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New York Red Bulls at FC Dallas: My Running Commentary

Fc_dallas_logo_2 Red_bulls_logo

With Juan Pablo Angel at home and not on this trip, the Red Bulls will be revealing a new strike tandem of Jozy Altidore and Oscar Echeverry. More importantly for the Red Bulls will be whether the club’s defense can handle FC Dallas’ dangerous attack.

You could see a new formation tonight from the Red Bulls as Juan Carlos Osorio could toy with a 4-3-3, with hopes of pressuring the wings and forcing Dallas to defend rather than sitting back and letting the Hoops attack.

I have posted the lineup, as well as the 4-3-3 formation you could see tonight and I will be doing a running commentary so please feel free to follow along here. Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

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FINAL- FC Dallas 2, Red Bulls 0. Two mistakes, two goals allowed and the Red Bulls attack sputters without Juan Pablo Angel. That’s pretty much it.

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88th minute- Wow, Magee with a wide-open look and he hits it softly at the goalkeeper.

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87th minute- Reyna with a shot and misses by inches.

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84th minute- Since there’s not much to be happy about here for Red Bulls fans, here is something to consider. Here’s what the lineup will look like when healthy:

——————Angel———–Altidore———–

————————–Reyna———————-

Van Den Bergh——————————Richards

————————Stammler———————-

Goldthwaite——Innes—–Parke———-Freeman

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82nd minute- Wow, Wolyniec almost finds a goal, but just misses wide right. That would have made things interesting. Nice turn and shot by Wolyniec.

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78th minute- I don’t see the Red Bulls finding one goal, let alone two.

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78th minute- Pitchkolan for Toja.

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71st minute- Wolyniec in for Echeverry and Saragosa for Rocha.

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70th minute- This is going to be a long 20 minutes. Look for Wolyniec to come in for Echeverry.

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64th minute- GOAL FC DALLAS. Kenny Cooper torches Chris Leitch and runs onto a perfectly-timed ball.

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63rd minute- Alvarez has been the best player on the field.

Magee for Ubiparipovic. It had to be done. Now we’ll see if the attack picks up.

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60th minute- No, Lider Marmol is not from Peru. He’s from Paraguay. Oh, and the Fire don’t own his rights, they own the first discovery claim on him. There is a difference. Marmol can, and probably will, sign somewhere else in the world.

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55th minute- Not sure what move Osorio can make as far as subs. Magee might help, perhaps for Ubiparipovic.

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53rd minute- Echeverry with an ugly foul and gets a yellow card.

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52nd minute- Considering the players missing for the Red Bulls, it hasn’t been a bad performance. Here is who is missing:

  • Juan Pablo Angel
  • Dane Richards
  • Hunter Freeman
  • Jeff Parke

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46th minute- And we’re back.

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HALFTIME- For the Dema Kovalenko fans out there, Kovalenko has assisted on both goals in RSL’s 2-0 lead vs. D.C. United tonight.

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HALFTIME- I know the questions about Leitch over Mendes will arise but that lineup decision boiled down to Osorio believe Leitch was quicker and a better passer than Mendes. Will Osorio go with Mendes at halftime?

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HALFTIME- Other than two ugly defensive lapses by Chris Leitch, the Red Bulls played FC Dallas pretty even and probably had more of the ball. Claudio Reyna has been the best Red Bull on the field and Borman, Echeverry and Van Den Bergh have looked good.

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47th minute- Great corner by Van Den Bergh and Goldthwaite almost gets a head to it.

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46th minute- Red Bulls need to start getting the ball to the feet of Echeverry and Altidore. Too many crosses going high.

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41st minute- I know it isn’t much consolation but after the FC Dallas goal the game has been pretty even.

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39th minute- Borman is doing some good things (when he’s not crossing it to nobody). If the Red Bulls score it will come on a Borman assist.

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37th minute- Echeverry schools Serioux but can’t get his shot on goal. Nice moves though.

