Red Bulls center back Markus Holgersson has provided New York's backline with lockdown defense. The Swedish defender has started all 17 games during the 2013 season and has been a key component in the team's overall defense. We sat down to alk to him about defending Montreal's attack lead by Marco Di Vaio.
What can we expect in Saturday’s matchup against Montreal?
We played against them before and we know they are a strong team. They’re on top of the table. We played really well against them at Montreal and once at home. I think we can have a lot of possessions and a better passing game than we had the last few games, then we can create more scoring chances off that. We have to be aware of their counter attacks especially [Marco] Di Vaio.
Marco Di Vaio has scored in each of the two meetings against the Red Bulls, what is the game plan to shut him down?
We have to play tight, blocks. We want to play close to him and not give him the space.
How would you say the defense is playing overall?
It’s been good, the last game we played well in the first half and in the second half we did not play together, we didn’t hold the team tight like we want. We lost our game plan and they scored another goal. Before that, against Houston, we played very well and a couple of games before that we played well defensively. It is important to have Olave back in the lineup because we play well together.
