The Chicago Fire isn’t a team that sits back and counters on the road. Chicago’s approach is to attack and attack against home teams that aren’t used to that sort of aggressiveness from visitors on the road.
The Red Bulls certainly didn’t look like they were ready to deal with the Fire’s attack, which dominated play through most of the first half. A 1-0 halftime deficit gave the Red Bulls the false hope that they could still turn things around, but a second-half barrage erased those hopes and revealed just how flawed the 2008 Red Bulls still are.
Chicago’s 5-1 demolition of the Red Bulls pushes the Fire into a three-way tie for first place in the East with New England and Columbus as it approaches some well-earned rest and a bye week. The Red Bulls must recover, figure out what went wrong, and find a way to go to Houston and win.
The problems for the Red Bulls were all there to see on Sunday. They don’t have a playmaker, a dangerous left winger, a reliable left back or a stalwart central defender. The collective has played above its head through the season’s first seven matches, but Chicago succeeded in exposing all the team’s flaws.
The Fire also happens to be built perfectly to beat the Red Bulls. With Gonzalo Segares capable of neutralizing Dane Richards and the central defense tandem of Wilman Conde and Bakary Soumare boasting the athleticism, size and strength to contend with Red Bull strikers Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore, it was tough to see the Red Bulls ever really threatening the Fire back-line.
The actual goal barrage by Chicago had more to do with the Red Bulls own failings than their own potency. Yes, the Fire boasts one of the league’s most dynamic attacks, but far more of Chicago’s goals on Sunday came courtesy of awful defensive breakdowns than from beautiful sequences by the Fire.
Juan Carlos Osorio might have been guilty of tinkering a bit too much on Sunday. His decision to start Carlos Mendes in central midfield for, as far as I know, the first time in his career, was truly mind-numbing and a testament to the limited options afforded to Osorio. Starting a career central defender and rookie in central midfield against a player like Cuauhtemoc Blanco should have been considered insane if not for the fact that the Red Bulls just don’t have any other good options.
Would Jozy Altidore, Seth Stammler and Dave Van Den Bergh made a difference today if all had been able to start? Very possibly, but even if all three played it wouldn’t resolve the shaky defending we saw today.
The Fire did to the Red Bulls what it did to D.C. at RFK Stadium and New England at Gillette Stadium, simply overpower them with a collective tenacity, speed and skill that overwhelmed them all. Now if Chicago could play like that at Toyota Park we could basically pencil the FIre in as MLS Cup favorites. The Fire will accept the Road Warriors label for now, but will need to start delivering these type of dominating performances at home eventually.
What did you think of today’s match? Which players stood out? Which players stunk up the joint? Share your thoughts below
Not too long ago I was involved in a discussion about Toronto and NYRB. I was telling everyone that I didn’t understand how so many NYRB fans thought NYRB was going to do well at all with their current roster. I also said I thought Toronto would likely end up being better than NYRB. I said this because so many NYRB fans were making fun of how bad they thought Toronto were and I honestly couldn’t see how NYRB was really any better than Toronto. Needless to say I was mocked pretty severely. Well, I’ll say it again. Toronto IS better than NYRB. I’m not a big fan of JCO but to just blame him seems pretty silly. NYRB does NOT have a good team and the players they have are overrated by NYRB fans. I keep saying the defense is a total joke and all I hear is people saying their defense is pretty good or not that bad. All NYRB has is a front line. If JCO should be fired for anything it should be for not improving this obviously weak team and acting like his current team is just fine. I’m just not so sure that’s all his doing. People were getting on Toronto something fierce for not signing anyone and just getting rid of players too, but at least they finally realized they had to get some players and got it done. As far as I’m concerned NYRB up until just recently has been overachieving. For crying out loud, sign some decent players or trade JPA and Altidore to someone who can actually support them.
@ Posted by: Mark | May 25, 2008 at 07:03 PM
You said “Lastly” twice. Just an observation.
