It’s the second time in two weeks the Red Bulls have had a long layoff before playing the Chicago Fire. The first time didn’t work out too well. Though they took an early lead, the Red Bulls seemed a step slow all game and their usual sharpness was not there in the 3-2 loss.
This time around, coach Jesse Marsch again gave the players a few days off, but when they returned to training on Tuesday he got their attention right away. A session that included fast-paced passing and decision-making on a short field, followed by some 1v1 and 2v1 drills quickly got the players’ focus.
“I would say the only thing is just trying to make sure that we are sharp in training, so a few more things with the ball in warm-ups and just some of that to make sure that we don’t lose any of our sharpness,” Marsch said about the drills. “But I’m not too concerned. I think we’ll be ready to go.
“It was a hot day but we tried to implement some of our training methods in order to make sure that we’re up to speed on a lot of different things and keep pushing ourselves in terms of the speed at which we play, so overall (a) good session, although it was really hot.”
Defender Connor Lade said the result of the first meeting with the Fire was on the minds of the players during the break. No one wanted to lose focus again.
“We obviously weren’t happy with the result there, and to come back in that D.C. game and really make a statement that we weren’t happy with that performance and we’re better than that (was important),” he said. “These past couple of days we took care of ourselves, keeping your head in the game and making sure going into this game we want to take some revenge because we didn’t have a good showing in that one.
“We know they have a good team. Their record might not show how good of a team they are. They can hurt you in a lot of different places. They’ve got a lot of dynamic players. No game in this league is going to be an easy one, so we’re looking forward to this one to right the wrongs from last game.”
Added Marsch: “We learned from the last game and we showed in our quick turnaround against D.C. that we learned certain lessons from that game and we’ll have to apply them again in this game and to make sure from the start at home that this game is on our terms in every way.”
The Red Bulls will have defenders Kemar Lawrence and Karl Ouimette back from international duty, but it’s questionable whether Lawrence will start after playing 90 hard-fought minutes for Jamaica against Nicaragua in the second leg of their World Cup qualifying series. Jamaica needed to win by two goals, pushed the game and got the second goal in the final moments to advance to the fourth round on 4-3 aggregate. Jamaica will be grouped with Costa Rica, Panama and Haiti for the fourth round.
Ouimette played the final 16 minutes in Canada’s 1-1 tie with Belize. Canada won the series on 4-1 aggregate to advance to the fourth round, where they will play Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador home and home for a chance to advance to the final round of qualifying for Russia 2018.
Neither Lawrence nor Ouimette played in the August loss to the Fire, but whether they play Friday or not, defender Matt Miazga says the team has to learn from its poor performance following the first layoff.
“Just to be ready,” Miazga said about what he learned. “Obviously, I feel we were ready (the last time but) our sharpness wasn’t there. Jesse’s giving it to us in training and we’re working hard. Off this bye week we’re trying to stay as fit as possible, like we always do, and the mentality has to be right for Chicago. Coming off a big win against D.C. we’re excited and we’re ready to get revenge.”
Marsch also addressed the revenge factor.
“There’s a couple of things that happened in the game that we thought were crossing the line a little bit, so nothing other than make sure that we’re motivated, that this is a team that we know is desperate and that they’re going to feel good about playing against us,” he said. “They respect us so they’re going to come here and give it their best shot. We should feel like we owe them a little bit and we’ll make sure that we play with a chip on our shoulder come Friday.
“They’re a better team than their record says. They’re an explosive team in the attacking third. They showed that there. I think it will be a different game here. At home, we’ll be able to command the game a lot more than we did there, but for sure we know it’s a real opponent, and even though they’re last in the standings, it’s a team that we’ll have to deal with and make sure that we’ll be ready to go.”
