Major League Soccer
Pretenders or Contenders? A Look at the Red Bulls
The Red Bulls' talent-rich roster features Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill, Bradley Wright-Phillips, and Dax McCarty—so why is the team so inconsistent? ASN's Brian Sciaretta assesses the situation.
HARRISON, N.J.—One year ago, it was a different story for the Red Bulls. The team was coasting into the playoffs and routed the Chicago Fire on the last day of the season to win the Supporters Shield. This year the team is walking a very fine line between success and failure.
Time and time again, coach Mike Petke's men have had their backs against the wall. The good news for Red Bulls fans is that the team always finds a way to escape from a dangerous situation. The bad news is that the team keeps putting itself into bad situations.
On Saturday night the Red Bulls defeated Montreal 4-2 but trailed the game 1-0 at halftime. In the second half, Thierry Henry put the team on his back with two goals and an assist to give the Red Bulls three points.
Against a tired and subpar Montreal team—which has the worst record in MLS—New York should have come away with a convincing win. It did not.
“Every game we say we want to be better in the first half,” Red Bull midfielder Eric Alexander said. “We don't really want to walk that line. It seems to end up just happening. We're not really sure what it is.”
The playoff race in the Eastern Conference is remarkably tight, with third place Columbus sitting on 33 points and seventh place Philadelphia with 30 points. New York (31 points) is in fifth place and currently holds the final playoff spot but the race is so tight that a loss or draw to Montreal on Saturday would have had dropped the Red Bulls to seventh.
Making matters worse for New York, Columbus is starting to play much better soccer and is now entering a very favorable part of its schedule—its next seven games come against teams currently on the outside of the playoffs. Once-slumping New England has also begun to turn things around with just one loss in its last four, and the Revolution's acquisition of Jermaine Jones will only make the race more competitive.
For New York, the schedule is going to become increasingly crowded and difficult with CONCACAF Champions League games and difficult MLS opponent waiting in D.C. United twice and Sporting Kansas City. To emerge successful in both its MLS playoff push an in the Champions League, the Red Bulls are going to have to rise above being a collection of talented individuals and start playing as a team.
“Sometimes in a way I think it can be described as our Achilles' Heel because we have so many great players,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “Sometimes we just rely on the quality of players we have instead of having that focus and that concentration for 90 minutes.
“Going back to our individual players, we can't just rest on someone bailing us out,” Robles added. “Obviously we're going to need 15 seconds of magic every once in a while but as a team we have to be committed for 90 minutes, and fully focused. I think sometimes that's what it is—the focus isn't there.”
Individual moments of brilliance have rescued the Red Bulls multiple times this season. Two weeks ago the Red Bulls trailed New England 1-0 at halftime and were reduced to 10 players following a red card to U.S. U-20 and rookie central defender Matt Miazga. Just when it seemed as if the Red Bulls were going to fade out of the playoff picture, Dax McCarty hit one of the goals of the MLS season with a magnificent chip to equalize the game. McCarty's strike ignited a rally and the Red Bulls won the contest.
In the following match, the Red Bulls failed to seize the momentum and inexplicably lost to a struggling Chicago team. That result set up Saturday’s game against Montreal, which started poorly, ended well, and only added heft to the argument that this is a very inconsistent squad.
THE RED BULLS HAVE THE ABILITY to score goals. Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his 19th and 20th against Montreal to set the club's single-season scoring record. The English striker is also in position to challenge for MLS' single-season goal-scoring record of 27, shared by Roy Lassiter and Chris Wondolowski. What New York is missing at the moment, however, is the ability to shut down opponents. The club has not posted a shutout since June 8, a span of nine games. “We know we can score goals with the best of them,” McCarty said. “I think for the most part, we don't do a good enough job of saying that maybe when things aren't going our way offensively, let's just keep it tight defensively and keep a zero on the board. I can’t remember the last time we got a shutout. That's unacceptable." “Sometimes in this league you're going to have to grind out results one-nil,” McCarty added. “We haven't been able to do that this year. If we can't keep shutouts, we're not going to be going anywhere.”
Of course, how far the Red Bulls go this season will likely come down to Henry and how he plays down the stretch. The 37-year-old Frenchman says he is undecided about his soccer career beyond this season, but he also insists that he is physically strong and excited for the playoff push.
Henry can be brutally honest in discussing his team’s chances. For example, regarding Bradley Wright-Phillips’ setting the club record with his 20th goal, Henry told reporters: “I think he should have done that 10 games into the season. He scored two today and missed five. You guys are laughing but it's true.”
Henry added, “I keep saying he should already be at 35 or 40 goals. I'm not even joking.”
Henry knows the upcoming schedule well and that the path to make the playoffs will be hard. Following the win over Montreal, which he believed was a game the team “needed to win,” Henry insisted the team did not “control the game” and lamented how the Red Bulls allowed Montreal to keep things dangerously close despite having little possession.
