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CONCACAF Champions League: Red Bulls vs. W Connection (Match Night Commentary)

New York Red Bulls - JPEG WConnectionLogo

What is left of the New York Red Bulls dismal season will either survive or perish tonight when the Red Bulls take on W Connection in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League series (8pm, Fox Soccer Channel)   .

The task is simple. If the Red Bulls win or tie by a goal or less, they advance to the group stage of the Champions League. A loss or tie of 3-3 or more means the Red Bulls' Champions League is over, as is the club's MLS season.

The Red Bulls have already received some bad news heading into tonight's match. Leading scorer Juan Pablo Angel is out after having suffered a concussion in the first leg.

I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

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FINAL– W Connection fans are having a party here. They're celebrating in the front row, serenading their fans. It's an impressive sight to be sure. Who knew there were so many W Connection fans? Then again, it's New York, every team in the world has fans here.

The Trinidadians deserve the credit. They played a great game, were disciplined defensively when it counted and created chances.

The Red Bulls? Started well, looked good early, but then morphed back into the terrible team we've seen all year. The Red Bulls fans who came out tonight deserve credit, and they deserve a better team than they've had this year. 

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FINAL– W Connection 2, Red Bulls 1. The Red Bulls are eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League. I'm not sure why we expected anything different. It's just been that kind of year. 

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93rd Minute- Mbuta with a swing and a miss from a few feet away. WOW.

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93rd Minute- Two minutes left.

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91st Minute- Red Bulls will have enough time for a few good chances. DO they have a goal in them?

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91st Minute- Five minutes of stoppage time.

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90th Minute- Stoppage time remaining. How much?

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89th Minute- Hughton Hector with a great look. Mike Petke saved the day with the block.

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88th Minute- WOW, W Connection with a great chance and its blocked. Nice moves.

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87th Minute- Three minutes left.

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85th Minute- CONCACAF Cramps are kicking in for W Connection. Time wasting at its best.

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82nd Minute- Eight minutes left in the Red Bulls' season (well, their non-MLS season).

Mbuta looks VERY dangerous.

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80th Minute- Mbuta with a nice run and shot but it goes right at the keeper.

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79th Minute- Eleven minutes left and Matt Mbuta is about to be the last sub, coming in for Kevin Goldthwaite.

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74th Minute- Oebster and Richards have swapped sides. Oebster is on the right wing now, Richards on the left.

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72nd Minute- Celades with a look from 23 yards out but sends it well wide. Good look and he needs to do better with that shot.

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71st Minute- Tonight's attendance is 6,549. I think that number is the total number of teeth in attendance.

WC corner kick.

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69th Minute- W Connection showing much better skill and organization than in the first leg. The Red Bulls are going to have a tough time cracking this back-line.

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66th Minute- yellow card for Goldthwaite. He's lucky he didn't get a red card earlier so he won't complain.

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64th Minute- Loose ball falls to Oebster and he can't get a shot on goal from close. Red Bulls season in a nutshell.

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62nd Minute- Celades with a BLAST but it's saved by Phillip.

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61st Minute- Red Bulls corner.

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59th Minute- Dangerous ball in from Richards but nobody can get to it before the WC keeper finally grabs it.

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56th Minute- Stammler JUST wide, with a close range shot. Can't get it on frame off a loose ball in the area.

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55th Minute- Sinisa Ubiparipovic is in for Jorge Rojas, who limped off. What is up with Nick Zimmerman?

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54th Minute- W Connection comes close with a chance but the shot is weak at Cepero. Nearly a Toussaint hat-trick.

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51st Minute- Not much from the Red Bulls attack yet this half. They look a bit dazed right now.

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48th Minute- SAVE CEPERO. Long shot from WC forces a corner kick.

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47th minute– We're back. 

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HALFTIME– Danleigh Borman has come in for Alfredo Pacheco. the Salvadorean defender hadn't done a thing all day and lolligagged on WC's first goal. 

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HALFTIME– Those wondering when Juan Carlos Osorio would be fired will get their answer tonight because if the Red Bulls lose this series Red Bulls is very likely to pull the plug on Osorio and have a new coach in place by the team's Aug. 15th match vs. Chivas USA.

Will the Red Bulls step up and save their coach? There isn't much reason to believe they will. 

