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Shipp’s hat-trick leads Fire past Red Bulls in nine-goal thriller

Harrison Shipp

By IVES GALARCEP

When the New York Red Bulls took a 2-1 lead into halftime of Saturday’s match against the Chicago Fire, there was a sense it might not be enough to hold off a Fire team playing with the look of a team determined to win its first game of the year.

It wasn’t enough. Not by a long shot.

The Fire stormed out in the second half and scored four unanswered goals, led by Harrison Shipp, who scored a hat-trick on the same night he scored his first professional goal. The Red Bulls made things interesting with two goals to make the score 5-4, but couldn’t find an equalizer as the Fire held on for a wild victory at Red Bull Arena on Saturday night.

Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his second hat-trick in less than a month for the Red Bulls, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Fire from recording their first win of 2014.

The Fire dismantled the Red Bulls defense in the second 45, with Shipp proving too quick for the home team to handle. After Quincy Amarikwa scored a 49th-minute equalizer, Shipp slipped a shot through the legs of Jamison Olave for his second goal in the 53rd minute. He then toasted Kosuke Kimura just five minutes later to make the score 4-2.

When Patrick Nyarko latched onto a Shipp pass and finished off Chicago’s fifth goal of the night in the 64th minute, the match seemed out of reach for the Red Bulls, but the home team had one more surge left and Wright-Phillips made things interesting with two more goals.

Shipp started the goal-fest in controversial fashion, when he sent in a cross toward goal that slipped past Luis Robles for the 1-0 lead. Replays showed Fire forward Mike Magee interfering with Robles on the play, but referee Kevin Stott deemed Magee to be in a passive offside option, a decision that left Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke exasperated after the match.

The Red Bulls responded right away to that goal, equalizing just two minutes later when Tim Cahill headed home an Eric Alexander cross.

Wright-Phillips gave the Red Bulls their only lead of the night in the 39th minute when he finished off a Thierry Henry pass to send the Red Bulls into the locker room with the lead at halftime.

Little did they know just how things would change in the second half.

The victory snapped a season-opening eight match winless streak for the Fire, while it also handed the Red Bulls their first home loss of the season.

Here are the match highlights:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4G0vqIRIM]

Comments

  1. Offside on the first goal was a horrible non-call. Before anyone says he’s didn’t touch the ball, he doesn’t have to…just impact the play, which he did on Robles. Ref shouldn’t be allowed back for awhile

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    • The rule was changed last year…he does have to touch the ball or screen the GK’s vision. Magee did neither. The goalie did not focus on the ball because he was distracted. That’s his fault.New rule…correct call.

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  2. Awful of officiating on the Fire goal. Robles had a stinker. Is BWP for real,…Henry seems to enjoy playing with him. Alexander should start every game. Armando is bordering on useless,….dreaming that NYRB had paid Tim Ream a nice salary to stick around.

    BTW – contrary to a number of misguided posts, it was an excellent crowd.

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  3. I think RB seriously should reconsider signing a quality DP CB or RB. We can create pretty descent chances and maybe wait on signing that mysterious CAM, but we are really getting exploited by unforced errors. For some reason, I’m starting to feel nervous everytime the other team is near goal. Not a good sign.

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    • Absolutely. This team doesn’t have any problems scoring goals and creating chances. A DP center back is exactly what they need. Sure, it might be nice to have a creative midfielder but center back is a far greater need. I don’t know who might be available, just as long as it’s not Carlos Puyol. I’ve heard that rumor but that dude was done about 3 years ago.

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  4. that first goal was absolutely actively offside; i really have no idea what the ref was thinking.

    was evened out by the henry penalty, though. it’s ridiculous to think that a defender should be called for a foul just because he doesn’t know the player in front of him will suddenly stop running to the ball. at that point, henry wasn’t even going for ball.

    not trying to argue the letter of the law, here; just don’t like seeing it, especially with a player (henry) who should be good enough to play the ball.

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  5. Not mad to lose like this. Chicago can thank Football Jesus for his blessings on a few of those goals. RBA was rocking, and Wright Phillips is a stud. First chicago goal should have come back as offiside.