“We'll learn, hopefully,” Henry said. “It isn't always that you're going to score four. They scored two and that's not good enough. But like I said, the bottom line is that we won but I'm seeing the bigger picture. We can't keep conceding goals. For example, against Chicago we didn't manage to score and we ended up losing.”
“This league is about having a good run,” Henry explained. “Every time we're about to have one, we lose a game. So hopefully we can go on a run and we all know that is not going to be easy next weekend against DC. We're going to have to battle. I've been saying that ever since I arrived in the league.
"In all the games we have to battle—every single game.”
Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.
The playoff race in the Eastern Conference is remarkably tight, with third place Columbus sitting on 33 points and seventh place Philadelphia with 30 points. New York (31 points) is in fifth place and currently holds the final playoff spot but the race is so tight that a loss or draw to Montreal on Saturday would have had dropped the Red Bulls to seventh.
Making matters worse for New York, Columbus is starting to play much better soccer and is now entering a very favorable part of its schedule—its next seven games come against teams currently on the outside of the playoffs. Once-slumping New England has also begun to turn things around with just one loss in its last four, and the Revolution's acquisition of Jermaine Jones will only make the race more competitive.
For New York, the schedule is going to become increasingly crowded and difficult with CONCACAF Champions League games and difficult MLS opponent waiting in D.C. United twice and Sporting Kansas City. To emerge successful in both its MLS playoff push an in the Champions League, the Red Bulls are going to have to rise above being a collection of talented individuals and start playing as a team.
“Sometimes in a way I think it can be described as our Achilles' Heel because we have so many great players,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “Sometimes we just rely on the quality of players we have instead of having that focus and that concentration for 90 minutes.
“Going back to our individual players, we can't just rest on someone bailing us out,” Robles added. “Obviously we're going to need 15 seconds of magic every once in a while but as a team we have to be committed for 90 minutes, and fully focused. I think sometimes that's what it is—the focus isn't there.”
Individual moments of brilliance have rescued the Red Bulls multiple times this season. Two weeks ago the Red Bulls trailed New England 1-0 at halftime and were reduced to 10 players following a red card to U.S. U-20 and rookie central defender Matt Miazga. Just when it seemed as if the Red Bulls were going to fade out of the playoff picture, Dax McCarty hit one of the goals of the MLS season with a magnificent chip to equalize the game. McCarty's strike ignited a rally and the Red Bulls won the contest.
In the following match, the Red Bulls failed to seize the momentum and inexplicably lost to a struggling Chicago team. That result set up Saturday’s game against Montreal, which started poorly, ended well, and only added heft to the argument that this is a very inconsistent squad. THE RED BULLS HAVE THE ABILITY to score goals. Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his 19th and 20th against Montreal to set the club's single-season scoring record. The English striker is also in position to challenge for MLS' single-season goal-scoring record of 27, shared by Roy Lassiter and Chris Wondolowski. What New York is missing at the moment, however, is the ability to shut down opponents. The club has not posted a shutout since June 8, a span of nine games. “We know we can score goals with the best of them,” McCarty said. “I think for the most part, we don't do a good enough job of saying that maybe when things aren't going our way offensively, let's just keep it tight defensively and keep a zero on the board. I can’t remember the last time we got a shutout. That's unacceptable." “Sometimes in this league you're going to have to grind out results one-nil,” McCarty added. “We haven't been able to do that this year. If we can't keep shutouts, we're not going to be going anywhere.”
Of course, how far the Red Bulls go this season will likely come down to Henry and how he plays down the stretch. The 37-year-old Frenchman says he is undecided about his soccer career beyond this season, but he also insists that he is physically strong and excited for the playoff push.
Henry can be brutally honest in discussing his team’s chances. For example, regarding Bradley Wright-Phillips’ setting the club record with his 20th goal, Henry told reporters: “I think he should have done that 10 games into the season. He scored two today and missed five. You guys are laughing but it's true.”
Henry added, “I keep saying he should already be at 35 or 40 goals. I'm not even joking.”
Henry knows the upcoming schedule well and that the path to make the playoffs will be hard. Following the win over Montreal, which he believed was a game the team “needed to win,” Henry insisted the team did not “control the game” and lamented how the Red Bulls allowed Montreal to keep things dangerously close despite having little possession.
“We'll learn, hopefully,” Henry said. “It isn't always that you're going to score four. They scored two and that's not good enough. But like I said, the bottom line is that we won but I'm seeing the bigger picture. We can't keep conceding goals. For example, against Chicago we didn't manage to score and we ended up losing.”
“This league is about having a good run,” Henry explained. “Every time we're about to have one, we lose a game. So hopefully we can go on a run and we all know that is not going to be easy next weekend against DC. We're going to have to battle. I've been saying that ever since I arrived in the league.
"In all the games we have to battle—every single game.”
Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.