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HALFTIME– So what do the Red Bulls do now? They just need to keep moving the ball like they did early in the first half. They can create chances on W Connection, but the defense can't cough up bad blunders like they did giving up two goals in the final five minutes of the half.

Subs? Nick Zimmerman needs to be in this match. Take out Dane Richards and insert Zimmerman. 

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HALFTIME– The Red Bulls Under-20 team is being honored at halftime for winning the Super-20 North American League championship. I'm convinced this group of kids could probably do better than the current Red Bulls. 

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HALFTIME– An unforgiveable blunder from Goldthwaite gifts W Connection a second goal and now the Red Bulls are in a hole with 45 minutes left in their season. 

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45th Minute- GOAL W CONNECTION!!!!! And it's Toussaint again off an AWFUL Kevin Goldthwaite turnover. W Connection 2, Red Bulls 1. WOW.

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45th Minute- That W Connection goal drew plenty of applause from a good number of W Connection fans in attendance.

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44th Minute- Another defensive breakdown downs the Red Bulls in the final five minutes of a half. Just mind-boggling.

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40th Minute- GOAL W CONNECTION!!! And it's Andre Toussaint, beating Seth Stammler before finishing to equalize. It's 1-1 now.

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37th Minute

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34th Minute- I like what I'm seeing from Ernst Oebster. He's an active and quick lefty with nice touch and good ideas.

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32nd Minute- Rojas comes so close off a GREAT ball from Jeremy Hall. Nice save from the WC goalkeeper.

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25th Minute- Some Keystone Kops defending from W Connection. I think the goalkeeper met his defenders just before the game for the first time.

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24th Minute- W Connection is starting to foul hard and lose some composure. Wolyniec looks poised to add a second goal. Nice signs of life from this Red Bulls team.

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20th Minute- Great pass in from Rojas and Wolyniec with the well-struck left-footed shot.

W Connection with a yellow card. Who knew the ref had cards?

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19th Minute- GOAL RED BULLS!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's John Wolyniec with a great finish off a give-and-go between Jorge Rojas and Ernst Oebster. Red Bulls 1, W Connection 0.

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18th Minute- Talk about a drastic difference in referees. The first-leg referee would give a yellow card for sneezing on somebody, while tonight's ref would let you get away with anything short of stabbing someone.

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15th Minute- Wolyniec header just over. Good look but can't get it on frame. Nice ball in for Celades.

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14th Minute- The W Connection goalkeeper looks a bit shaky. If RB can get some shots on him we could be in for an adventure.

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13th Minute- Red Bulls corner kick.

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12th Minute- Rojas with a free kick skied over the crossbar.

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9th Minute- Drinking games are definitely needed tonight. Here are some:

Dane Richards turnovers

Alfredo Pacheco miscues

John Wolyniec shots on goal

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6th Minute- Richards shows off some speed but falls down looking for a call.

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3rd Minute- Slightly fewer fans here tonight than the last soccer game here.

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1st Minute- W Connection with a shot on goal just 20 seconds in. Cepero saves easily.

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1st Minute- And we're off. There may be 750 people here. ESC is represented well though.

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PRE-GAME– For those of you wondering, Mac Kandji is out with a hamstring injury. 

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PRE-GAME– So here's a question. Does Red Bull as a company want its team to win tonight? Think about this. If the team wins tonight, or wins the series, that means three more home games and three more likely net losses. Okay, so I doubt Red Bull wants the team to lose tonight, but the club could lose half a million over the course of three matches.  

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PRE-GAME– Red Bulls team doctor Riley Williams just had a mini-press conference to discuss Angel's concussion. It turns out Angel suffered that concussion in the first minute of the first leg but played the rest of the match with it after doctors on sight decided he was okay to continue. Angel complained of light-headedness after returning to New York and a thorough exam earlier today revealed a grade two concussion. Angel is out at least a week, which means he could be back in time for the team's next MLS match, against Chivas USA on Aug. 15th.

Angel's concussion certainly puts the header he sent toward his own net into a different perspective.

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PRE-GAME– Some good news for the Red Bulls. Dominican striker Jonathan Farias is out for W Connection. You might remember the hamstring injury he suffered in the first leg.

