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Rapids capitalize on Red Bulls errors to post 4th of July win

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By DAN KARELL

Just when it seemed that the New York Red Bulls were on their way back to playing winning soccer, they took another step back.

Taking advantage of a number of errors and miscues by the Red Bulls, the Colorado Rapids scored twice in the second half to earn a 2-0 victory over their Eastern Conference opposition on Thursday night in front of 18,359 fans at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

On a night when the Red Bulls looked flat and Colorado had the look of a team riding high after their impressive win in Montreal, the match played out as expected, with the Rapids once again beating New York at home, in what has become a bit of a tradition.

Four days after positive performance at home in a 2-0 outcome against the Houston Dynamo, the Red Bulls had a letdown in the altitude of Commerce City, Colorado. Tim Cahill hardly saw the ball, and at times Thierry Henry had to drop back all the way to the defensive line just to start an attack moving forward.

The damage began in the 47th minute, when Dillon Powers hit an out-swinging corner kick for the Rapids. After Cahill won the initial header, the ball pinged inside the box, eventually being blocked by Red Bulls defender Markus Holgersson on the line. Holgersson’s block careened straight to the Rapids’ Nathan Sturgis, who finished into the roof of the net to give his side the lead.

Second-half substitute Deshorn Brown nearly doubled the lead a few minutes later, only for Red Bulls defender Jamison Olave to come to the rescue. Try as they might, the Red Bulls never looked certain to score, and Brown finally got his goal in the 68th minute. Red Bulls midfielder Dax McCarty turned the ball over to Rapids left back Chris Klute, who sent in a pass across the face of goal that Brown turned in from close range.

Needing a goal, Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke sent on Lloyd Sam and Peguy Luyindula to try and spark the side, but it came to no avail, as the Red Bulls slumped to their seventh loss of the season.

Here are the match highlights:

Comments

  1. Firstly the Rapids deserved the W simply because the RB had 0 energy and kept giving the ball away .It’s 1 thing to defend but you gotta hold possesion? The biggest culprit..seeing nobody else will say it.. Sorry but it was our faithful $5MM captain..Henry?? He was simply awlful, tired and for every cute clever pass he made he messed up badly on 2 more …period Anyone keeping stats I bet he clearly messed up 65 -to 70% of the time?

    Now Dax was really at fault for the 2nd off side goal butat the end of the day the RB really offered 0

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  2. This game was exactly what I was talking about here yesterday regarding Petke’s mishandling of Juninho. Lack of offensive creativity and distribution in the middle, poor distribution all around, no sustained possession, McCarty making bad giveaways, Cahill not being in the area enough, lack of service to Henry, etc. Juninho, had he been used right and not sacrificed for two mediocre wingers and an unnecessarily defensive formation, could have helped solve these problems. As I said, this will remain a frustrating and inconsistent side until they get someone to run the offense in the middle of the field.

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  3. It’s pretty clear at this point that Rapids fans like fireworks more than their team, otherwise you’d see crowds like this for non-4th-of-July games.

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    • Rapids have sold out three of the last four games. Of course they do well on the 4th of July game – I’m sure most teams do – but attendance is trending upwards.

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  4. The Red Bulls need to clear out the dead wood, and badly. Hate to say it but the DP’s really only have helped make the Red Bulls thin and inconsistent.

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    • I’m expecting some moves this summer. Otherwise, this team is just too flawed to go anywhere.

      With Juninho’s salary available plus the third DP slot they have the flexibility to add some pieces. They certainly could use a winger, a fullback and some depth in central defense probably in that order. Also I heard they get some kind of salary cap relief because Pearce is out for the season. Anyone know if that’s true?

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  5. Rapids def deserved the win. They dominated the whole match. That being said, it was a pathetic showing by NYRB. They showed zero energy, ball watched as an entire team on the first goal and had a boneheaded turnover by Dax on the second which was carlos clearly offsides.

    Petke may be learning on the job, but I’m not seeing progress here and it’s time for him to start taking some heat. He made no adjustments at the half and his first sub was to take out Conor Lade who was the ONLY player showing energy all match. It seemed as if he planned out his subs before the match and that was just dumb, especially since you are a goal down and he has been the only guy on your team showing initiative in getting forward.

    Powers, Sturgis, Thomas, Labrocca and Harris completely outworked Dax, Cahill, Steele and Alexander. I hear some pundits calling for Dax to be on the MNT radar but I think he’s quietly had a very poor season compared to last. He has gotten outworked in several games this year which never happened last season, and that turnover was awful. There’s no reason to be playing around with the ball in that area of the pitch. Get rid of it. He’s had a number of these turnovers this season.

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    • Oh yeah definitely lackluster on NY’s part. No question. But definitely as you say the Rapids dominated the match throughout. Stats bear that out, too.

      Now to see if they can do it yet again in just 3 days’ time…

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