NY Red Bulls Sneak Past D.C. Late

The New York Red Bulls entered the match against D.C. United, just four points behind them for 10th place. This season 9 teams in each conference will make the playoffs for the first time, the Red Bulls head coach Troy Lesesne will tell you it’s not a must-win that there is time. The truth of the matter is tonight’s game is huge for the New York side, Inter Miami may be in last with 18 points right now but if you want to discount them you will be in for a world of pain. The world knows Messi will not finish the season in last place and he is more than capable of leading a team to an 11-game win streak.

Some of the older MLS journalists still live in a bubble where Messi isn’t the greatest, he can’t win 11 games in a row, and MLS is too tough. That is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever heard in my time in sports.

They keep saying the same thing over and over, stomp on him, take him out, knock him over, as if Messi hasn’t played against elite players his entire career, players a hundred times better than anyone in Major League Soccer. Oh, by the way, he has already won 7 straight matches and well none have been threatening to defeat Messi or Miami.

Yes, Dallas and Nashville took them to penalties in the tournament knockout rounds. If you watch the matches though Dallas was without Jordi and the defensive lapses were obvious. Nashville got lucky to tie the match, it took the oddest of bounces to create an own goal off a set piece to get a draw. Messi missed a second goal by an inch, something that is highly rare. 9 out of 10 times Messi makes the shot and Nashville loses in regulation.

If Campana had more focus and discipline he wins the match in the dying seconds, he was on a breakaway with only the keeper to beat which he did, but his touch to get around the keeper was a bit poor. The miss shocked his coach Tata and his teammates Messi, Sergio, and Jordi guys who are used to seeing such easy goals finished off. The Red Bull need to have a healthy respect if they want to make the playoffs this year.

The atmosphere inside Red Bull Arena was a sight to see, it wasn’t a sell-out, however, it was one of the largest attendances this season for a #RBNY match. The supporter’s section was mostly back, but it still had noticeable empty seats that one can imagine will be filled for the team’s next match on August 26th. The atmosphere outside the arena was mixed, on the streets you had the fake jersey sales to get ready for Messi Mania, some food vendors, and the fans. It still hasn’t been anywhere near what we saw for Gold Cup. Maybe the next match for the NY Red Bulls will exceed it we shall see.

When you walked around the arena everyone was ready for the next matchup, yes big rival D.C. was in town, but everyone was talking about one man and his team of soccer ninjas. Everyone was looking past D.C. they were a minor inconvenience for the fans. They want what they want and that is Lionel Messi.

Some have admitted they know Miami comes with more than just the greatest of all time, some only know of Messi and will be in for a huge shock. The staff says they’re ready and one would love to believe that, however, the fact is they have never experienced anything remotely close to what they will see on August 26th. It may be a home game on paper for the Red Bulls, yet the fans coming for the match are there for one reason and his name is Messi. The man, the myth, the legend will be in town very soon and fans will get a show.

The match between two of the oldest rivals was lackluster honestly, it wasn’t good football being played between two teams needing a huge three points. Right now, teams that sit in 9th – 13th need every win they can muster.

Watching the first half the talk in the press box was simple, if this is the Red Bull side that plays Miami and uses this style the scoreboards will be screaming for Mercy. The gaps and the space given were just too much, D.C. has no one that lethal, and yet the space given was eye-opening.

The Red Bulls were lucky they faced D.C. a team coached by a legendary player who just hasn’t translated his playing success into a coaching success. The first half ended in a 0 – 0 draw and the Red Bulls lost Dante Vanzeir in the 28′ of the match. He went right to Troy and said, “Something doesn’t feel right, I can’t shake it.”

Yeah, I would say first for Dante, you know, I think that it’s one that we’ll have to evaluate over the coming days. I don’t think it’s severe, based on what I’m hearing, but you know, at the same time, we got to we got to see exactly what it looks like.

“So, hopefully, we caught it early enough to where it wasn’t a, you know, serious strain. But in terms of the way that we’ve been playing, I would say this game. You may have something in the Philly game, the New York City game, those are very combative games from us, and we had less of the below in this game. Actually. I felt like we had to deal with a lot of long balls in DC United and we dealt with them extremely well. I don’t know if you know, their front runner was but that guy has been doing it for a long time. Christian Benteke at a high level. And Andreessen shelling did very well in the first ball moment. The second ball moment we actually cleaned a lot of those up. From that point on though I thought we settled the game down and we have the world in a really positive fashion, where I think we can maybe tighten it up a little bit as the final action, the final third. There’s a lot of good runs that are made and maybe we don’t always play that pass. But winning though, is clearly the most important thing right now. And we want to make sure that we have a good process towards those results and those wins. But I said this may be one press conference when someone opened up by using a negative word to describe a win tonight and ugly needs to stay out of the press conference. So, no one else say ugly today.”

Troy Lesesne Red Bulls Head Coach

Troy needs to find some kind of magic off his bench, but the problem is he has no one with that type of spark. He does have Ronald Donkor but Troy hasn’t played the youngster in forever so it would be shocking to see Troy go to him in this match-up.

Frankie is not on the roster due to illness; Lewis Morgan is out again after making a penalty kick appearance during the Union match in the Leagues Cup. Will have to ask during the press conference Morgans status. Troy said in Philadelphia that he was good to go, did he pick something up during the penalty kick or in training we shall see.

Neither team makes changes at halftime, Tom Barlow has been well Barlow so far in his time on the field. We will surely hear how great and well he played and how it is tough to come on so early into a match. The reality is it is smoke and mirrors, Barlow could come on at any point and give you the same poor performance.

The fans have had it with Barlow and for the first time all season, he was booed when he entered in the 28′ of the first half. They booed him when he made blunders and missed headers.

The post-game messages from Troy of his greatness have fallen on deaf ears and for good reason. He has played over 7000 minutes in the MLS (Major League Soccer) and has a lonely miserable 14 goals. The Red Bulls fans are sick of the excuses, the positive worded press conferences, they want results and they’re not getting them or seeing the front office even try to bring in better players.

The latter is a tough one, the team has tried in the past and MLS has said No you can’t do that or bring him in. The fans have a right to feel like their ownership doesn’t care about success. Yes, this team has made the playoffs for 13 years straight but they’re the Toronto Maple Leafs. Make it and get eliminated right away, that isn’t a success for the fan base. That is the status quo and they’re not entirely wrong. They want another Henry or BWP they want the glory days of winning and gaining silverware. The biggest piece of silverware that has evaded them is the MLS Cup.

The second half was a cookie-cutter version of the first half, it was Red Bull soccer. It’s not sexy, it’s not fun, it is far from exciting. They hunker in and try to beat teams down defensively and find a hole or two for the win. It took the Red Bulls till the 88′ to find the back of the net, in a way not expected by most.

JMi (John Tolkin) stepped up to take a free kick from 23 yards out to the left of the goal. He slipped a skipper past Miller at the 2nd post for the go-ahead goal. RBNY takes a late 1 – 0 lead to secure a crucial three points.

The win keeps the Red Bulls in 11th place but they’re now only a point behind D.C. for 10th place and three points behind the Chicago Fire for the last playoff spot. NYCFC lost their match 2 – 0 to Minnesota and fall to 13th in the standings.

The reason Red Bull needs to get as many wins as possible is Miami has 3 more games to play than Red Bull does. Miami has played the fewest games at 22 matches played, everyone else is at 24 – 25, and only Charlotte and Philadelphia sit at 23 matches played.

Well, the countdown has started for the biggest match-up of the season to this point. Inter Miami comes to town on August 26th with Messi, Sergio, Jordi, Sergii, and company.