The New York Red Bulls take on the Chicago Fire at Giants Stadium today and the Red Bulls come in desperately needing points to catch up with the lead pack in the East. The Fire is in first place in the East and will look to extend its unbeaten streak to ten matches.
I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
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FINAL– Man of the match today goes to Chris Rolfe for finishing the Fire's best and arguably only quality chance of the day. For the Red Bulls, it was Kevin Goldthwaite, who was a rock in the balck for New York today. Nobody in the Red Bulls attack is close to being deserving, and if anything, Angel was the Red Bulls' worst attacking player today.
That's all for me. Share your post-game thoughts on the match in the comments section below.
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FINAL– Fire 1, Red Bulls 0.
Disappointing result for the Red Bulls, who played one of their better games of the season, but better wasn't going to be enough with the poor finishing and decision-making in the final third.
Chicago bent defensively, but never made too costly an error and showed great discipline and cohesiveness. It says something when a team can not play its best but still win. The Fire didn't dazzle, but took its best chance and goalkeeper Jon Busch helped it stand up.
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91st minute– BORMAN SOOO CLOSE. Header is saved by Busch. WOW.
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90th minute– Richards gets behind the Fire defense but goes for a sharp-angled shot instead of the pass. Bad decision.
Two minutes of stoppage.
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89th minute– Red Bulls get another corner.
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87th minute– Red Bulls corner. Wasted.
Richards just finished off a long and dangerous run, but when he gets a lucky bounce that springs him in the box, he holds on too long and settles for a corner. Another wasted chance.
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86th minute– Nyarko is in for Rolfe.
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85th minute– Angel gets a great ball and runs into the area, but he fails to create a good angle for a shot. This just isn't like Angel.
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82nd minute– Angel with an awful touch on a promising sequence. He's just been bad today and the Red Bulls can't beat a team like the Fire with Angel playing this poorly.
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80th minute– Celades with a great move to beat two Fire defenders but nobody can get to his pass in the area.
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78th minute– Kandji with a nice run forward but Angel doesn't get to the pass before Ward intercepts. Not Angel's best day today.
Kandji and Richards with a nice combination to force a corner.
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74th minute– The Red Bulls have tried this new lineup but still aren't finding results, and the chances they created in the first half have disappeared in the second. Who will step up for the Red Bulls, or will the Fire put the match away in clinical fashion with a second goal?
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71st minute– Fire corner kick.
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68th minute- 10,762 is the attendance today. Looks more like 4,000.
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66th minute– Dane Richards moves over to the left side to try and go at Ward. He hasn't had much luck with Segares through the years.
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64th minute- Chicago is just so organized and rarely gives up too much space.
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62nd minute– Danleigh Borman is in for Ubiparipovic.
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60th minute- Celades with a clear look at goal and has his shot saved by Busch. He needs to do better there.
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58th minute- This formation, in theory, should cause some match-up problems for Chicago, with Kandji attacking from a variety of locations. Chicago looks to be handling it well early on.
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55th minute– Richards comes in for Petke and the Red Bulls move into what looks like a 3-4-3 formation, with Kandji floating around free.
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51st minute– Dane Richards is coming into the match.
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46th minute– And we're back.
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HALFTIME- No subs for either team.
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HALFTIME- Can it really be Alfredo Pacheco with another error that costs the team a goal? He lost Rolfe on the goal. Apparently the haircut didn't help.
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HALFTIME- Is there something about the stoppage time indicator that makes the Red Bulls fall apart? It's just amazing how many times they'll come unglued at the end of a half or game.
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HALFTIME- Rolfe just owns the Red Bulls.
Juan Carlos Osorio has to be at a loss for words. He watches the Red Bulls have the better of the play but the Fire takes and finishes its only real chance. The game is all about finishing chances and the Fire did that while the Red Bulls didn't.
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45th minute- GOAL FIRE!!!!! Chris Rolfe with the finish.
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44th minute- Pacheco with a yellow card for a handball.
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43rd minute- The Red Bulls need to take better advantage of their chances because those chances won't be there in the second half. Well, not as many will be.
