul had already left his feet and in the process of diving down, only for the ball to bounce over him and in to the back of the net. The Red Bulls already seemed drained from the last leg of their road trip and conceding the goal was the last thing they needed. The goal deflated the Red Bulls even more, whereas it energized the Fire who then seemed to think they could go on and win the game.
Even the slow, excessive possession the Red Bulls were able to maintain in the first half could not be found in the second. If viewers thought Henry’s mobility was limited in the first half, what he displayed in the second half was on a whole new level. I don’t mean that to come off as a harsh criticism because he was still one of the most dangerous and effective players for the Red Bulls in the match. However, his very, very, limited mobility made it easier for the Fire to defend situations in the middle of the park. Furthermore, the addition of Corben Bone in the second half for the Fire was effective as this raised the Fire’s pressure to the ball through the midfield, which forced even more giveaways and mistakes from a very lackluster, average and uninspired Red Bulls team in the second half.
Whereas the Red Bulls may have been the better team in the first half, the Fire were certainly the stronger in the second half. Tactics aside, it seemed the Fire simply wanted to win the game more and played with greater levels of energy and urgency throughout the half. In the end though, they could not capitalize on the opportunities they were able to create as the game ended in a 1-1 draw. Overall it was probably a fair result as neither team could totally feel that they deserved the three points. For the Red Bulls it was thankfully the last game they should have to play without the missing Gold Cup players (although it is unclear exactly what the fitness is of Rafa Marquez). The Red Bulls return home where they will face FC New York on Tuesday in the US Open Cup before hitting the road again to take on the Earthquakes in San Jose on Saturday.
Image courtesy of Getty Images
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