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New England Revolution at Red Bulls: SBI Running Commentary

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Good evening folks. It is a clear day at Giants Stadium as we head toward tonight’s I-95 clash between the New England Revolution and the New York Red Bulls.

The Red Bulls are looking to rebound from last week’s 2-0 loss to FC Dallas while the New England Revolution will look to erase its own memories of a recent loss, its 1-0 defeat at home against Colorado.

The Revs have owned this series in recent years and head into tonight’s match as the heavy favorites.

I will be doing a running commentary as well as some pre-match and post-match analysis. If you plan on following the match, please feel free to follow the match here. Share your thoughts and opinions below.

Enjoy the action:

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FINAL– Red Bulls 1, Revolution 1. A pretty disappointing result for the Red Bulls, who outplayed New England in the first half, then had a man advantage in the second half with a lead and still couldn’t find a second goal. The foul call that gave the Revs their free kick goal looked extremely suspect and I will look to see it again before passing final judgment, but from the looks I saw, it appeared as if Cristman wasn’t even touched.

(ON THE REPLAY of the foul that led to the REvs goal it was Chris Leitch with the foul, clipping Cristman at the penalty arc. Terrible place to commit a foul. Legit call and legit equalizer for the Revs.

Either way, the Red Bulls had a man advantage and couldn’t use it to their advantage. For that, this tie is a disappointment.

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93rd minute– Wolyniec MISSES by inches wide right. What a late chance. That was probably it.

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91st minute– Borman draws a foul on Igwe, good spot for a free kick for the Red Bulls

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89th minute– Altidore with another shot on goal, but Reis stops it. Nobody else is coming up with any ideas.

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87th minute– Salazar blows a call, gives a goal kick instead of a corner. The Red Bulls are running out of time.

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84th minute– Wells Thompson in for Khano Smith. This late speed for the Revs could cause problems. Between Thompson and Dube, the Revs have some fresh speedsters out there.

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81st minute– The Red Bulls look out of ideas and this is looking like a tie, if they are lucky and avoid any late mistakes.

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79th minute– Wolyniec gets his head on another cross, but the shot goes right to Reis. He’s been solid since coming in.

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77th minute– Mike Magee is coming in for Claudio Reyna. Dube in for Mansally.

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72nd minute– Sassano for Leitch is a sub Osorio has to think about here. If not Sassano, then Echeverry.

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71st minute– Altidore with a SHOT, but it’s blocked by Reis.

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71st minute– The Revs are now in a 4-4-1, with Hilgenbrink at left back and Igwe at right back.

I wonder if and when we see Oscar Echeverry in this match.

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70th minute– 12,047 is the attendance tonight.

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68th minute– The Revs are ready to go defensive, bringing in Chase Hilgenbrink for Adam Cristman.

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64th minute– Wolyniec misses high after receiving a good cross from Borman.

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60th minute– I have to believe the Revs will be looking for the draw now.

Danleigh Borman will be coming in for Ubiparipovic. Look for Van Den Bergh to slide into central midfield, with Borman manning the left flank.

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59th minute– Mendes with a needless turnover and bad foul.

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56th minute– GOAL REVS. Jeff Larentowicz with a free kick that blasts past the wall. REvs 1, Red Bulls 1. And let me repeat, what an AWFUL call against the Red Bulls.

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55th minute– Ricardo Salazar with a phantom foul call that gives the Revs a dangerous free kick.

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50th minute– Goldthwaite did get a yellow card for the Castro altercation.

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49th minute– Goldthwaite knocks Castro down and stands over him, Castro kicks out and kicks Goldthwaite in the rear, sending him forward. Goldthwaite steps on Castro’s ankle in the process before Castrol goes straight for the Lou Rawls.

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48th minute– Mauricio Castro RED CARD. Castro kicks Kevin Goldthwaite in the jewels and gets sent off.

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HALFTIME– Angel re-aggravated his right hamstring injury.

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HALFTIME– So what do the Revs need to do differently? Building through central midfield would help, getting balls to Nyassi, who can take on Van Den Bergh with speed, and just moving in general would help. They were doing some of these things early on but not for the final 25-30 minutes of the first half.

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HALFTIME– Juan Pablo Angel is coming out of the match. John Wolyniec will replace him. Angel has been nursing a hamstring injury.

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HALFTIME- Red Bulls 1, Revs 0. The game started slowly for both sides but the Red Bulls started to take control after about 25 minutes before Altidore finished off a beautiful run with a 17-yard blast to give the Red Bulls the lead.