GOOOOOOOOOOOO FIRE!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe this was Osorio’s way of saying “sorry I screwed you guys over.”
Just finished watching the game thanks to my DVR. I really want to like the Red Bulls, but this effort was so painful to watch. There was no midfield play…lots of long balls. The defensive marking was amateurish…how many of the Fire goals were scored by guys who were wide open. This game is what happens when you don’t hustle. I sure hope Red Bull starts building the team for the opening of the new park.
also just wondering, it looked like some of the fire supporters in the 2nd level had some banner with arabic or persian or something. is there a player or coach that was meant for? or is my vision just gone and it was english
The Energy Drinks were by far the worst team I have watched play in a very long time. They couldnt make a pass to eachother, couldnt mark any players and gave up on a 50/50 ball that turned into a goal (Barrett). Blanco was open the whole match and when that happens only good things will happen for us. Conde is proving that he should be on the pitch with Bakary in the middle.
Claudia “little things” Reyna is a selfish twit; crippling the team with his DP status, and salary. Why is it that the fans know immediately when the starting line ups are announced that we are going to be run over with Sassano and Mendes in central midfield, but the RB coaching staff thinks this is in fact a good thing?
There were several groans and “oh no not mendes” from the soccer moms around me, even they knew it was a bad idea.
Bigsoccer is down for maintenance and upgrading. It’ll be back tomorrow morning.
I bet Conde’s not in a hurry to go to RBNY now!
Heeeeeeeeeeeey FIRE GOOOOOOO!!!!!
All I have to say is this: blame JCO all you want, but RBNY has had 11 coaches and the only hardware it has is the LaManga Cup – heck, they’ve only made it to one domestic final in 2003. Eventually you have to stop blaming the coaches & the players for the failure of this team & start blaming the people who actually run the team. Until then – the continuing saga of failure for RBNY will continue.
First, this matched showed how “thin” NY is. A small loss of form leads to team collapse.
Second, Van der Bergh is clearly a much needed player for red Bull.
Third, thanks Randolph ” cannot navigate out of the Bigsoccer Shop. Someone needs to get on this pronto.”
Until you wrote that I was wondering if some weird trojan had infected my computer
Wasn’t at the game, as my son was playing with his team at the Manalapan Soccer Tournament. His team got whacked in their first game today 5-1. How appropriate that the Red Bulls decide to play defense like an U11 team and get whacked themselves at home. On the bright side, we got an autograph from Chris Megaloudis at the tournament yesterday. Yeah, keep dreaming that Reyna is the answer at Creative Midfielder, JCO. And that Boyens and Goldy are top notch defenders. Yeah, and were gonna win the league by lofting balls into the box from the left and from the right to our lone striker. Yep, I can see it now.
Wow so todays game was embaressing for two reasons. 1 because the red bulls decided not to show up today and play any defense, and 2,because more people were at giants stadium today just for blanco than for the red bulls or chicago fire (there was alot of yellow Club America shirts in the crowd) and they couldnt care less about the game, it was just if blanco could do a nice dribble or score (which he did so i guess they are happy…)and adding injury to insult i got sunburnt lol.
Red Bull would have kept possesion better with VDB and Stammler in the game, taking pressure off the defense; Altidore on the bench and the formation were both head scratchers for me. That said, Chicago deserved the result, and maybe even a bit more than that. I’m thoroughly impressed with them, the most I’ve been by any MLS team I’ve watched this season.
Still, it’s early in the season, and I can’t bother getting too worked up about the result (no matter how horrible). We started 5-2-1 last season through the same number of games. Make the playoffs, and then it’s a whole different matter.
The transfer window can’t come soon enough for the Red Bulls, and while people are rightfully skeptical, I’m giving JCO the benefit of the doubt about his ability to bring in some quality to the squad.
