The New York Red Bulls played to a scoreless draw at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night against the Philadelphia Union.
"In the end, we don't really do enough at the right moments," Head Coach Jesse Marsch said after the game.
On a hot night, both teams struggled to find repeated chances.
"I thought the heat played a factor," Bradley Wright-Phillips said. "I think it’s hard to keep up the pace of the game that we like to play in that kind of heat, especially being one of the first games we played in that kind of heat. Not an excuse, it’s kind of the facts of today. We have to take the draw at the end of the day.”
The Red Bulls players were disappointed after the match, according to Marsch.
"I said to the team is it feels disappointing any time we don't win at home but you know, Philly put a lot into it," Marsch said. "They competed hard. They had a good game plan, good tactics. Their players made it difficult on us in transition, and there have been many times in the past where this team would have given that game away and we would have somehow wound up losing that 2-0, which actually, we've done against Philly."
Things were just a little bit off for the Red Bulls, held without a goal for just the second time all season.
“We just lacked a little sharpness, I think," Wright-Phillips said. "The final play was off; me especially, I had three chances that I feel I should be hitting the target. I guess it’s one of them days.”
Though New York's defense was proud to come away with a clean sheet -- Ryan Meara's first of the year.
“Tough game. Obviously with the heat and everything it was a tough game to be a part of, but I thought we had our hand on it," Tim Parker said. "We had our control in the game, putting it on our terms and sometimes we just don’t get that goal. That happens sometimes and as a defensive group we’re happy to keep it clean at the back.”
Marsch said he's not going to dwell on this match -- but instead look forward and to keep their five-game unbeaten streak rolling.
"We're going to have to acclimatize to the heat and train more in the heat and then use more guys at different times," Marsch said. "We'll be ready to do that, but I'm not taking negatives away from this. I'm taking positives and I'm taking we are going to move forward in a good way. There's a lot of momentum in our team right now."