The Revs have struggled to get going in the final third and have been too content to settle for long balls and crosses in. Adam Cristman and Kenny Mansally are starving for service and need Castro to start creating.

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44th minute– Van Den Bergh with another poor touch. I think we’ll be seeing Danleigh Borman in the second half.

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41st minute– I have to say that the fact that Jon Conway hasn’t had a save to make yet is pretty impressive for the Red Bulls team defense.

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39th minute– The Red Bulls have officially taken control back in central midfield. The Revs can’t get anything going in there and I haven’t heard a peep from Castro in about 20 minutes.

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38th minute– Wow, Ubiparipovic with a beautiful run into the penalty area but hits his shot like me after 10 shots of Jaeger, right at Reis. Promising stuff though.

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37th minute– Van Den Bergh has been off with his crosses all night. He might want to keep dribbling.

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36th minute– In case I didn’t mention it before, the Revs fans are here and are in very good voice. They’re stuck in a mezzanine so I can’t see them all from the press box but I can definitely hear them.

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35th minute– Nice work by Goldthwaite to stop a Revs attack with a perfect tackle on Nyassi.

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33rd minute– Altidore and Joseph get into a minor scuffle. A bit surprising there but Altidore isn’t backing down from the veteran.

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31st minute– Altidore gets the ball near midfield, beats Larentowicz AND Igwe before blasting one from 17 yards out past Matt Reis.

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30th minute- GOAL RED BULLS. JOZY ALTIDORE WITH A BEAUTY!!!! WoW.

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29th minute– One area the Red Bulls think they can exploit is corners and free kicks. The Revs defense is pretty small and somewhat vulnerable on set plays.

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28th minute– Goldthwaite sends a flashing header high over the crossbar.

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27th minute– Red Bulls on the move again, another build-up that ends with Altidore having a shot blocked for a corner.

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25th minute– Red Bulls with another nice build-up.

And I’m calling it now. Nyassi is going to burn the Red Bulls, who are giving him too much space on the wing.

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24th minute– Altidore torches Igwe but Parkhurst is there to slow him down. First decent attacking move by the Red Bulls tonight.

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23rd minute– The Revs are starting to push things through the middle and the Red Bulls can’t handle the speed. The back three has done well to thwart some buildups but the Revs are starting to get some good build-ups.

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21st minute– Mendes gives up an unnecessary corner kick.

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19th minute– The Red Bulls are looking to work the flanks and almost look they’ve conceded the middle of the field to the Revs.

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18th minute– With Nyassi posing so much of a threat on the right flank, Van Den Bergh is sitting deep enough for the Red Bulls to look like they’re in a 4-4-2.

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16th minute– New england is knocking the ball around with ease right now and nearly found a goal with a long-range blast.

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12th minute– Still waiting to see the Red Bulls maintain some semblance of possession.

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10th minute– The Revs speedsters haven’t had a chance to show off their pass yet.

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9th minute– yellow card to Sinisa Ubiparipovic for a foul on Mauricio Castro.

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7th minute– The Revs have had more possession early on but have yet to get a productive possession in the final third.

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2nd minute–  And we’re off here at Giants stadium.

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PRE-GAME– A decent-sized crowd tonight. Still looking for the Revs contingent.

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PRE-GAME– Carlos Mendes makes his first start of the season and I think at least part of the reason for that is because the Red Bulls aren’t too concerned about New England attacking with anybody but Smith on their left flank. Mendes can deal with Smith when Leitch is trying to sneak forward, but look for Leitch and Smith to spend a lot of time together.

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PRE-GAME- The best news for the Red Bulls today is the fact that Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore will play together for the first time tonight. That tandem isn’t a good match-up for the Revs, which has trouble with them because Michael Parkhurst is going to wind up needing help from either the midfield or fullbacks. Look for Jeff Larentowicz or Shalrie Joseph to spend a lot of time sitting very deep, in what will almost resemble a 4-4-2 at times.

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PRE-GAME– The best match-ups to watch here include Shalrie Joseph-Claudio Reyna, Jeff Parke-Adam Cristman and Kevin Goldthwaite-Kenny Mansally. It will also be interesting to see how Dave Van Den Bergh deals with the speed of Nyassi on the wing.

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PRE-GAME– Here is how the team’s will match up:

——————–Conway———————–

Goldthwaite——–Parke————-Mendes

————-Cristman—–Mansally————–

————-Stammler—Ubiparipovic———

Nyassi————-Castro————– Smith

VDB—————Reyna————–Leitch

———-Larentowicz—–Joseph————–

————–Angel—–Altidore————–

Igwe—————Parkhurst————-Heaps

———————-Reis———————–

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PRE-GAME– Yes, this game is on MSG AND HDNet.

