The challenge was put to the Red Bulls defense following the embarrassing home loss to Orlando City in their last game. The team gave up a season-high five goals and was overrun by a ferocious counter attack, and that would have to quickly be corrected in time to deal with Kai Kamara and the high-powered Columbus Crew offense.
The Red Bulls accepted the challenge, then made good on it.
The Red Bulls kept Kamara, the league’s leading scorer with 22 goals, off the score sheet, neutralized the Crew’s other influential players and rallied for a 2-1 victory before 21,715 Saturday night at Red Bull Arena.
The win, in the rubber game of the series with the Crew, gave the Red Bulls (15-9-6, 51 points) a three-point lead over D.C. United and four points over the Crew and New England Revolution with two games in hand on all three teams.
“We felt that we had an off night (against) Orlando, in terms of our pressing and our shifting and moving, so – I mean, credit to them, on the night that they did well – so tonight, I think we saw more of who we are in terms of our commitment to the pressing and doing it together,” said assistant coach Denis Hamlett, who stood in for the suspended Jesse Marsch. “And so we had a great response after the first goal and we just continued, and we were able to create two chances, two goals from that pressing.”
In the Orlando match, nobody played well, but against the Crew, defenders Damien Perrinelle and Connor Lade had bounce-back performances, Ronald Zubar stepped in seamlessly for Matt Miazga, who is on international duty, and Sal Zizzo filled in for Kemar Lawrence, who missed the match due to personal reasons, according to the club.
“We were unhappy with the way last week turned out,” said Lade, who made the switch to the left side of the defense with Lawrence out. “We felt like we stepped at times when we should have just dropped together. There was a lack of communication and we were exposed. There hasn’t been many times like that where we were exposed this year.
“We worked hard this week making sure we communicated as a whole and making sure that we knew when we wanted to go and the cues to really step and press the way we like to, but there are certain times we have to drop and you have to realize that you can’t keep going the whole time.”
But once again, the Red Bulls gave up an early goal as the Crew took the lead just 10 minutes into the match. Midfielder Justin Meram played the ball out to the right to defender Harrison Afful, then got a step on Red Bulls midfielder Felipe as he raced toward the net. Afful centered the ball back to Meram, whose shot appeared to deflected up and off the hands of goalkeeper Luis Robles and into the net.
But just like in previous games where the Red Bulls conceded early, they responded in quick fashion.
Red Bulls midfielder Mike Grella stole the ball from Crew defender Gaston Sauro and dribbled into the left side of the box. Grella took an angled shot the was kicked out by Crew goalkeeper Steve Clark, but the ball rebounded out to Sacha Kljestan on the left.
Kljestan, who has four goals and 11 assists in the past 15 games, immediately slipped a pass across the box where Lloyd Sam drove a left-footed shot off Clark’s hands and into the net off the underside of the crossbar just two minutes later.
“I think it comes down to pride,” forward Bradley Wright-Phillips said. “You see, this season, we're not used to losing too much. It comes down to pride. Orlando came in here and battered us. We didn't want to feel like that again. It was horrible in this changing room. We made sure today that we would not be conceding. We didn't want to concede a goal. We've got good bounce-back ability in this team.”
Wright-Phillips scored the eventual winner in the 21st minute. Clark was under pressure by Grella after receiving a back pass from a defender. Turning to his right, Clark barely got the clearance away, sending the ball up the right side along the ground.
Anticipating the pass, Lade streaked in, intercepted the ball and carried just outside the box on the left. He centered the ball for Wright-Phillips, who redirected a header past Clark for his 15th goal of the season. The assist was Lade’s first this year.
“Yeah, you know, I think he played well tonight,” Hamlett said of Lade. “I thought he was aggressive, he read situations, he didn't get himself stepping in. He didn't get caught out of position. He knew he didn't play particularly well last game so you know, I think he had a good week of training, and came out tonight and showed his quality.”
When the Red Bulls beat the Crew in the third game of the season, the Crew couldn’t handle the Red Bulls high pressure. In their second meeting, a Crew victory, they played a lot of balls over the top to Kamara, won second balls and turned them into scoring opportunities. On Saturday night, they reverted back to their ground game most of the match.
“I’m not surprised. They’re a proud team,” Wright-Phillips said. “They’re good at passing the ball. Just like Jesse doesn’t change his plan, we always go out and close balls. I can’t see their manager say ‘We’re playing here. We’re want to do it different.’ They think they’re a very good team passing and they think it’s going to get them success. I don’t blame them, but today it didn’t work.”
As the game wore on, the Crew began to lift more balls toward Kamara, but the combination of Perrinelle and Zubar won many of the headers and there were few second balls for the Crew to win.
“We are just proud because the last game we played against Kamara and Meram and we did not play our best,” Perrinelle said. “We did some adjustments. Jesse talked a lot tactically this week and it’s our secret. We’ll keep the secret because maybe we play them in the playoffs.”
Perrinelle also was happy to see a healthy Zubar in the lineup. The two Frenchmen played together in the preseason and got comfortable with each other, but Zubar was hurt in the opening game of the season and has played sparingly due to the All-Star-caliber season Miazga has had.
“Since the preseason games we had a good feeling together,” Perrinelle said of Zubar. “We’re really good friends off of the pitch. … We can play with our eyes closed because we know what we each will do, so it was really good. We were happy to play together, even more to win with Ronald.”
The Red Bulls could have netted a third goal if not for a great save by Clark. Following a nice passing sequence in and out of the box on the left, Sam slipped a pass to Wright-Phillips up top. Wright-Phillips turned and drove a 15-yard shot that seemed headed for the lower left corner, but Clark dove to push it away.
Robles, who made four saves, didn’t have much to do as he recorded his 10th home win of the season and 47th of his career, one behind Tony Meola’s franchise record. But Robles more than made up for the soft goal early in the match when he came up with the save of the game in the 75th minute.
A cross from the left by Crew defender Waylon Francis was headed away by Zubar in front. The ball landed near the top of the box on the right and took one bounce before the Crew’s Federico Higuain ripped a hard shot that Robles pushed around the right post on full stretch.
“These games, I don't mind at all when there's not a lot of action,” Robles said. “But towards the end you know you're going to be called on a couple times, so I knew mentally that's something I needed to be prepared for and I felt that I was up to the task.”
Though there was a flurry of offensive action early, as all three goals were scored in the first 21 minutes, the game settled in and the Red Bulls’ defense took over.
“Obviously we knew about Matt (being gone) and Ronald has had a difficult season, but we felt and believed that he'd be ready for this game,” Hamlett said. “And so he stepped in tonight and I thought he played a great game and showed his real quality tonight in terms of just competing and being tuned in and just being a presence back there for us.
“And I think that helped us in terms of having Sal and Connor on the flanks, in terms of just (playing) as a group. I think Sal (was) important (and) played real well. So we felt that putting him on the field tonight, no issue. We have a system that we play and guys understand their role, so when they step on the field they know what to do.”
Perhaps Wright-Phillips best summed up the effort by the defense.
“They were brilliant,” he said. “In the Orlando game, nobody was good, and then we took a battering, but the defenders today took care of the league’s top scorer and one of the best creative players in the league in Higuain. They won us the game today.”
