The stunning loss to the Chicago Fire two weeks ago may have been the best thing to happen to the Red Bulls at this crucial part of the season. Sure, no team ever wants to lose, but when it happens, especially against a last-place team, a reassessment has to follow.
The Red Bulls had been barreling through the season, beating good teams and shutting down others with quality goal scorers. A wake-up call couldn’t have come at a better time.
“Absolutely, absolutely in every sense because the game reminded us that even though we might have been on a good run, anyone on any day can beat us,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said of the 3-2 defeat. “Playing on the road is always going to be tough in this league, and that in its own sense is going to give us motivation for this next match against the Fire because we know that they are a good team and they are going to be shooting to get three points.
“They have to because that’s the position that they’re in, and we’re going to respect that, but understand if we’re able to implement and execute the way that we want to then we should be optimistic about the outcome. We had a good (week of) training and we should feel very good about not only our legs but our mentality going into this game.”
The Red Bulls (12-7-6) will have a chance to make up for that loss tonight when they host the Fire at Red Bull Arena. A victory would enable the Red Bulls to overtake D.C. United for first place in the Eastern Conference and equal last season’s win total.
While the Aug. 26 loss woke up the Red Bulls, who went on to thrash D.C. United the following game, the victory did little for the Fire, who have taken just one point from the next two games. They remain in last place in the Eastern Conference at 7-14-6 and are even more desperate at this juncture. And yet, the Fire is just four points out of a playoff berth.
“The last time we played against them it was a really frustrating performance,” midfielder Dax McCarty said. “I thought we recovered well and we put in a really good performance against D.C., and we need to take that momentum into the Chicago game.
“They’re a good team. They’ve been a little unlucky on the road these past couple of weeks. They’ve played well in Montreal (a 4-3 loss) and they’ve played well in Orlando (a 1-1 tie). Maybe they’ve not gotten rewarded for their performance. They’re hungry. I think they’re going to have confidence. At this point in the season they’re desperate and they’re playing the best soccer they have all year. They’ll be a big test again, but we’re at home and we know how we play at home.”
It took a few years, but Red Bull Arena is beginning to become the fortress the club hoped it would. This season the Red Bulls are 8-2-2 at home and have won five in a row in their building. Chicago is 0-8-5 on the road.
“We’re playing at home so we know it’s going to be a different game,” midfielder Sacha Kljestan said. “The game plan remains the same always. We feel like over the course of 90 minutes we’ll be able to overwhelm them, create a lot of chances, and hopefully put some goals away. Something we’ve harped on is just keeping the zero, so hopefully we get a shutout.”
Shutouts, rare earlier in the season, have been piling up. Robles has collected three in the past four games to raise his season total to eight.
Through a quirk in the schedule, the Red Bulls will be playing the Fire for the second straight time following a long layoff. The first game resulted in a lack of sharpness. It should not happen again. During the down time, the Red Bulls held a closed-door scrimmage against Columbia University to keep sharp.
“It’s something that the coaching staff took into account,” McCarty said. “Training was pretty hard this week. It woke our bodies up a little bit after a couple of days of rest, so it was good. It was hot. We wanted to make sure we didn’t lose too much fitness.”
Speed was a factor in the last game as the Fire’s Kennedy Igboananike and Patrick Nyarko proved difficult to mark and repeatedly got behind the Red Bulls’ back line.
“They have guys that make one-on-one plays, very individualistic (players) who like to take on guys one on one,” Kljestan said. “We have this thing called rest defense, that when we’re attacking we also know where their attacking players are and that we’re ready for any ball that turns over. The rest defense has to be very good and I think we’ll take care of business.
“The important thing is we don’t lose bad turnovers in the middle of the field. That’s something that we know cost us goals early in the season. We’ve done a much better job of that as of late, so the reading of the game is when the ball turns over we just have to drop. We can’t wait for our numbers to get back and be able to help each other out, so that part’s been very good. We’ve had a lot of shutouts lately and I hope that run continues.”
