A week after shaking off a winless start to 2013, the New York Red Bulls fell hard to old habits. Despite taking an early lead, they conceded three unanswered goals to give the Chicago Fire their first win of the season.

FULL HIGHLIGHTS

THE GOOD

Olave's goal. Things looked bright after New York opened the scoring after seventeen minutes. A Juninho corner kick was kept in the box by Tim Cahill and found its way to Jamison Olave, who took a beautiful scissor kick and drilled it past Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson. Keep in mind: Olave is a big 6'3" 210 pound defender. Acrobatic goals shouldn't be his thing.

The Reserves winning 6-1 in the following game. If there's any hope to be taken away from the trip to the Windy City, it's that the "Baby Bulls" trounced Chicago in a reserve league game immediately following the first team match. If the reserves are this hungry, a shakeup of the starting XI may not be far off.

Joel Lindpere not scoring. I'm scraping for a silver lining, I know, but the former Red Bulls midfielder wasn't the one to stick the dagger in to his old club. The Estonian had a good look at goal but put his shot wide. (Just be thankful Frank Klopas didn't put Lindpere on penalty duty, as Chicago's best chance to level was an early PK that was put wide by Chris Rolfe.)

THE BAD

The whole team. After weeks of strong performances that should've been enough to earn a result, Chicago marked the first time NY didn't play like they deserved a result. From a wasteful attack to the invisible midfield, from sloppy play on the wings to a defense that had issues communicating, this was easily the worst outing of the year for the Red Bulls.

Luis Robles. If a team is supposed to be anchored by the man between the pipes, it's no wonder NY remains adrift - Robles did himself no favors in Chicago. He was beaten to a floating cross that he absolutely should have had by Daniel Paladini to let Chicago back into the match. Later, he got beaten twice at close range by Maicon Santos to let the game slip. With Robles carrying the worst goals against average in the league, many fans seem ready to take an out of form Kevin Hartman, or even an injured Ryan Meara at this point.

Olave getting burned on the game-winner. In both of the games Jamison Olave has scored, he does something dumb later. In Portland, it was an own goal - in Chicago, it was being put on his ass by Santos, in a juke that will probably make league montages for years to come. Let's hope late mistakes from the Columbian is just a statistical fluke and not a trend.

THE UGLY

NY's road form. This isn't just about Toyota Park, where the Red Bulls haven't won in 10 tries over 8 years. Going back to last year's game at Chicago in June, the Red Bulls have not been a good team on the road. A single win (against a garbage Philly side) doesn't balance out six ties and seven losses. It's great to be strong at home, but if you struggle for points on the road, you can easily be on the outside looking in for the playoffs.

Being able to re-use the same headline as last year. Woof.

LOOKING AHEAD

DC again already? In a weird scheduling quirk, the Red Bulls will head down to the miracle of modern engineering RFK Stadium to face DC United in their second of three matches for the year. NY was held to a scoreless tie against DC just weeks ago at home. DC has fared not much better than NY to date, going 1-3-1 so far in 2013 and having their year-long undefeated home streak broken at the hands of Columbus. With both teams underperforming, both would love a win to raise spirits - but knowing our luck, they'll settle for a 0-0 tie.

POST-MATCH REACTIONS

Coach Mike Petke on the performance: "I’m very disappointed, only because we know we are going to lose games, it’s inevitable.  Can’t go 34 games undefeated but how we lost that game…it was sloppy.  The quality that we have, the experience that we have; if I have a team in the rebuilding stage with players who are rookies in the league, how mad could I be?  But I am with guys who are capable of so much more, so I am not very happy."

Midfield Tim Cahill on bouncing back: "From the outside, I think it’s the way we lost.  We lost today but we are a lot better than that collectively.  The mindset is that we got a lot of good players who have played on big stages.  We need to lift the lads up, all of us.  We will watch the video and do better.  There are some positives to take, except for the last two goals they scored at the end.  I think the luck was with us when they missed that penalty kick, and I don’t even know if it was a penalty or not.  I suppose the main thing is for us to be positive together.  It’s not an individual game where we blame one for anything.  What’s going to make us strong is getting it together and going for it against D.C. United.  Because when win games and you can pick up a win away from home against D.C., it changes the whole lot of this week and it can be forgotten."

Midfielder Dax McCarty: "That one hurts. Once we find our finishing boots we'll be fine. Staying positive. Thanks to the fans that made the trip, class."

Next Match: Saturday, April 13 7PM ET, at DC (TV: MSG2)