Top Stories

Houston Dynamo at New York Red Bulls: Matchday

Red_bulls_logo2008_019_2

Good afternoon all. Today is the first match of Western Conference playoff series between the New York Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo (4pm, MSG).

The Red Bulls enter the match as serious underdogs, with three starters out for the year either due to suspension or injury. Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio has shaken up his lineup yet again in the quest to find a group of players he can count on. His foreign trio of Gabriel Cichero, Juan Pietravallo and Jorge Rojas have all struggled badly in recent weeks and have all been benched for this match.

I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please check in here for the latest updates and analysis. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the match (lineups after the jump):

———————–

FINAL– That’s all for now. Be sure to check back in to SBI tonight and tomorrow for complete post-game coverage from the Red Bulls-Dynamo match. Thanks for following along on the commentary.

———————–

FINAL– For those of you wondering, the Red Bulls are 0-2-1 all-time at Robertson Stadium, with losses in the past two visits. Out of those three games, the Red Bulls have managed one goal (scored by none other than Chris Henderson in 2006).

———————–

FINAL– Wolyniec, Sassano and Ubiparipovic were the surprise starts and all three came through with solid performances. Dane Richards was surprisingly quiet today against a team he terrorized the last time out. Dave Van Den Bergh was also kept in check.

———————–

FINAL– Red Bulls 1, Dynamo 1. Kei Kamara scored late to send this series into game tie even. Now the Red Bulls most go to Robertson Stadium and win to win this series.

———————–

90th minute– Two minutes of stoppage time.

———————–

90th minute– Wolyniec with a beautiful turn and shot, but Onstad saves it with a great diving stop

———————–

87th minute– The Dynamo look energized now and the Red Bulls look nervous.

———————–

86th minute– Jimenez couldn’t clear the ball away after Barrett sent in a dangerous cross and Kamara pounces from close range to tie the score. That’s a crushing blow for the Red Bulls.

———————–

85th minute- GOAL HOUSTON!!! Kei Kamara!

———————–

85th minute– Nothing comes from the kick but Houston is pressing right now.

———————–

85th minute– Dynamo corner kick

———————–

84th minute– Cameron in for DeRosario.

———————–

82nd minute– Cepero races off his line to beat Kamara to the ball. Cepero has looked very confident today. Not a bad playoff debut so far.

———————–

80th minute– Can the Red Bulls find a second goal? Will we see Mac Kandji today? I think we should.

———————–

79th minute– Ubiparipovic definitely put in a good day’s work (from a hustle and work rate standpoint).

———————–

77th minute– Pietravallo in for Ubiparipovic. The line is 3-1 on Pietravallo getting a card before full time.

———————–

72nd minute– The attendance is 11,578, or twice as many as New England had for the Revs-Chicago Fire playoff game.

———————–

71st minute– Holden in for Mullan.

———————–

70th minute– Goldthwaite has done well today and Leitch has kept Brad Davis quiet today.

———————–

69th minute– The Red Bulls are holding their own right now and are looking for that second goal. They know a 1-0 lead going into game two isn’t enough to feel comfortable.

———————–

68th minute– It was Kamara for Jaqua.

Richards with some dribbles into the box, but can’t get a good shot off.

———————–

66th minute– DeRosario sends his left-footed shot just wide of the net from about 18.

———————–

64th minute– Kei Kamara looks set to come on. Ching is the likely sub.

———————–

61st minute– WOW, Leitch just sent a shot at goal and missed by inches. That would have been an insane goal from 25.

———————–

58th minute– Angel with a dangerous ball across the goalmouth, but nobody can get to it for the finish.

———————–

57th minute– Wolyniec took a knock but looks ready to come back in.

———————–

56th minute– Houston has settled down and is starting to pressure. Robinson sends a close range shot high.

———————–

53rd minute– Mulrooney clears a Richards shot off the line. Here come the Red Bulls.

———————–

52nd minute– Cepero with a good save on the header.

———————–

49th minute– Wolyniec with the great pass on the goal. Osorio’s decision looks good for now.

———————–

48th minute- GOAL RED BULLS!!!! Angel heads home a Wolyniec ball ins. Red Bulls 1, Dynamo 0

———————–

47th minute– DeRosario with an early test of Cepero and Cepero was up to it.

———————–

HALFTIME– No subs at halftime. We’re about to get under way.

———————–

HALFTIME– We are scoreless. The Red Bulls have shown good fight, but have not looked very dangerously. Diego Jimenez looks pretty shaky out there today and you can bet the Dynamo will be going after him.

———————–

45th minute– Cepero comes up big twice in a minute.

———————–

43rd minute– The Red Bulls have shown toughness and have passed well in midfield, but they haven’t created chances and their defense has looked shaky at times.

———————–

41st minute– Dane Richards sends a wide-open header high off a Wolyniec header pass. What a chance wasted.

