There have been eight times this season when the Red Bulls’ opponent has been issued a red card. You would think those would be easy games to win, especially if they already had a lead, but that has not been the case.
In each of those games, the Red Bulls have not been able to take over the game, score another goal or two and come away with an easy three points. There seems to be something about an 11v10 situation that isn’t comfortable for them.
Wednesday night was a perfect example. The Montreal Impact went down to 10 men just 15 minutes into a scoreless match when defender Ambroise Oyongo intentionally handled the ball to keep Bradley Wright-Phillips’ shot out of the net.
Sacha Kljestan converted the ensuing penalty kick, but even when Lloyd Sam scored in the 39th minute to make it 2-0, the Red Bulls were having a difficult time breaking down the Impact defense. And when Montreal forward Didier Drogba converted a penalty kick with 22 minutes to play to make it 2-1, the Impact had chances to tie the game.
“Yeah, it’s difficult,” Kljestan said. “We haven’t really figured out the keys to unlocking a team when they’re just sitting back with eight or nine guys.
“We’ve had it a few times this season, where we’ve been up a man and have really failed to put three, four goals in the back of the net, so that’s something I think we’re going to continue to work on as we go to the playoffs, because in the playoffs there are crazy things that happen, and there are red cards and there are times when you need to keep pushing the game when maybe you’re down a goal but you’re up a man, so (we need to) continue to work on things like that.”
Being a man up does tilt the possession to one side – the Red Bulls had two-thirds of the possession against the Impact – but just passing the ball around the top of the box looking for a shot doesn’t amount to much unless someone can slip a ball into the box or drive a shot into the upper 90.
“I think that’s because of the way the game was tonight,” Kljestan said. “Because we were up a man for so long, they were just going to sit back and we were going to have so much possession. It’s hard to create chances when they’re just sitting back in a blockade and leaving one guy high. You can pass the ball around all you want, but they’re making it very hard to create chances.
“Having said that, we still created a few chances – Bradley Wright-Phillips got unlucky on a couple of occasions, one with the post and one with the goalkeeper. That’s not how we drew up the plan, it’s just how the game worked out because we were up a man for so long.”
Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch felt his team handled being up a man against Montreal better than they did in previous games with a man advantage.
“I wouldn’t say it was perfect,” he said. “I actually think the first half was really good, how we pushed the game and got the PK and got the second goal. That’s the key, still being aggressive and not just being satisfied with playing out wide, but playing in the middle.
“The second half, we started forcing things inside too much and that created turnovers and allowed them to sometimes get out on the break. We could have done a little better there, but even in moments of transition we dealt with things really well. We’ll keep working on it, but, overall, great.”
Montreal coach Mauro Biello said his team came in with a game plan, but that went out the door with the early red card.
“At that point there was no use to pressing high,” Biello said. “We were going to stay compact and low on the field and wait for the counter, and that’s what we did. We got a few chances out of it. Didier got a couple chances, and the last one with (Dominic) Oduro, and we almost got away with it.
“(The Red Bulls) didn’t really have to press today because they had the ball a lot. In the end, yes, they’re a high-pressing team, but they had a lot of the ball so we had to stay low and try to win and counter.”
Other than the Montreal game, the other seven games when the Red Bulls had a man advantage this season, they failed to score after the red card in five of them. In the other two – July 18 vs. Orlando and July 21 vs. the Philadelphia Union in the U.S. Open Cup – the Red Bulls scored one more goal in each game, but those came in second-half stoppage time.
“Yeah, first half I thought we were good playing a man up,” Sam said about the Impact game. “Second half, we weren’t really creating enough, which has happened a couple times this season. Overall, we needed three points and we got (them).”
Midfielder Mike Grella believes the Red Bulls should be better in games with a man advantage. In many of those other games a man up, the Red Bulls not only didn’t score, they were giving up scoring chances.
“I think, for sure, we got the three points and we’re all very happy, but I think at the end of the game they shouldn’t have chances and they shouldn’t be involved in the game,” he said. “We shouldn’t give that penalty up. There were a few chances that, if we're all a little bit sharper, we finish them and really put them away. So I think that still there’s a lot to work on when we're up a man and we can definitely improve in that area.”