I hate to say I told ya so…but I TOLD YOU SO!! We stink.
if those rumors out there have any truth to it…just imagine this chicago line up with mcbride up top
Bottom line, no matter what line-up they use, this team isn’t a good team. That’s probably not earth-shattering news, but from what I’ve seen this year, this result was bound to happen sooner or later. To think Van den Bergh or Stammler would have made much of a difference is to miss the point. This team needs major upgrades that most likely aren’t gonna happen. Face it, we see it every year with this outfit. Change the coach, change the name of the team, change the uniform, change the whole freakin’ team every season, and we still have the bottom line: this team isn’t good.
Let me say I am a die-hard RB fan. I even had season tickets in year one, 1996. But man, Ives is right – we have a lot of holes. Way to many to fill this season to even think we have a shot at the cup. We’ll be lucky to get to the playoffs. Freeman got beat twice that I saw for goals. Great team need depth – we don’t have it. Great teams need a great starting 11 with a few stars (we have) and great role players (we have a few, but not enough.) We’ll have to see who JCO brings in during the sumnmer transfer and well as in the off-season sicne we get Reyna’s allocation to play with, right? It’s frustrating. Ives said it best; “…we don’t have a playmaker, a dangerous left winger, a reliable left back or a stalwart central defender.” And I doubt we will before next season. It’s just sad…but I’ll keep watching…
Steve…I never meant that Kassel was the answer. I was just referring to another JCO blunder which this game was all about!!!
Yeah, Matt Kassel’s the answer. Good one. Keep kidding yourselves.
Man, that was fun.
It’s the same argument that us Fire fans posted all over this board back in March when Ives’ and the rest of Red Bull nation was proposing trades for Conde. There wasn’t equal value for Conde, on your roster.
Other than JPA and Jozy there’s nothing there which explains why multiple good coaches are failing. Blame coaches all you want but your players are crap.
See you at TP in September and October. Hopefully, we’ll have figured out how to play at home like we do on the road by the then and we can sign your death warrant for 2008, or maybe even clinch the Supporters Shield against ya…..
…….cuz the Fire are top of the league!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Memorial Day!!!!!
I don’t think Samare will be invited to Jozy’s and Angel’s “Put Us In, Coach!” Memorial Day party.
I’m watching the game for a second time now. Not only was NYRB outplayed, outhustled and outmuscled, the referee gave them a chance by NOT calling the pk for Blanco in the first half. I was stunned the ref gave the Chi the pk in the second half because the game was near blowout status at that point.
JCO as well as Agoos also let the possibility of a creative mid-fielder in Matt Kassel, remain on the academy team when they should have given him the GA contract so that he could have developed and possibly contributed as a senior player. Yeah great…he’s in Chicago scoring and assisting in goals with the academy team. Way to go JCO!!!
I got the shop page on Big soccer as well.
I don’t blame Osorio for tinkering, I blame him for not getting the players we need; I blame him for saying that Reyna can be our CAM; I blame him for even thinking that McGee can also be a CAM; I blame him for not seeing this disaster on the way. For crying out loud, we let a promosing player go to sign a defensive reject of Toronto.
This team doesn’t have the class to represent a USL city, much less the greatest market in the country.
I wonder, are poeple (I’m looking at you Ives) still defending Claudio “little things” Reyna? Not that he is the only problem, but nothing we saw today was a surprised. This team can not run a play from their box to the opponents box. It’s all long balls or nothing.
Van Den Bergh wasn’t benched today; he was serving a red-card suspension from last week, but I agree that Mendes starting today as a mid was retarded. Altidore needed to start.
I was one of those who were pissed when JCO left the Fire for the Red Bulls. Now im pissed at the principle of it but not so sad to see JCO go. The Fire had basically the same personnel as last year but their offense is much more expolisve this year. Under JCO 1 goal a game was about the average. He sacrifices offense for defense to a fault. With the great strikers the Reds have, an additional attacking midfielder or left winger would have made a bigger difference than Conde or Marmol may have. Yea your defense needs work but work with what you DO have…two great strikers.