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34th minute- Somebody should probably tell the MSG guys that Guppy napalmed all bridges with Juan Carlos Osorio during Osorio’s move to RBNY from Chicago.

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33rd minute- Love the Guppy to New York speculation. WILL NOT HAPPEN.

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32nd minute- Just when I give Borman some props he skies a cross into the stands.

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31st minute- Borman has settled in and is starting to look pretty good.

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26th minute- I like what I’ve seen from Echeverry so far. He’s looked pretty good.

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25th minute- The Red Bulls are getting chances to cross but the crosses are floating and not sharp enough.

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24th minute- I wonder if we see Carlos Mendes as a halftime sub.

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22nd minute- BIG SAVE by Jon Conway, who stops Alvarez on a one-on-one. Chris Leitch is struggling tonight.

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18th minute- Altidore and Duilio Davino are going to have a battle tonight and I see the kid beating the old man at least once.

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16th minute- Red Bulls getting into a good rhythm, with Reyna getting more involved here.

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14th minute- Potential penalty on Altidore not called. Interesting decision. Altidore looks lively tonight.

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13th minute- Juan Toja has been relatively quiet so far.

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10th minute- The Red Bulls are going to need Danleigh Borman to step up tonight.

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9th minute- Sala is a solid goalkeeper, don’t see him letting up any soft ones.

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7th minute- Sorry Shep but that was a giveaway by Stammler. The pass was right to him.

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6th minute- That sound you just heard was Chris Innes’ phone ringing.

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5th minute- Still waiting for a Red Bulls chance to come.

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3rd minute- Chris Leitch beaten on the goal, which came off a floating cross from Rocha.

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2nd minute- Just 50 seconds in and Alvarez heads home a Rocha cross.

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1st minute- GOAL FC DALLAS. Arturo Alvarez. Wow, that was fast.

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PRE-GAME- MSG just showed this formation:

——————Echeverry———-Altidore—————-

—————————–Reyna—————————-

–Borman—————Stammler———Ubiparipovic—-

Van Den Bergh–Goldthwaite—–Leitch———-Sassano

—————————–Conway—————————

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PRE-GAME- The Drew Moor-Oscar Echeverry match will be an interesting one. As anyone who saw USA-Mexico can tell you, Moor is more a centerback than fullback. Echeverry’s shiftiness and strength on the ball will create problems for Moor.

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PRE-GAME- On a big field like Pizza Hut Park has, using fullbacks who can get forwards along with a three-forward alignment could expose an FC Dallas defense that is pretty slow.

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PRE-GAME- Kenny Cooper is a tough mark, to be sure, but Goldthwaite will be assigned to slowing him down, while Leitch will try to keep tabs on Alvarez. I’m sure that last sentence would have brought Red Bulls fans to tears in pre-season but the fact remains that both players played very well last week and might be poised for turnaround seasons.

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PRE-GAME- So what is the biggest concern for the Red Bulls? Keeping tabs on Alvarez, who floats quite a bit. He will be the key for FC Dallas tonight.

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PRE-GAME- What should be noted about FC Dallas is that while Alvarez is dangerous on the wings he normally floats wide from a forward position. Wagner and McCarty are the Hoops’ wingers and neither is what you call dangerous on the flank. They will have to do some defending tonight because Van Den Bergh and Sassano will be getting forward A LOT.

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PRE-GAME- So why is Borman getting the start after his shaky 45 minutes last week? Osorio has confidence in him being able to create problems for Serioux, who won’t be able to handle his speed. I would also like to point out that I recall seeing Borman struggle in a pre-season game but follow it up with a strong showing, so he’s a rookie who has ups and downs like you’d expect, but when he’s on, think a left-sided speedster with a good cross.

