New York Red Bulls midfielder Dane Richards suffered a right MCL sprain just 11 minutes into the Red Bulls’ 1-0 scrimmage loss to the Red Bull Salzburg reserves on Monday. Team trainer Rick Guter diagnosed the injury as an MCL sprain but stated that the club should know more about the injury on Tuesday.
Richards suffered the injury in what turned out to be a testy and ugly exhibition that bore little resemblence to the kind of match you would expect from two teams with the same owner. Ugly tackles and shoving matches were the order of the day in a exhibition that litte insight into where the Red Bulls stand.
Salzburg midfielder Harald Pichler did the dirty work, sliding recklessly into Richards as both were near the sideline at midfield. The tackle earned Pichler a yellow card. Richards came back on the field after receiving some treatment but was unable to continue.
The match went into halftime scoreless, with the Red Bulls creating the better chances in the first 45 minutes. Both teams made wholesale substitutions, with Salzburg heading home a free kick for the match’s only goal.
I will provide more details on the match shortly.
What de bloodclot?????????
Too bad we traded away Dema Kovalenko. Sounded like they could have used him that day.
Jack Bell had some quotes too: “diving cheats”. http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/day-4-battle-of-the-bulls/
Some great quotes from Reyna in Lewis’ story. Definitely worth a read. I’m absolutely no fan of him based on the opportunity cost of tying up a huge amount of money in a player highly prone to injury, but he was PISSED and that’s the kind of leadership I want from him.
I hope Salzburg comes here in the summer and we send a developmental reserve player on a kamikaze mission to wreck the knee of one of best midfielders.
why would they come out and try and hurt them?
it makes no sense
salzburg just proved themselves a horrible team.
what some ny players had to say: http://www.bigapplesoccer.com/article.php?article_id%3D13220
Ridiculous. This preseason feels like a total clusterf–k so far. We traded a couple draft picks and cash for a coach who is supposed to be a great recruiter of unknown players, and it turns out he already showed his cards to his old employer and can’t identify realistic prospects, but that didn’t stop RB from paying to give unsignable candidates a vacation in Europe. And for this unnecessarily trip to Austria, we’re exposing our projected starters to the risk of serious injury that would cause them to miss the regular season.
The match was played on a grass practice field. It was pretty slippery.
What the hell? Did someone forget to tell the Salzburg reserves that this was a preseason training scrimmage? The Red Bull higher ups should give them a talking to. How can they tolerate one of their teams recklessly injuring the players on another?
Ridiculous. And why did we lose?
This is absolutely horrendous. I agree, Onionsack….what a fuckin’ joke. The purpose of these games is fitness. Do they not understand that in Energy Drink land?
Hopefully the original diagnosis of “sprain” holds true. With a month before the first game, hopefully he wouldn’t miss too much regular season action, if any at all.
And Tim F…if the game was played in Red Bull Arena (RB Salzburg’s home stadium), then yes, it was played on turf. There are apparently some grass practice fields at the training facility though, so who knows where the game was played (well, Ives does).
Ives is this game open to the public in Salzburg. Just wondering if it got any attention over in Austria. I know it is no Beckham love fest, but wondering if there was a turnout.
Damn!! It’s a reserve game people! No need to kill each other!!
Great. Fucking reservists trying to make a name for themsleves.
Wow. Hope Dane is okay and that it is nothing more than a sprain. Was it played on turf?