He also continues the very odd playing discisions he displayed in Chicag…IE sticking with Wanchope, starting Mendes, benching Jozy and Van Den Berg..
Also, no one in the league micromanages or outhinks himslef in the league like JCO.
To JCO, like they say out east,
HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES!!??
RBNY lost the game by playing without heart. They did not even try to control the midfield. There was very weak distribution. They don’t seem to want to reward the fans for sticking by them at all. You don’t give up against a rival at home. It is unforgivable. RBNY needs a major attitude makeover.
Again, JCO screwed things up by making it more difficult than it needed to be.KEEP IT SIMPLE JCO, and things could improve. It looks like Chicago did what they set out to do…make “The Professor” look like a dunce.
Typical Ives, you blame the loss on your team and don’t give credit to the Fire. I expected as much. You need to learn to be objective. I heard every possible excuse you could use. Get it together.
As I walked to my seat and looked up at the screens and saw the 4-5-1 lineup, I was immediately worried. Everything went wrong today. Mendes is not a midfielder, Richards and Borman displayed no touch or decent crosses today, Altidore should have been starting w/ JPA up front, VanDenBergh was sorely missed, and so was Stammler, as Sassano has looked shaky the last 2 matches after a great game at LA. What is it going to take for us to get a decent center D to put next to Parke if we’re going to play a flat back 4? Are we ever going to sign an attacking mid w/ some creativity and pace?
A second consecutive 5-1 Sunday afternoon rout?
The team didn’t even try to play. This isn’t on JCO. 5-1 isn’t about tactics.
Another thing:
JCO and the team should publicly apologize to the fans for their failures.
The only people who deserve respect are the ESC who sang the whole time like RBNY was winning the game. The ESC deserves much, much more than the absolute HORSES**T that was on display today.
I cannot navigate out of the Bigsoccer Shop. Someone needs to get on this pronto.
What you wrote in the Running Commentary truly said it all:
“If anything, today’s result provides a very clear illustration of the Red Bulls many needs. They need a playmaker, a central defender and left back. The playmaker and central defender being the most pressing needs..”
And this has been said since day f**kin one!! And what do we have? A lame a$$ defender in Andrew Boyens and an injured forward in Echeverry. There is no excuse for this BS!!!!
If anyone from Red Bulls Front Office is reading this, I will buy a case of Red Bull each week if you force Claudio Reyna to retire and cut those other two fools and with that money, force JCO to sign exactly what the team NEEDS!! Since all you care about is beverage sales, I’ll buy the beverage if you get rid of the crap on the team and sign quality players!!!
This is the kind of performance that in major soccer countries gets coaches fired and players cut. It was an embarrassing, pathetic debacle.
To make things worse, I think Conde had a magnificent match.
This is the kind of performance that in major soccer countries gets coaches fired and players cut. It was an embarrassing, pathetic debacle.
To make things worse, I think Conde had a magnificent match.
I’m actually a big fan of Osorio’s, and think so far he’s done a great job with what he’s been given – but how he set up this game totally lost me.
The best players/options were not on the field until almost the 60th minute, and that’s just plain dumb.
This is one of those games where, as a Chicago fan, one has to remember that the season is long and the way is winding.
But DAH-YUM, the Fire were on it today. And it’s not hard to make an argument, even at this point, for this as one of the deepest teams in MLS history. If Marmol plays the way we all expect him to … sorry, I keep drifting off into daydreams.
As to Red Bull, disappointing to say the least for them. Why Osorio insists on leaving Altidore on the bench to start the game is beyond me, and seems like classic outsmarting-yourself behavior. And I don’t see one rock-solid MLS level defender on the roster. That’s a problem that tactics have a hard time hiding.
ps
players to build a team around of the existing lot:
JPA, Richards, Borman, VDB, Parke, Goldy.
(assuming Altidore is gone ASAP)
the rest are expendable.
the best defense for NYRB, with the team they have, is offenseoffenseoffense.
the 4-5-1 is absurd.
deals need to be made.