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PRE-GAME- Here is how the teams will lineup against each other:

—————————–Sala——————————

Serioux——————–Davino——————–Moor

Borman——————-Altidore—————-Echeverry

——————-Richetti———–Rocha——————

———Wagner—————————-McCarty———

—————————–Reyna—————————-

—————————–Toja————————–

—————-Stammler———Ubiparipovic————

———————Cooper——-Alvarez——————–

Van Den Bergh–Goldthwaite—–Leitch———-Sassano

—————————–Conway—————————

PRE-GAME- So why no Mendes? I really think Osorio is concerned about Mendes ability to play out of the back.

I also know there are concerns among fans about the Goldthwaite-Leitch tandem in central defense, but what needs to be remembered is that despite how big Kenny Cooper is, he isn’t really good in the air. He plays to feet far more and is quick for his size. Goldthwaite and Leitch give the Red Bulls speed in central defense and the ability to play quickly out of the back.

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PRE-GAME- Here is FC Dallas lineup and likely formation:

—————Cooper——-Alvarez—————-

———————–Toja————————–

Wagner————————————–McCarty

—————-Richetti—Rocha———————

Serioux————-Davino——————–Moor

———————–Sala——————————

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PRE-GAME- So why this formation? If you notice, all four defenders are good with the ball and Van Den Bergh and Sassano can both attack down the flanks. Reyna, Stammler and Ubiparipovic will look to keep the central midfield compact with the plan being to shut down Hoops playmaker Juan Toja.

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PRE-GAME- Here’s the Red Bulls bench: Subs: Paterson-Sewell, mendes, palacio, megaloudis, magee, mesa, wolyniec

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PRE-GAME- Here’s the Red Bulls lineup, and Don’t be surprised to see the Red Bulls formation look more like this:

Borman——————-Altidore—————-Echeverry

—————————–Reyna—————————-

—————–Stammler———Ubiparipovic————

Van Den Bergh–Goldthwaite—–Leitch———-Sassano

—————————–Conway—————————

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PRE-GAME-The lineup isn’t out yet but look for some variation of this:

————–Altidore————Echeverry————–

————————–Reyna—————————-

Magee——————————————–Sassano

————————-Stammler————————-

Van Den Bergh–Goldthwaite—Mendes———-Leitch

————————–Conway—————————

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Comments

  1. Steve,

    its better to look like crap and win 1-0

    than look like crap losing 2-0.

    You guys make injury excuses,

    Fire were without Rolfe, Cj Brown, Brandon Priduex.

    Reply
  2. I don’t think Borman is a waist of space, work rate is high when the team used him in the first half, he made some good crosses. With more game time he will get better, already an improvement on the last game. Throughout the game forwards lacked composure and accuracy up front. Second half they seldom used their flanks , mostly sent the ball down the middle to Aldore. I also think the team is too predictable, all high crosses which was not useful since the tall goalie just plucked it out of their air. Could have given Borman occasional corners so that van der Bergh could give height in box, creating more scoring opportunity. There play is also focussed around a few idividual players eg Reyna, Aldore eg. every time van der berg got ball at leftback, pumped it forward hoping for Reyna, or Aldore even though Borman was open, far better to work ball through midfield using flanks to cross. Red bulls must trust all players and work as a unit. Borman, Aldore, Orch, could also occasionally switch position just to make there attack less predictable. lastly the backs need to be more organised at the back, i thought rookie Sassano had a good first game at the back, although in the first half, he was not used constructively.

    Overall had most of the posession, a pity that the score does not reflect it.

    Reply
  3. Lets not kid ourselves,

    2-0 is still an Butt whippin.

    The only 2 players impressive from the missing list are Angel and Richards. Jozy will either be in the Olympics,overseas

    or both.

    Every team has injuries so not a good excuse.

    Osorio teams are not impressive when playing from behind. Look back at last yr when his Fire teams were scored on first.

    Reply
  4. But wait I guess I shouldn’t criticize, bulls lost on the road but fire got a huge, dominant road win in expansion San Jose, 1-0 while looking like shite giving up opportunities to San Jose’s potent offense

    Reply
  5. Jokerman, you are a f*cking idiot. Osorio left cuz Chad Barrett is a starting forward in Chicago… wait til we see who does what in playoffs

    Reply
  6. kpugs: “I wish we could play Columbus every week. This is pathetic.”