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PRE-GAME– And yes, you did read that right. Chris Leitch will be starting at right midfield. He and Khano Smith have had some good battles in the past, battles Leitch has fared well in. That match-up will be an interesting one to watch.

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PRE-GAME– Here is the Revs’ starting lineup and formation:

———–Cristman—–Mansally————–

Smith—————Castro————–Nyassi

———-Larentowicz—–Joseph————–

Igwe—————Parkhurst————-Heaps

———————-Reis———————–

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PRE-GAME- Here is the Red Bulls starting lineup and formation:

————–Angel—–Altidore————–

VDB—————Reyna————–Leitch

————-Stammler—Ubiparipovic———

Goldthwaite——–Parke————-Mendes

——————–Conway———————–

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Comments

  1. Yeah, I definitely agree with the playmaker comment. As far as I’m concerned, for the money that Reyna is getting, the Red Bulls could easily sign one truly outstanding midfielder or perhaps even two very solid ones.

    Reyna just no longer has it–and I regret to say that because I used to love watching the guy play.

    Reply
  2. Not a lot of good to take away– we have little depth, and little creative play. It’s usually unfair to pick out one player for criticism after a game like this, but Chris Leitch really does not belong at this level. We clearly need defensive help– probably two defenders, honestly– and a playmaker, merely to be able to finish in the 3rd or 4th in the east spot where we were the last couple years.

    We’re absolutely worse this year than we were last year. And most other teams have improved, some quite a lot, so that complicates things more. Any optimism that I can muster about the fact that we supposedly will be bringing in a couple more players this year is annihilated by the fact that JCO has demonstrated that he cannot get players signed.

    Reply
  3. I don’t know if a healthy Reyna is a positive. He looked sluggish and uninspired, losing a lot of balls (as has been his M.O. for the Red Bulls). Then again, who would really make a difference replacing him?

    Reply
  4. Reyna did have his right knee attended to during the second half, but could not tell the significance (if any) with the knee.

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  5. Yawn… hopefully one of the next two games tonight has a little bit more excitement. It could be the fact that the telecast of this game was lacking that “something” that grabs you.

    Reply
  6. Since when did Altidore decide he was a big tough guy? I like him when he plays hard and physical, but he needs to lose all the whiny antics.

    Reply
  7. I don’t know if Ives saw the replay, but the call was legitimate. The NYRB player (Mendes?) clearly clipped Cristman from behind as he was about to take a shot.

    Reply
  8. On the NE free kick, Leitch jumps out of the wall and Conway gets beaten on his nearside by Larentowicz’s well-placed shot. Pathetic (the Leitch/Conway errors).

    Reply
  9. yes, ref, scramble, scramble to pull the game back into control after you have let it go so far astray. given, castro is an idiot and made a terrible choise, its just painful to see a good player put in a position where he feels he has to break the rules or continue to be taken advantage of. i am done watching this game.

    Reply
  10. “you are a ten year old girl” was directed at the complaining poster, Ives.

    I completely agreed with your assessment of that shot.

    Reply
  11. Fair point guys, I should have said U-6 girl, Nobody objected to that last year when I used it to describe Dane Richards.

    Reply
  12. just disgusting, its like a stagnant pool of blue jerseys. MOVEMENT OFF THE BALL. and whether the ref knows it or not, he has lost controll of the game. altidore running his mouth like its going out of style. i dont care how nasty he can shoot the ball, he cant do anything if a confident ref cards him for his repeated infringements. hes running his mouth like hes gona lose it, and hes not the only one who realizes he can say/do whatever he wants and get away with it.

    Reply
  13. “…like a ten-year old girl.” I have seen many 10 year old girls who can strike a soccer ball with power and accuracy. SBI can do better than comments like that one.

    Reply
  14. i have watched a game on mlslive.tv the quality is not that good, i dont know if it was just that one game or not. But I’d rather find one for free.

    Reply
  15. It’s great to see Angel and Altidore finally playing together this season. Don’t know what to think about Leitch on the right, but i’m feeling cautiously optomistic about this match.

    Reply
  16. I didn’t see how what I wrote might be taken. I meant that it is on television on msg, and that i found that out on their website.

    Reply
  17. Is there anything special you need to watch the game on MSG website? Or will a link just pop up once it hits game time?

    Reply
  18. Is there any way to watch this game for free on the Internet? I have TVU but I don’t think it’s available on there?

    Reply

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