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  6. Olave just looked off tonight. Even missed a couple easy headers or might have bagged a brace. This team relies so much on him that when he has an off night, they’re done. Robles and Kimura were also bad. They looked great offensively, though. BWP might be the real deal and Henry was passing very well. Titi’s finishing, though, seems to have fled him this season as he missed a sitter to tie the match late. He’s missed a bunch of those this season, though his passing has been superb. Very exciting match, great crowd. The only downside to the viewing experience was having to listen to Shep Messing. That guy doesn’t even watch the match. He just babbles about his pet peeves over and over even if they have only a tangential relationship to what’s happening in the match. Should Armando have gotten right up instead of calling for the foul? Yes. Did he have any remote chance of getting back into the play? No. Shipp is a real talent but the kid is so small.

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    • Geez, with the way Kimura, Armando and even Robles played, picking on Olave seems a bit strange, especially when he spent the last half hour of the match playing well up the field on the right side. Even had a few nice exchanges with Sam.

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      • Indeed. Each of the players you mentioned made a ridiculous mistake that led directly to a goal. Then there was that call by the linesman on the first goal. Did he really think Magee did not figure in the goal? If so, it’s the worst call of the year so far.

      • The rule was changed on passive offside. In order to “interfere” the player has to actually touch the ball or screen the GK’s vision (not merely distract him). According to the new rule the ref made the correct call.

    • Should be a higher scoring sport, it’s not that hard to score. Defense is just a convention. Can you believe Jeff L. dictated this game?! wtf

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    • might depend on whether you’re watching in person or on tv. live, i can see it being exciting just because of the crowd. but yeah, i agree with you, i’ve never really liked watching high-scoring games at the expense of competent defending.

      i’m sure it comes down to taste, though; i also don’t think it’s fun playing fifa on the easiest difficulty.

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  7. The crowd was rocking. Bulls played hard to keep it w/n reach. Just didn’t work out thanks to Johnson’s save at the end. This is a fun team to get behind. Come on, 9 goals!!

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  8. Die hard nyrb fan. Season ticket holder in year 1 1996. We’ve come a long way from the time a MetroStars player refused to get on the plane to fly to a game unless he was paid. And yet, even with the supporter’s shield, and millions spent on DPs and millions still available we still can not field a D that can hold a lead. Why?

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  9. Great game to watch. Still too few people in that beautiful stadium. The upper bowl looked like a sea of empty blue seats, and much of the side line seats were empty, as well. They would have done better to build a 20,000 seat stadium, then it wouldn’t look so empty on TV.

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    • LOL. It was a great crowd, and more packed than most MLS games this weekend. Buncha crowd watchers in MLS.

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    • Right, commenting on the size of the crowd without being there negates your opinion. The arena was rocking and the usual late arriving crowd filled it up. Next time you might want to attend a match.

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      • “Filled it up”? You have a strange understanding of that term. That beautiful stadium (which I have been to many times) was not close to being “filled up”, even after the late arriving crowd showed up.

        Still an awesome game. Wish the RBs had 10 more minutes. They would have won it.

    • Pretty good crowd. Horrible stadium location in an area that was never meant to have that many people converge on it means the crowd is always late arriving. Incredibly incompetent food vendors mean people are always stuck waiting for food and therefore late to come back for the second half. Personally I arrive pretty early every game and never try to get food once the game has started. Game wasn’t a sellout but probably had 22 or 23k in a 26k stadium. Sure felt like a lot of people sitting in traffic on the way back to 280. Always feels worse after a loss.

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      • You hit the nail on the head. There are lots of occasions where people can complain about empty seats at RBA, but this wasn’t one of them. Crowd was reported at 23,776 and I’d say that was pretty close to the actual attendance, maybe only 1k who paid for a ticket and then no-showed. My section in the upper deck had maybe a handful of actual empty seats.
        For those of you watching at home, it’s very tough to get a real idea of when that building is crowded or not. The concession lines are truly horrible, definitely the worst of any stadium in the NYC area. I went to Citi Field the day after this match, and it was a night-and-day difference.

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