With the CONCACAF Gold Cup in full swing, and watching Red Bulls defender Chris Duvall slowly move around on crutches during training this week following surgery for a broken leg, was a stark reminder of just how depleted the team’s defensive corps is. It is also a situation for Connor Lade to once again prove his worth to the club.
“Obviously you don’t want to see injuries and guys on our team getting hurt, but I’ve got to step in and make the most of it and I’m trying to do that,” said Lade, who is expected to replace Duvall at right back for the majority, if not the remainder, of the regular season. “I have to transition into the team and help them as much as I can.”
Lade has been a valuable player on the back line and the midfield for three coaches in the past four years. All three have praised his work ethic and his contribution, either as a starter or off the bench. With three players at the Gold Cup and Duvall injured, the team needs Lade to step up again, and that will continue tonight when the Red Bulls (6-6-5) host the New England Revolution (6-8-6) at Red Bull Arena.
“You have to prove yourself every day. The moment you get comfortable it might be too late for you,” Lade said. “Every day you’re working to do your best and show your value to the club. If you get too complacent it’s never good.
“(Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch and I) sat down and had a good talk at the beginning of the year and he outlined how he likes to play, and I fit well in that system. It’s an exciting way to play. It’s similar to the way I played in college. It’s one I’m familiar with. I knew I’d eventually get a shot and it’s all about being ready when the time comes.”
On May 2, Lade started the game against the Revolution at Gillette Stadium. The Red Bulls were 3-0-4 at the time but the Revs handed them their first loss, 2-1. Since then, the Revs are 1-7-4, including a loss to the Charlotte Independence in the U.S. Open Cup. They have also lost five in a row, including the Open Cup exit, and yet they sit one point above the Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference standings.
“It’s the second half of the season. Every game is important,” team captain Dax McCarty said. “We have a bunch of games in hand on D.C., so I don’t think you can get caught up in where they are in the standings too much. If we take care of business and get our wins, we’ll catch back up to them. It’s all down to us. We have 16 games out of the 17 left against conference rivals and those are the games you have to win, no questions asked.
“This is the time we want to establish ourselves as the team we want to be at the end of the season. We’ve done some really good things year. I think we surprised a lot of people. We’re pretty average right now in terms of the standings. If you look at our level of play, for the most part it’s been pretty good. It doesn’t matter if the standings don’t reflect how you play. We need to be a team that learns how to win. We need to be a team that wins because that, ultimately, is what matters. We have to make sure that even if we win ugly, that’s what we have to do.”
In that May 2 loss, the Revolution’s Jermaine Jones played on the back line and disrupted play all match. But Jones won’t play tonight, having had surgery for a bilateral sports hernia June 12. He is expected to be sidelined 6 to 8 weeks.
“He has been an impact player, and if you look at their record with and without him the last 10 months it’s pretty drastic,” Marsch said. “But what’s more important is to focus on they still have very dangerous attacking players , they’re still very physical in the attacking third, their attacking players cause a lot of fouls and they initiate a lot of contact so our guys have to be ready for that physicality.
“We know that when you play New England you deal with a lot of crosses because they do a very good job of moving (defenders London) Woodberry and (Chris) Tierney up the field and they’re dangerous when those guys get time to whip balls in the box. I have to make sure we’re ready to deal with that.”
McCarty, who sat out the 2-1 loss to the Columbus Crew last weekend to rest after playing seven games in a 32-day span as well as rest a thigh injury, knows the Revs have a powerful offense, even without Jones on the field.
“We need to respect them and make sure we know that they’re always up for the game against us,” McCarty said. “It’s a rivalry game. It’s a team that we’ve played a bunch in the past. They always let us know that they’re in the game. One thing we weren’t prepared for when we went to New England was their physicality. They tried to bully us a little bit and it got to us and we got frustrated. We just weren’t in the game from the beginning. We need to make sure we match up with their physical presence. Obviously they lose a little of that without Jermaine Jones, but they still have plenty of guys who like to get physical and we need to dish it right back. It’s never an easy game against them.
“(Teal Bunbury and Juan Agudelo) are two dangerous players, those are guys we know pretty well. They’re very physical presences and they’re physically gifted. Teal scored a great goal against us the playoffs last year and he was a handful. Even in the first game this year he was a guy we didn’t deal with properly. We need to make sure that if he’s in a one-on-one battle with our left back we need to help him out.”
Marsch believes 19-year-old forward Anatole Abang has begun to establish himself and will be a key player down the stretch as the club looks to improve its offense.
“He’s established himself in our team as an important guy and he serves a really good purpose up there in terms of a physical presence,” the coach said. “And he’s dangerous. I don’t think there’s any center back in the league that wants to play against a guy like that. Because he’s strong, he’s fast, he’s good with his feet, he’s dangerous around the goal, he’s good in the air. He’s got a really good package of qualities. It’s just about helping him grow and develop more and more.”