———————–

40th minute– This game has gotten very testy and it will be interesting to see if this lights a fire under the Red Bulls.

———————–

38th minute– Angel gets a yellow for a head challenge against Mulrooney. Wow, what a bad call that was. Stott has lost the plot.

———————–

37th minute– Kevin Stott has never been shy about giving out cards, but today it’s as if he left his cards home.

———————–

36th minute– Jaqua headed Boyens on a clash in the air. Looked pretty ugly. Jaqua lucky not to get a card.

———————–

35th minute– We’ve got a fight.

———————–

33rd minute– Dynamo come very close when DeRosario sends a dangerous ball across goal that nobody latches on to. Jimenez started that sequence with a failed slide tackle attempt.

———————–

32nd minute– Houston has its swimming caps on today. A stiff breeze has them on the turf every time.

———————–

30th minute– Yellow cards for Richards and Mullan. Richards got one for fouling Mulrooney. Mullan was carded for confronting Richards.

———————–

29th minute– Jimenez looks like an accident waiting to happen today. Ching looks like a good bet to score today.

———————–

27th minute– Houston has Richard Mulrooney at right back today and he is definitely a more dangerous option going forward than Craig Waibel. He has also done well to keep Van Den Bergh quiet so far.

———————–

25th minute– Neither team has taken control yet. The Red Bulls have moved the ball around, but have yet to really test Onstad.

———————–

17th minute– Jimenez with an awful error, passing it right to DeRosario, but Houston can’t capitalize.

———————–

15th minute– Here comes a Dynamo corner.

———————–

14th minute– For those wondering, John Wolyniec has not scored a goal this year for the senior team, but he has scored eight goals in 12 reserve games.

———————–

13th minute– Houston is picking its spots and showing good patience. They know the pressure is on the Red Bulls.

———————–

12th minute– Sassano just got cleaned out by DeRosario.

———————–

10th minute– Ubiparipovic had a good shot just wide a few minutes ago. He’s looking good early.

———————–

8th minute– Goldthwaite just got cleaned out on a corner kick. He is up.

———————–

7th minute– Dynamo get a good shot but DeRosario’s shot is high.

Robinson gets away with a push on Richards in the box. The corner kick is caught by Onstad.

———————–

5th minute– The Red Bulls look confident early.

———————–

1st minute– We are under way.

———————–

PRE-GAME– Magee is out due to an illness, so maybe he would have been an option in this lineup.

———————–

PRE-GAME– The Red Bulls starting lineup is sure to cause a stir among Red Bulls fans but the decisions to bench Cichero, Pietravallo and Rojas came down to all three players playing very poorly in recent weeks and Osorio not wanting to take a chance on them playing poorly again.

John Wolyniec gets the start ahead of Mac Kandji and Mike Magee, who didn’t make the bench for this one. I thought Kandji should get the start but the Wolyniec move was made to give the Dynamo a physical defender to deal with, as well as a player who has worked well with Angel in the past.

Ubiparipovic got the start in attacking midfield role over Rojas and Magee. Both have been struggling badly recently and Ubiparipovic brings a defensive element to the position that makes him the more attractive option over two attacking players who just haven’t had it down the stretch.

Sassano starts over Pietravallo, who has been a virtual card magnet in recent weeks in defensive midfield. It seemed as though Pietravallo might get the call because of his good track record at home, but Osorio doesn’t want to take the chance. Perhaps the fact that referee Kevin "The Card Machine" Stott is in charge today helped Osorio make this decision.

———————–

PRE-GAME– Here are the lineups:

RED BULLS

—————–Angel———-Wolyniec————–

————————Ubiparipovic——————-

Van Den Bergh——————————–Richards

————————Sassano————————

Goldthwaite—–Jimenez—–Boyens———Leitch

————————–Cepero———————–

BENCH-Boss, Cichero, Kljestan, Pietravallo, Rojas, Roth, Kandji

DYNAMO

—————–Ching———-Jaqua——————

————————DeRosario———————-

Davis——————————————–Mullan

—————————Clark————————–

Barrett——-Robinson——–Boswell——Mulrooney

————————-Onstad————————-

BENCH- Caig, Ianni, Waibel, Ashe, Cameron, Holden, Kamara.

Comments

  1. I was at the game today. Was great to see Woly doing a nice job out there. I thought Sassano played a nice defensive midfield ala Stammler. The officiating was of course horrendous. What I don’t understand was that there was no counter to the substitutions that Houston made! Only Pietrovallo and he contributed very little. Woly was visibly tired about halfway through the second half, after what looked like an ankle sprain and seemed to be playing more of a midfield role. Houston had fresher legs at the end and I think that certainly helped them.

    Certainly a great day by Cepero, he’s a keeper (pun intended), I felt bad for Angel who, as usual, played his heart out all game.