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40th minute- Jeremy Hall with a nice play. He's been solid all day. Marco Pappa has no impact on this match.
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34th minute- The Fire is pretty much bypassing the midfield and sending long balls to McBride and Blanco. Pappa and Rolfe really should be more involved in this game.
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33rd minute- Angel header saved by Busch off a nice ball in from Stammler.
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30th minute- Wasted corner. Are there any other kind for the Red Bulls?
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29th minute- The Red Bulls have moved the ball around very well here. Chicago's applying some pressure but are mainly chasing the game here.
Red Bulls corner.
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24th minute- Blanco has yet to have an impact on this match. He's spent a lot of time very high, near the central defenders. Not sure if he will find much success there. Looks like he's trying to match himself up against Petke, the least athletic of the four Red Bulls defenders.
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20th minute- No score yet but there has been some good ball movement and intent to attack. Chicago is so potent on the counterattack that it's only a matter of time before they find some chances. That said, the Red Bulls are staying in good positions.
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18th minute- Wolyniec just hit a blast at Busch that went right at the Fire keeper, but was still impressively hit.
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17th minute- Rolfe gets a yellow for fouling Kandji, who puts a great move on to get past Ward. That's the match9up the Red Bulls want.
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16th minute- The Fire will be keying on Albert Celades and trying to pressure him at every turn. They know he's the key to the Red Bulls attack today.
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14th minute- Anybody else think Pacheco lost a bet and that's why he cut his hair off? In all seriousness, the Rolfe-Pacheco battle will be an important one today.
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13th minute- So why play Kandji on the left? Tim Ward is A) a key threat on the overlap and B) Kandji is a very tough match-up for him defensively. What ultimately matters for Kandji is the midfield creating chances and getting him service. Whether he's up top or on the flank, he needs good passes his way.
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11th minute– Blanco's still down. Must be the turf monster.
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9th minute– What a shock, Blanco is on the ground.
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4th minute- Wolyniec gets the start after a handful of quality performances. Kandji will patrol the left flank. The reason for that has as much to do with making Tim Ward defend as wanting Kandji to attack from the wing.
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2nd minute– Here is Chicago's lineup:
——————McBride———————
Pappa————Blanco—————Rolfe
————-Pause——Thorrington——–
Segares—Conde——Soumare—–Ward
——————Busch————————
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1st minute– And we're off.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the Red Bulls lineup-
————–Wolyniec——-Angel—————–
———————-Celades————————–
Kandji——————————–Ubiparipovic
———————-Stammler———————–
Pacheco—-Goldthwaite—-Petke———–Hall
QUESTION…JC OSORIO STILL AS A ‘HEAD COACH’?? HEHEHEHEEEEEEEE.. MORE POINTS FOR CONTENDERS.
THANKS AGOOS FOR KEEP OSORIO
Chicago is an embarassment. Even Chris Rolfe admitted in an interview that all they do is play defense and look for a mistake by the other side. Pure defensive, garbage soccer. Defenders should never be allowed to be coaches.
As a fan of MLS and DCU supporter I feel bad for Newark SC – Red Bull
Yes the field sucks, but. Isn’t it obvious to anyone that the owners are not worried about this team right now?
They have all of their eggs in the RB Park project. Give your management a break right now there is a lot happening in the squad.
Take it for what it is…
Metrostars was a f’in STUPID name too. Plus MLS needs Red Bull! Your stadium will be sweet.
Dane Richards is stupid and/or quite immature. He can be relied on to make the dumb selfish move. What a waste.
I have got to disagree with you Ives on the man of the match. Rolfe’s goal was impressive, but Busch had monster game in the net.
ESC sang Wipeout at the same time when the team scored in the past.
Problem is not with Wipeout, problem is with a team so badly coached that it does not have the discipline to play for the entire half. The fact that Wipeout is sang near the end of either half has nothing to do with the fact that the team is too incompetent to avoid hemorrhaging goals in injury time.
Wipeout will continue exactly as it is. Let’s hope the team learns to play until the halftime or final whistle.
THIS IS THE ESC fault yet again!!! They decide to sing the “WIPEOUT” song in the last minutes and BANG the FIRE score.
