Inches.
That’s what stood between the greatest comeback in Red Bulls postseason history and being able to keep the dream of hosting the MLS Cup Final alive, and a gut-wrenching end to the greatest season the franchise has ever seen.
Mere inches.
That’s how close the Red Bulls came to tying the Eastern Conference Final series against the Columbus Crew Sunday night as a crowd of 25,219 at a sold-out Red Bull Arena watched a last-chance header by Bradley Wright-Phillips four minutes into second-half stoppage time bounce harmlessly off the right post.
The fact that the Red Bulls won the game, 1-0, didn’t matter. The victory felt like a loss as the Crew advanced to the MLS Cup Final against the Portland Timbers on 2-1 aggregate.
“We made a really good push at the end of the game,” Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch said. “It’s painfully unbelievable how that game ends. But I’m proud of my team, proud of our guys, proud to be their coach.
“You know, we talked at the beginning of the year. One of the first conversations I had with them was about emptying the tank at the highest level, and, you know, I couldn’t have asked for more from this group of guys and I know how bad they wanted it. It hurts. The locker room is in pain right now, just because it means so much to them.”
For the second year in a row the Red Bulls came within one goal of reaching the final, only to fall short. Perhaps it was even more painful this year because as the season progressed, and the fans got behind the team, more was expected. And when the Red Bulls won the Supporters’ Shield and scored the most goals in the league, and then dispatched of rival D.C. United in the conference semifinals, the trophy that has eluded the club for 20 years finally seemed within reach.
“For me, it feels like a failure just because the MLS Cup was our main goal and we did so much great work in the season to set ourselves up to host MLS Cup, and to let ourselves down in the conference final for the second year in a row is disappointing and the playoffs feel like a failure,” midfielder Dax McCarty said.
The goal by the Crew at the end of the first leg that gave them a 2-0 aggregate lead proved to be the decisive factor in the series. If the Red Bulls only needed to make up one goal at home, that would have been a lot easier. Instead, being two goals down, they had to push the game from the start, and that left them vulnerable in the back.
The Crew had chances to put the game – and the series – away early. In just the second minute midfielder Tony Tchani slipped a pass to a cutting Ethan Finlay, who carried into the box to the left of the penalty spot. Finley had an open shot from 12 yards, but Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles charged out and blocked the ball with his left leg as he slid forward.
Robles came up big again six minutes later. Crew defender Harrison Afful put a perfect pass into path of forward Kei Kamara, but Kamara’s blast from a tough angle on the right was again kicked out by Robles.
And in the 38th minute it was Robles making the difference again. Justin Meram chipped the ball into the center of the box to Kamara, who was holding off Red Bulls defender Matt Miazga. Kamara controlled the ball out of the air, popped it up again without it hitting the ground, spun and drove a volley toward the lower left corner that Robles dove to push aside at full stretch.
In between, tempers flared. Tchani and Red Bulls midfielder Mike Grella got into a shouting match following a hard slide by Felipe on the Crew’s Federico Higuain. McCarty and Sam also got into the fray as they tried to get at Tchani, who was being restrained by teammates to avoid a possible ejection.
Going into halftime, with Robles having kept the Red Bulls in the game, it was clear the Crew were in complete control. The Red Bulls had just one shot on goal, a glancing header by Wright-Phillips that was easily saved, and their frustration with the physicality of the Crew and what they felt was a lack of control of the match by referee Baldomero Toledo took them out of their game.
“One of Columbus’ tactics was that any time we got out on the break they wanted to foul us,” Marsch said. “I mentioned in Columbus that I didn’t think the referee did a good job of mitigating that and I would point to that again in the first half. I felt like the referee let too many physical challenges from Columbus get away.
“Smart move from them, right? We can be dangerous on the move and we can be dangerous in transition so it’s a smart move for them to try and slow the game down. The only way to deal with that, as a referee, is to start to give out yellow cards for tactical fouls for slowing down the game. It didn’t happen enough in either game so that tactic wound up being successful for them.”
But the Red Bulls turned it around in the second half. They had scoring chances by Wright-Phillips in the 49th minute, Sacha Kljestan in the 54th and Sam in the 72nd, but could not convert.
“We played well, we didn’t give them many good looks, many good opportunities,” Crew coach Gregg Berhalter said. “(It was a) great defensive effort, and what I was missing was the finishing touch on the goal. You know I've been telling you guys all week that I want to score and we wanted to score a goal, so maybe that we could’ve been better, a little bit cleaner in front of goal, around goal, but I think by and large we controlled the game well.”
At least until stoppage time when the Red Bulls’ desperation finally kicked in.
Three minutes into the four minutes of allotted time, defender Sal Zizzo sent a cross from the right into the box that was headed away by Crew defender Gaston Sauro. Sam tried to volley a shot from 15 yards, but was bumped by Finlay and the ball popped in the air in front of the net. Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark was late coming off his line and was obstructed by Sauro and Wright-Phillips as Anatole Abang headed the ball into the empty net for the only goal of the game.
With little time remaining, the Red Bulls needed another goal to force extra time and came right back down the field. McCarty sent the ball into the box from the left and Abang headed it up in the air with Kamara on his back. Miazga went up near the penalty spot and headed the ball toward goal as he collided with Crew defender Waylon Francis.
The ball came down near the edge of the six-yard box and Wright-Phillips got enough of his head on it to push it toward the net as Clark again hesitated coming off his line. The ball took two bounces and kissed off the right post before Kamara knocked it out for a corner kick to ease the last bit of danger.
“We were inches away from taking this to extra time,” McCarty said. “For as bad as we played throughout the whole series, that's how thin the margins are. We just didn’t have any good fortune or any good bounces, and that’s how the game goes.
“I think if you look at the season as a whole you could say it was a success. Obviously a new system, new coaches, new players. Nobody really expected too much from us. I thought we gave a pretty good account of ourselves all year. To fail in the playoffs again in the two biggest games where we just weren't good enough ... we just didn't play well.”
A clearly disappointed Marsch said he was proud of his team and that the long-term process of building a consistent winner had taken huge steps in Year One. And yet …
“Obviously, some of the mistakes we make in Columbus were the ones that really cost us,” Marsch said. “But overall, I thought our guys laid it all out there in both games, and I couldn't have asked for more from them.”