    You realize that The Crew just hung 4 goals on the reigning GK of the Year, right?

    They had an off night last week. But right now they’re on 6 points, with 6 goals, and a pretty good win over Chivas, who had nearly as many red cards (2) as goals (3).

    Reply
  7. Haha, well that was a bad performance by the Red Bulls, but not at all unexpected. In all honesty, its not a big deal, its a road loss and we’ll be just fine if we can win at home.

    I did find Shep Messing’s comments to be completely off the mark and borderline idiotic. It was funny to me that he started off before the game telling fans that they need to be patient with Osorio and then the team delivered this nonsense. Well Shep, who was right? I also found his appraisals of Danleigh Borman and Oscar Echeverry to be completely wrong.

    Borman was atrocious. The good news is that he does have the physical abilities to eventually develop (hopefully) into a servicable left wing. His technical abilities are awful, he’s poor 1v1 and he struggles to deliver a decent cross into the box. Almost every time he was off the mark.

    Echeverry on the other hand, was pretty good and has potential to settle in nicely. I think he got very frustrated at how bad his teaming was playing and how he had to pull back into the midfield to get the ball at all. But 1v1 he’s good and wins his fair share of battles. He did make the wrong decision on the one play in the second half that he should have first timed at goal (making a terrible cross/pass, I don’t know what the hell it was, instead), but he also had a nice move and shot in the first half.

    I’m not surprised the team lost because they effectively played a 4-5-1 and only had Altidore as a credible goal threat, but gave him practically ZERO service from either wing or the middle. No one should expect Altidore to perform miracles and take the whole team on his back, it just ain’t gonna happen.

    The takeaways from this match are:

    1. We need to have wings and someone in the attacking mid position who can both deliver good passes to the forwards into the box and be a threat on goal themselves. Osorio, please move mountains to get Rojas, because watching Borman all season will be painful. Reyna wasn’t completely bad at the A-mid role, but he is no Gallardo, DeRo or Christian Gomez. Thankfully we have Richards coming back in June and actually, I think Echeverry can also play the right wing role.

    2. We need real centerbacks. Leitch and Goldthwaite? HAHAHAHA. Not stopping anyone. Parke is good, Mendes should get more playing time (that situation is confusing) and hopefully Innes is good and gets signed. Perhaps Brunner will also be good when he gets back, although he may play outside left back. The outside backs weren’t the huge problem, but weren’t particularly good either, lets be realistic. Having Hunter Freeman come back will be good.

    So we’re coming back full circle to what the team needs: a left wing, a left back or left-footed centerback (or even just better centerbacks), and an attacking mid.

    Osorio, please stop pulling our chains and get this done.

    I’m surprised Dallas didn’t beat us 6-0. They got lazy.

    Reply
  8. Another note that JCO must have written down: “should have stayed in Chicago.” Let me paraphrase Roy Keane here:

    “If a manager doesn’t want to come to Chicago then all well and good. But if he decides he doesn’t want to come because his wife wants to go shopping in New York, then it’s a sad state of affairs. It’s not a football move, it’s a lifestyle move. It tells me the manager is weak and his wife runs his life.”

    Hoo haw!

    Reply
  9. A few thoughts:

    1) JCO must really hate Mendes to not play him tonight.

    2) I expect, based on this, if Innis is even semi-competent in the reserve game, he’ll be signed by Tuesday.

    3) Borman had a horrible second half

    4) Leitch was awful. Still, not his fault. Why did JCO play him there???

    5) Goldie wasn’t that bad & neither was reyna. People like to beat on them but the Phenom was worse.

    6) Etch was awful but Jozy, the Phenom, was much worse. He probably didn’t even need to shower after this one. He wasn’t moving at all. He was very nonchalant out there. Keep that up & the only way you get to Europe this summer is to pull a Youri & buy a ticket to match when you should be with the team.

