The New York Red Bulls closed out a three-game week by hosting the New England Revolution in the visitors' first match since the Boston Marathon bombing. A display of support from both teams' supporters before the match was followed by a spirited display from the Red Bulls; four different players scored for NY in what ended up a 4-1 rout.
FULL HIGHLIGHTS
THE GOOD
A wide range of contributions. Eight different names ended the night on the score sheet with either a goal or an assist. Cahill to McCarty and Barklage to Espindola gave the Red Bulls two goals inside the first ten minutes. Another two would come in the last ten, with Steele to Henry for an insurance goal and Akpan to Alexander to Steele to push the victory even higher. With so many players contributing to the result, it will be a welcome psychological boost to the team's attack after Wednesday's doldrums.
Jonny Steele. If we have to give the edge to one player, it's hard to not give it to Steele. A brilliant ball to Henry gave the team their insurance goal, and he was on the end of a beautifully worked sequence for NY's fourth. Fans still lamenting the departure of Joel Lindpere may have finally been won over by Steele's tireless work and chance generation last night. (Steele dedicated his performance to his father, who was in the hospital after having a stroke.)
THE BAD
The start of the second half. With New York looking to strike on the counter (and strike they eventually did), the Revs controlled a large portion of the second half and kept the Red Bulls back line under a constant threat. There were some heart-in-throat plays where New England could have easily knocked in a goal, but the team seems jinxed this year, having not scored by their own foot in 478 minutes.
Domination against I-95 teams masking other issues. RBNY may be undefeated against I-95 competition this season (3-0-1), but is winless against anyone else (0-4-1). Those victories may be great for morale, but both DC and New England are in the cellar this season. Mike Petke still has much to prove if this team wants to be considered favorites in 2013.
THE MARCH
(photo: Dan Dickinson/Gothamist)
On any other week of the year, this would've been a rivalry. New York and New England have both been part of the league since it was formed in 1996; Saturday's match was the 59th all-time meeting between the two sides. While it doesn't have quite the intense hatred of NY and DC, there has been little love lost between Revolution and Red Bulls supporters over the last 17 years.
All that was put aside Saturday, as the three supporters groups that make up the South Ward greeted 200 traveling members of the Midnight Riders outside of Red Bull Arena with chants of "Boston Strong". Hugs and high fives were exchanged before the unified group marched down Riverbend Drive towards the stadium.
LOOKING AHEAD
After a three game week, the Red Bulls (3-4-2, 4th in East) will be glad to get a full week to recover before their next match. Next Saturday's matinee match will find them playing against a Toronto side that has shown signs of improvement under new coach Ryan Nelsen. It's still a winnable match, and one that NY will want full points out of—as the team has played more games than any other Eastern Conference team.
POST-MATCH REACTIONS
Mike Petke on his view on the match: "I went in there and pretty much sums it up that they’re going to end my life early to be honest with you. That’s God’s honest truth. I mean we do well first half to go up and they put a lot of pressure on us the second half. We didn’t deal with it from a build out standpoint particularly well, but defensively we had a very good block, very good unit. They made it very interesting. And then to put it away at the end like they did, I give a lot of credit to them."
Dax McCarty on the performance: "I think we’ve been kind of waiting all year for that offensive explosion and to do it against a team that has been the best in the league defensively it’s actually… It feels pretty good. We created tons of chances tonight, I was actually a little worried because with a 2-1 you never actually know what can happen and they… They actually played pretty well in the beginning of the second half… Actually the whole second half, they were pretty good. They made some substitutions and we were a little bit chasing the game there for 30 minutes or so. Once we scored the third goal we killed the game off. It was just a good performance, I mean the first half, I thought we created plenty of chances to be 3 or 4 up but that’s how the game goes. New England is a really solid team, but look obviously with everything that’s happened with them in Boston this last week, we knew that they were playing for the country basically and everyone was kind of pulling for them. You know if we weren’t playing against them we probably would’ve been pulling for them as well. It was definitely a lot of circumstances against us tonight, luckily we were at home and our fans were fantastic and we put together a good performance."
Andre Akpan on his debut: "I've been here for a couple weeks now, and I've been dying to get on the field, and finally got on. I think I made a difference, helped out get another goal, so it was good all around."
Brandon Barklage on his own goal that gave New England their one score on the night: "It sucked. What a finish that was though, right? It was tricky, it was a good ball in. It just went over the guy that I was marking's head, and it kind of hit me in the neck or something, I don't even know. It was a great finish on me, but I'm glad I rebounded from it, kind of covered up my blunder. I kind of just wanted to hide in the corner for a little bit. It’s not a good feeling when you have an own goal. It’s my first career own goal, you got to move forward and I think that’s what I tried to do."
Thierry Henry gives his stamp of approval: "I thought we played amazingly in the first half. I can't say the same thing about the second half—I thought at times they were outplaying us. But sometimes it can happen, I guess...I thought, to be honest, everyone played well tonight."
Next Match: Saturday, April 27 2 PM, at Toronto FC (TV: MSG)