    I was pleased that this was nationally broadcast so the MLS can be fully embarrassed by the way Stott let the game get out of hand with no cards given and then countered with a BS yellow card to one of the classiest players in MLS. He needs to be taken out of the rotation for the playoffs.

    Reply
  2. Steve:

    1. The Pietrovallo sub was stupid, and signaled that we were going to be satisfied at 1-0, and not commit more than two or three men to any attack.

    Houston understood Osorio’s tactics exactly that way, and since they didn’t have to keep players back, their entire midfield was up in our third of the field, and two defenders were past the halfway line. It was no surprise that they started pressuring a lot harder immediately after that sub.

    So: stupid tactics. We should have gone for the win, because we can’t bunker.

    2. “you’re not a real fan anyway”: I’m going to Houston, my friend. I plan on singing my lungs out. I’m not optimistic but I’ll be there for my team. If keeping shtum about what are obvious problems with the way this team is run is the sole definition of being a “real fan” to you, then you’re a jackass.

    Reply
  3. It sucks that we tied but anyone complaining about how the boys played is stupid. And what exactly is “playing for the win”? What should Osorio have done different? Put in Kandji for Wolyniec? I could see that but it wasn’t an automatic, and Woly nearly hit the winner for us at the end.

    We showed a ton of heart tonight and looked much tougher than I could have hoped for. If you assume we’re going to lose in Houston then you’re not a real fan anyway. Go watch hockey.

    Reply
  4. Alex, I agree that fieldturf makes for crappy possession soccer.

    There are many ways to play besides a short passing possession game, though. Truly good teams can win playing different styles, i.e., Barca playing direct when opponents clog the midfield.

    It’s not like Houston is any sort of awesome possession team, though. When Ching is on, there is a lot of long play and wing play to get him involved. Even DeRo plays a lot of direct passes.

    Long ball and direct soccer is affected by fieldturf, especially wet field turf, but of course you don’t expect the ball to move as though it were on grass, and that’s why teams should train on the surface that their next game is on.

    Anyhow, I’m glad that the 2nd leg is still meaningful. We’ll see if Osorio, the alleged tactical expert, can come up with a suitable squad for a game in which the team needs to score goals. If he plans to get to penalties after 120 minutes of scoreless soccer, he should be fired.

    Reply
  5. @Haig

    It isn’t an advantage for the home team over the away team. It does, however, lead to worse quality soccer because neither team can string passes together, and that becomes an advantage when your team isn’t built to pass the ball around to build attack.

    I don’t like watching teams show up trying to make the game choppy, I don’t like watching teams who give the groundskeepers the week off before the CONCACAF match so the field is in bad shape, and I don’t like turf.

    When your team (actually, either of them) can’t trap the ball on a short pass, it makes for a bad soccer game.

    Reply
  6. Ah sheesh, we are in a perpetual state of Hay Dios Mio! Actually, when you are winning 1.0 I would make 0 subs, like they do on the better teams in europe.

    Reply
  7. A horrible, demoralizing loss would have made going to Houston with the ESC to be a death march. But I’m excited that MAYBE Osorio will realize that he has failed to build a team that can defend, and he’ll actually put out an attack-minding team.

    Looking forward to the away trip! I think there were a couple dozen ESC going at last count, and since the game actually means something, that number should rise.

    Reply
  8. Van Den Bergh has been invisible, but then again the strategy was basically booting the ball from the back.

    Also, someone should have informed Ossorio that substitutions don’t carry over to the next match.

    Reply
  9. Bad goal, bad play by Jimenez.

    So they go down to Houston and have to win. Fair enough. For the sake of a good game, I’d rather see this result than one where Osorio gameplans with his inept defense for a 0-0 draw: with this defense, we have a better chance of WINNING than getting a scoreless draw.

    Reply
  10. ah jeez! poor jimenez, dejavu play or what? man, jpa better step it up my friend and I mean right this second superman like!

    Reply
  11. I don’t like fieldturf either, and look forward to when Red Bull Arena opens next year with a grass pitch. The ball moves faster than grass, and the bounce is different.

    I don’t think much of this statement though:

    “but the ball doesn’t bounce consistently on it”

    If the issue is inconsistency, that the height and speed of the bounce is different from play to play in the same game and on the same field, then the randomness affects both teams equally.

    You can train for fieldturf. You can’t train for randomness. But randomness isn’t an advantage for the home team.

    RBNY is a far worse team away than home, but they’re bad regardless of the away team’s surface. I don’t think complaining about the unfairness of the playing surface is a legitimate complaint.

    I do look forward to the fake field being gone forever, though.

    Reply
  12. Makes me feel happy for saying that Holden and Kamara should start in place of DeRo and Ching (though without Ching that ball would have never been there).

    Reply
  13. It’s on the defense, but Ossorio should have played this differently. The fact that Kandji hasn’t seen the light of day is beyond frustrating.

    Reply

Leave a Comment