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Morning Ticker: Red Bulls tie W Connection, Fulham rolls in Europa League and more

The New York Red Bulls still didn't find a victory, but the club finally found a good result, scoring a 2-2 road draw vs. W Connection in the first leg of their two-game series in CONCACAF Champions League qualifying action.

The Red Bulls looked to be in danger of an embarrassing loss when a Juan Pablo Angel header clearance helped set up the opening goal for W Connection, but Austrian midfielder Ernst Obster made his Red Bulls debut in style, sending a Dane Richards cross at goal, where it took a deflection before beating the W Connection goalkeeper to equalize.

Alfredo Pacheco gave the Red Bulls the lead with his own long shot/cross attempt, which also took a big deflection before beating the keeper, but Pacheco took the lead away with a terrible clearance attempt that W Connection's Hughton Hector turned into a 72nd-minute equalizer.

The Red Bulls return to action next week when they play host to W Connection at Giants Stadium.

Here are some other stories to get your day going:

Fulham win Europea League opener

Bobby Zamora was supposed to be wearing a Hull City uniform by now, but he rejected a transfer move there, choosing to stay with Fulham. That move paid off handsomely for the Cottagers, who saw Zamora score a goal, draw a penalty and set up another goal inFulham's 3-0 Europa League victory against FK Vetra on Thursday.

Clint Dempsey started and played 81 minutes for Fulham while Eddie Johnson dressed but did not play for the Cottagers.

Dempsey wasn't the only American to see Europa League action on Thursday. U.S. goalkeeper Troy Perkins, fresh from his stint as the starting U.S. goalkeeper in the Gold Cup, started and played 90 minutes in Valarenga's 2-1 home-leg loss to Greek club PAOK Salonica.

Here are all the results from the Europa League's third round of qualifying.

Castillo joins Dnipro on loan

Mexican national team striker's club team struggles are well-documented, but now he has found a new club to try and play for. Shakhtar Donetsk has loaned Castillo to Dnipro for the year.

Castillo was one of the players called in by Mexico for the Aug. 12 World Cup qualifier vs. the United States.

Bobby Robson dead at 76

Former England, Newcastle United and FC Barcelona manager Bobby Robson has passed away at the age of 76. He succumed after a long battle with cancer.

Robson helped lead England to deep runs in the 1986 and 1990 World Cup and also led Newcastle to the UEFA Champions League. Robson also helped start the career of a certain club coach named Jose Mourinho, who served as his translator while at FC Barcelona.

Bayer Munich wins Audi Cup

Goalkeeper Michael Rensing made a pair of penalty kick saves to help Bayern Munich defeat Manchester United in penalty kicks in the Audi Cup final in Germany. The match ended scoreless in regulation before Bayern prevailed on spot kicks.

In the Audi Cup's other action, Boca Juniors defeated AC Milan on penalty kicks.

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These are just some of the stories making the rounds this morning. What did you think of the Red Bulls performance last night? Are you encouraged by seeing Eddie Johnson dress for a Europa League match? Are you enjoying watching Nery Castillo move further and further away from big-time club soccer?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. @Posted by: jimmygreaves | July 31, 2009 at 10:38 AM

    Actually since Ives is NOT a British subject he is under no obligation to call him ‘Sir’ anything. Count Chocula has more of a right to his title in the US. For a non-Brit in a nation that doesn’t observe heraldic titles it is optional.

    It is a sad loss though after a long brave battle. If there is an afterlife I hope he is in a better place.

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  2. Maybe I am wrong, since I only saw it once this morning on DVR, but shouldn’t Cepero have had the ball that Angel cleared off the bar. It was in the box. I would have thought he should have stepped up and caught it or punched it out. LOve Cepero’s ability to make saves in one on one situations but it seems he lacks the know how when it comes to positioning sometimes. Clearly another talented player who isn’t developing under Osorio.

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  3. Ives, were you at the WConnection match? I was in the VIP lounge and looked for you but did not see you. I did have a close brush with Jeff Agoos though, that was cool.

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  4. pacheco’s clearance wasn’t the only thing to cause this tie, but his inability to recognize Oebster making runs after he would lay off a pass for Pacheco really killed what seems to be a very offensive minded left midfielder in Ernst Oebster. absolutely no creativity from our left back. he needs to be showed the door ASAP

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  5. Altidore, Davies, Donovan are our confirmed strikers.