Meantime, this is the best option:
_____Altidore_JPA__________
Borman______VDB____Richards
___________Reyna____________
Goldy_Parke_Stammler_Freeman
________Conway______________
Sal, I was about to ask the same question about BigSoccer. Know you’re not alone.
The other thing that pissed me off is that there was a nice sized crowd today, and Red Bull goes and lays an egg when there were a ton of soccer fans there who wanted to see Blanco. Maybe with a better performance they would have gotten some of these people to come back for a game or two. Yet another lost opportunity…
Agree with Dirty Jerz and Ives. JCO tinkered too much today. But it also serves as a wake-up call, cause when the team is not playing with intensity and as a unit, they are simply not that good. JPA is a great striker, but unless there is someone to can get him the ball in dangeous positions there isn’t a lot he can do. And why not start Magee and Altidore in this game? I know Jozy had some toe problems, but he looked fine while playing. And why start Mendez in midfield? The reason he doesn’t play him in the back is because he can’t pass well out of the back, so he starts him in midefield? Makes no sense. JCO should call Clint Mathis’ agent cause he’d actually look pretty good as the attacking midfielder in a 3-5-2 on this team with Reyna and Stammler behind him. Or give John O’Brien a call and get him off the beach and in for a try out. Can’t hurt. There has to be someone who wouldn’t cost much to be a stop gap guy in that position until the summer transfer window.
Lastly, I don’t usually whine about the officiating, but it was just awful today. The linesman on my side of the field blew at least 3-4 offsides calls against Red Bull. I’m also not sold that that was a PK, but I didn’t have the best angle for that. Having said that, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, cause I’ll give Chicago credit, they played really well today.
Lastly, nice work to the Fire fans to make the trip. Way to support your team, but I do have the say, the Toronto, New England and DC travelling fans have a lot more spirit. Not meant to be an insult, just an observation.
A major difference was in the play of Chicago’s DP vs. the NYRB’s DP’s (especially the pitiful Reyna). Reyna was barely an average to below average player on the field, certainly no where near DP material. What an idiotic DP signing. Meanwhile, as in almost everygame, Blanco provided the extra touch and class (soccer skills wise, not his incessant whining) that put his teamd in a position to score. That’s what you want out of your DP!
From the perspective of someone who is not a Red Bull fan or a Fire fan, I have two observations.
First, I watched this game on Telefutura. I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but that was not a major impediment. After all, when the announcer spends as much time shouting “GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!” as this announcer did, there isn’t much lost in translation. Pathetic performance by the Red Bull defense.
Second, after a second consecutive 5-1 Sunday afternoon rout, can we expect Osorio’s head on a platter by mid-week???
WTF is going on with bigsoccer.com?
Anyone else getting the shop page no matter what link you try?
Anyways, I agree with your assessment Ives. This game said more about the Red Bulls than it did the Fire. I could not believe how terrible the backline played for NY today. 7 or 8 goals was seriously a possibility.
That has got to get sorted.
Pathetic. There are days when the breaks don’t go your way, when the other team is simply in the collective zone, and even great teams might simply get blown out. I’ve seen it happen to Chicago Bulls teams that featured Michael Jordan.
But there’s simply no excuse for that ridiculously lazy marking that resulted in three of Chicago’s goals (both of Barrett’s goals, and Rolfe’s). If you get beat, it happens, but at least try to earn your paycheck!!!! They’d better get this sorted out, and fast.
This is completely on JCO. He busts out the 4-5-1 again, with Mendes as a d-mid. We haven’t looked good once at 4-5-1, and we didn’t again.
And after a 1st half where we shouldve been down 2 or 3, no changes until it was too late.
We have the best two strikers in the league, but JCO refuses to play them up top. He continually forces Reyna to play A-mid, when he’s a holding mid. If you don’t think Magee is a good enough a-mid, then guess what, get a better one. When we were finally in a 3-5-2, we played much better.