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PRE-GAME– Here is the Red Bulls lineup:

——————–John Wolyniec——————-

———————-Jorge Rojas——————–

Ernst Oebster————————-Dane Richards

———-Albert Celades——Seth Stammler——

Alfredo Pacheco————————-Jeremy Hall

———Kevin Goldthwaite—–Mike Petke———

————————Danny Cepero—————–

BENCH– Coundoul, Boyens, Sassano, Ubiparipovic, Mbuta, Borman, Zimmerman

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PRE-GAME– So what happened to Angel? I'm hearing that he suffered a concussion early in the first leg. You might recall the play in the penalty area where he went down and stayed down for a bit. It looks as though he took a blow to the head on that play. Given Angel's previous history with concussions (he suffered one in the 2007 MLS playoffs) the club couldn't risk playing him tonight. 

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PRE-GAME– The teams have taken the field to warm up and now there are more players than fans in the stadium.

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PRE-GAME- The Red Bulls should be able to win today, but not having Angel is a big blow.

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PRE-GAME– Can't say I'm surprised that nobody's here. This is all W Connection's fault for not traveling better (kidding).

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PRE-GAME– When I say there aren't many people here, I mean I could probably list what every fan here is wearing and it might take 10 minutes. Seriously, this could wind up being the worst attended game in club history. 

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Comments

  1. why bother with an interim coach? why buy out Osorio’s salary, if the season is over anyway? doesn’t make much sense…

    Reply
  2. “With a new arena coming on line, and I might be wrong for using common sense…”
    Posted by: Kyle Feller | August 05, 2009 at 09:14 PM

    Someone is a w-i-s-e-a-s-s….geez.

    My thinking was if they were supposedly close to making a change a few weeks back they may just do it tomorrow. Then throw an interim tag on someone and not have to rush to appoint someone full-time since the season is over anyway.

    Reply
  3. Let me guess:

    Osorio: “I….think…..that…..we…..done…did….very….well….in the….I…..speak….like….my….team….play….er….plays…..playing.”

    Reply
  4. How did Goldthwaite not get a red earlier? That was the worst thing I’ve seen from an MLS player since Ricardo Clark kicked Carlos Ruiz as he lay on the ground. It was like Marquez cleating Howard in Columbus, except his back rather than his thigh.

    Reply
  5. Unfortunately, Osorryo will remain the coach until the season has completed itself.

    With a new arena coming on line, and I might be wrong for using common sense…but with a new arena coming up you’d think Red Bull would like to spend all of their time and resources getting a big bang hire and player in the off season.

    If they throw an interim tag on someone and he wins a few games, they’ll be dumb and give him the full time gig.

    Reply
  6. red bulls are an embarassment…its actually an insult and a slap in the face to the fans to continue to employ JCO…”J.C.O.! You Must Go!”

    Reply
  7. Gasp, you mean to say the Red Bulls gave up a goal in stoppage time. I’m stunned. Seriously.

    What on earth was Goldthwaite thinking? Boot that ball out!

    “You’ll be hearing it from the New York fans here”- whichever announcer just said that, unintentionally hilarious I’m sure, but it made me laugh.

    Reply
  8. Living in New York I cant wait for RBA to open because its near transit.

    Will make it so much easier to go to games. That alone will increase attendance.

    Reply
  9. ‘As a fan of MLS, Red Bull Arena can’t open soon enough.’

    Yeah, because it’s all about where you play.(Insert facepalm here). That’s why there’s so much community in Toronto and Seattle, because of their awesome stadiums.

    Reply
  10. I will say this about Wolyniec, he always looks like he’s trying his hardest out on the field. I’m not a Red bulls fan but he’s always been one of my favorite players on that team.

    Reply
  11. I had hoped to make it tonight, but work and not having my car available made my trip out to GS a non-starter.

    Hopefully the team can stay mentally tough and win this game. Be nice to have some more of these games to attend against more appealing teams. No offense to W Connection.

    Reply
  12. Kandji is still injured if I’m not mistaken. If he was healthy, I expect Richard wouldn’t be starting. Kandji and oebster are the best two wingers for Red Bull right now.

    Reply
  13. That attendence sounds embarassing. I really do hope the Red Bulls feel shame at that. Maybe it will get them to show some heart when they play from now on.

    Reply
  14. —Red bulls reader reported this is the starting line up.

    ——————Wolyniec—————————

    Oebster————————————Richards

    —————Rojas——–Celades—————-

    ————————Stammler——————-

    Pacheco—–Goldthwaite——-Petke——Hall

    ———————Cepero————————

    Reply

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