    Ching, EJ, Casey and Cooper all competing for the 4th spot. Most likely as a super-sub.

    Ching can hold up the ball and can get an assist but can’t score. EJ has speed and can race through defenders. Casey has effort. Cooper has size and the most potential.

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  6. Dempsey still in pre-season thinking. He’ll be back to regular soon. I can see him knotching 9goals in 36 appearances this season. Come on DEUCE.

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  7. EJ will probably play tomorrow in the final pre-season game against Peterbrough.

    The radio commentator really bashed Dempsey in the first half. He gave away the ball alot. He improved in the second half.

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  8. Ukranian league is currently not much to look at, beyond the top 4-5 teams. But Dnipro should be somewhere in that range.

    Dnipro was actually not a bad team in the early and mid-1980s USSR championship. They won a USSR championship in 1983, I believe. A few year later, two of their best players went to play for my hometown team (Dinamo K) and the USSR national team squad that went to the finals of Euro-88.

    It was also the team where Coach Valery Lobanovsky started his coaching career, taking the team from the 3rd division to top flight league in the early 1970s.

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  9. The Red Bulls looked to be in danger of an embarrassing loss from the very first minute when Petke made a lazy pass that was intercepted by W Connection (and subsequently they were saved by an offside pass).

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  10. The Special One was Sir Bobby’s translator while at Sporting Lisbon, before moving with him to Porto and then Barcelona.

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  11. @CapeCodFutbol
    I trust Hodgson’s evaluation of Zamora. He is clearly a gifted hold-up player, and certainly Roy also see’s his potential to be a goal scorer (and it’s paying off)

    @The Other Alex
    I started watching around the 80th and Gooch was still in, equalizer came around the 95th to a cross from the far post. Gooch had his man covered at the near, but Milan’s left back didn’t do his job.

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  12. Nery Castillo keeps falling 🙂 Who is a bigger bust – he or Freddy Adu? I’d have to say Castillo based on how much they paid.

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  13. DC Josh,

    Is Zamora really a “good quality striker” from whom EJ can learn? I hope he has better inspiration than that, because Zamora is an unbelievably frustrating player to watch.

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  14. Dnipro? wtf is that?

    Nery had a summer of magic a few years ago, but hasn’t shown much since then. Lesson of Feilhaber here though: don’t write him off too soon, there may still be redemption.

    (And JG why does Ives, as an American, have to honor British salutations? He was great with or without the honorific. Why don’t you complain when he writes “Alex Ferguson” rather than “Sir Alex Ferguson”?)

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  15. I have not been on the fire Osorio bandwagon, but if RBNY does not win this series, I think his time is up. If a full strength team from New York can not beat W. Connection, that has to be the last straw.

    Igor, where did you see the story on Cooper going to 1860?

    R.I.P. Bobby Robson. One of the great managers in the history of the game.

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  16. I thought I saw Gooch get taken off in 75th minute with Milan up 1-0. I may be wrong though cuz the link I was watching was in Portuguese.

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  17. christopher — you’re right about the defense. pacheco is a joke.
    the red bulls defense is anchored by kevin goldthwaite. KEVIN GOLDTHWAITE. terrible. if there was one thing i was hoping to improve from last year it was the defense.

    instead, they gave up some of the best players in parke and van den bergh and signed crappy players like khano and oduro.

    sometimes i wish they had open tryouts (like that marky mark movie) so we could get some weekend warriors on the field.

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  18. Now we know the answer! All this time our players have been trying to score by shooting at goal when they should really be trying to hit the defenders! With this new strategy, I’m guessing they run the table.

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  19. Red Bulls defense still looks too much like the Keystone Cops. Constantly colliding with each other while missing the ball. Obster could finally be the player to fill Vandenberg’s shoes on the left. Made some good runs and decent crosses.

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  20. Very sad about Sir Bobby Robson. 19 years of cancer battling, a true warrior. RIP

    Cised to hear Eddie dressed for their first meaningful game of the season. Here’s hoping he can hit a good stride this year. He has two quality strikers to learn from, in Zamora and Andy Johnson.

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