    7) Woly was the best forward out there, which is sad.

    8) Sassano seems pretty servicable

    9) Creative play is needed in the midfield. Rojas anyone?

    10) Note to Metro – It is okay to shoot. You’re not obligated to make one last bad pass. Got that, Oscar???

    11) Dear God, I hope Guppy isn’t on his way back.

    12)Thirteen years..a lot of bad soccer. This was 1997-esque.

    Reply
  10. The Red Bulls had difficulty in the final third. Hopefully they’ll spend time on finishing this week. Juan Pablo can’t come back soon enough.

    The Red Bulls clearly need a center attacking midfielder. How that has dropped from the priority list is beyond me.

    It’s tough for Goldthwaite and Leitch to play as outside backs let alone as starting center backs. They clearly were beat several times as they were last year when playing on the outside. Parke can’t come back soon enough. Does Mendes continue to struggle that much that he can’t even serve as a backup to Parke??? How is Innes looking???

    With the money left over after CAM and CB signings, let’s find a left midfielder.

    On a positive note, the team is passing much better under Osorio.

    Reply
  11. Nick, if we had more salary room available, no doubt we would throw it away by giving has-beens or never-weres way too much money. See Reyna, Claudio.

    This organization needs to slowly and ruthlessly replace every piece of dead weight on the roster. How many players did we put on the field who would start on any other team in the league? Altidore, and….

    Horrible, and the fact that Osorio didn’t do a thing to upgrade our squad in the off-season– and in fact cut Kovalenko, who has been playing well for his new club– should enrage any real fan.

    Reply
  12. unrelated news

    Mexico FF reveals Mourinho approach

    tribalfooball.com – April 12, 2008

    Mexico Football Federation president Justino Compean has revealed that Jose Mourinho and Marcello Lippi are battling to become their new coach.

    Compean confirmed that Mexican Football Federation general secretary Decio de Maria will speak with the two currently unemployed coaches about the position following the dismissal of Hugo Sanchez late last month.

    “De Maria will fly out next weekend to interview them,” said Compean.

    “We have appointments with Scolari and Lippi and we are also looking to meet Mourinho.

    “We want to know firstly if they are interested in working here.”

    Jesus Ramirez has taken over as Mexico coach on an interim basis following the departure of Sanchez, who was dismissed after the Mexican U-23 squad failed to qualify for the Olympics.

    “We know that none of them will be cheap, but money it is not an obstacle,” Compean added.

    “No matter how much it will cost, we want a winner.”

    Reply
  13. The only notes Osorio needs to write down on his pad are “LEITCH SUCKS”. Unbelievable.

    Ives you were spot on about Borman, looked like a totally different player and I thought he was great.

    I don’t know how we could play so well and so terribly at the same time. Innes can’t get here fast enough.

    Reply
  14. Nick, you do realize the Red Bulls are missing four starters. Angel, Richards, Freeman and Parke. No kidding there are some players on the field who shouldn’t, there is a reason for that.

    Now get off your, “I want this league to be better” high horse.

    Reply
  15. Nick, what are you talking about? The Red Bulls have been putting heavy pressure on the past 15 minutes. The finishes haven’t come but the effort is there. RELAX.

    Reply
  16. kpugs –

    I watch MLS year in and year out, throughout the season. I don’t know what’s wrong with me pointing out the simple fact that some of these “players” have no business getting paid to play soccer. I want this league to succeed and I want it to be entertaining. I’ll continue watching and going to games regardless. I don’t see the problem with pointing out that it still has a long way to go and that raising the caps is probably one of many steps that needs to be taken ASAP to move the league forward.

    Reply
  17. usually when teams are losing they try to play with some pace and initiative

    the Red Bulls walk around slowly, giving the ball away

    Reply
  18. Nick I am also desperate for a salary-cap raise. Not be negative, but another bummer was seeing the attendance at the Revs, Crew, and KC games today. All 8 or 9K I believe.

    Reply

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