ESC do me a favor and stop sing the wicked and bad luck song “WIPEOUT” in the closing minutes. The OTHER team always scores on us when you sing it! STOP!!!
Anybody running down Chicago’s play is nuts. They did exactly what they needed to do to get three points. Like it or not, NY has a toothless attack and can be counted on to gift at least one chance per game to their opponent. And a smart opponent can play just well enough to keep NY at bay without tiring themselves out, because NY is so undisciplined that they’ll fold if their opponent attacks with sustained pressure.
My fellow NY fans shouldn’t fool themselves: things are bad.
More ugly soccer by the Fire. That says it all.
Richards makes awful decisions: Dumb or young? He had at least 2 good setups but choose to shoot from very poor angles.
1. Haig pretty much hit it spot on with his posts.
2. Those who say that NY/NJ teams drew well as Cosmos or the Beckham match need to go back and look at initial attendance in year 1 of the league. NY/NJ MetroStars and LA Galaxy had just mind blowing numbers.
3. JCO again tried to get too tactical and it cost him. Look, Angel and Kandji are a good pairing up front. Kandji creates chances with his speed and skill that set up Angel. But instead, JCO decides that if he moves Kandji to outside mid then he’ll occupy Ward. Fabulous idea but it didn’t work out did it–instead, Kandji shows some skill but basically has no impact on the match. Find me a match where Kandji has played outside mid and been a force. Now compare his matches at forward. No comparison. I understand about giving Wolyniec a chance given his recent performance but he doesn’t have the vision and skill to set up Angel. Kandji doesn’t have much vision but his speed and technical ability set up Angel well, they make a strong pair.
4. Anyone who argues that Angel sucks is just trying to jerk someone’s chain. If I had my choice of ANY finisher in this league, I’d take Angel. Even over McBride (who’s having a great season).
Chicago did what good teams do: they finished when they had an opportunity and punished their opponent. And Chris Rolfe has been doing this all season.
I have been in soccer for over 40 years and I must say that I don’t understand the coach in NY.
1)This Big Mac fellow, he’s a good striker, but the coach starts him out on the left.
2)This Woly fellow is good off the bench but he starts him.
3)This Borman guy..he’s not a bad left mid so he benches him.
Then he acts surprised when the team doesn’t score.
And Angel? Mama mia! He was “kaka” today and I’m not talking about the Brazilian footballer.
Just a disgrace of a game. This coach is worse than that Wesmuller guy we had in 1980!
I am going to volunteer, so listen and read carefully:
I will coach the team if they ask me because, trust me, Giorgio knows more about soccer than this Osorio guy. Or:
I will come out of retirement and play up top because, trust me, my friend, even though I am old and not as slim as I used to be, I would have scored on that breakway that Angel wasted.
Skill is skill & it never leaves you and let me tell you, I was the greatest scorer in the history of the North American soccer league and besides even now, I’m faster and thinner than that Blanco fellow so if he can flop around the field, I figure I’m good for about 15 golas from now to the MLS Cup.
Red Bull – I wait for the call. Call my cell. I will be at the discotheque talking to the lovely ladies but I will have the phone on vibrate.
Ciao.
Matt grow up,
Yes I agree that the Red metros played better. But the Fire are the better team by far check the standings…..The Fire had a bad game and still beat you. The fact they had an off game instead of the usual shellacking they give NJ or a win shorthanded doesnt mean the NJ Metros are a better team. Plus that Crap turf should have helped your team more.
Heres one for your notecard the home team is SUPPOSSED to ply better.
Yes our Geriatrics!! We need young guns like Wolniec (Fire reject
) and Angel (who has less goals than grampa Mcbride).
St. Louis United,
Yes the 4000 will look better in the new stadium. There will be no one after the novelty of the new stadium wears off and the real NY gets a team. Shortly thereafter Red Bull co. will dump the team and sell it to an owner who will relocate it to St Louis and then theyll be your crap team.
Then you will have a pro team other than the womens team who actually plays in IL.
Juan Pablo Angel is still in poor form .
the fire arent impressive at all. stop praising your shite team.