Photo by ISIphotos.com
BY DYLAN BUTLER
Juan Carlos Osorio wasn't mincing words when he spoke to reporters outside of the New York Red Bulls locker room after his team crashed and burned out of the U.S. Open Cup Wednesday night.
"There was a big test for some of the guys and, if I am honest, some of them failed today," Osorio said after a 5-3 loss to D.C. United at RFK Stadium. "In the first half we were horrible. It's probably the worst game I coached here with the Red Bulls."
The Red Bulls conceded four goals in the opening 26 minutes and looked like a hungover pub team defensively.
"It seemed like we were playing a scrimmage game, no tackles, not competing for 50/50 balls," Osorio fumed. "That is unacceptable."
Chris Pontius, Thabiso Khumalo, Brandon Barklage and Fred struck to give the hosts a commanding 4-0 lead before John Wolyniec closed out the half with a goal one minute from halftime.
Inside the Red Bulls locker room, Osorio laced into his team for an embarassing performance.
"I want to apologize to the fans, especially the fans who came here and had to suffer by coming here," Osorio said. "I do apologize because we lacked character, we lacked passion and we lacked heart."
Fielding an entirely different starting XI Wednesday than the one that stepped on the field against Houston on Saturday, Osorio was using this game as an audition for players like Khano Smith, Andrew Boyens and Juan Pietravallo. All three were subbed off at halftime.
"As I told the guys at halftime, they do need to do the talking on the field and you all see the same game I watched," Osorio said. "It's not like they haven't played in a week or so. We play football every day, they play their positions every day. Today was a good chance for many of them to impress and they certainly didn't impress me."
The effort in the second half was much better. Jorge Rojas came on and scored two goals and the Red Bulls had several chances to possibly even tie the game. While he was still seething from the first half, Osorio did praise the play of Nick Zimmerman, who made his first team debut, and Wolyniec again was impressive.
But the Red Bulls were unable to bounce back from a brutal start and were bounced out of the Open Cup.
"Everyone came out flat," Carlos Mendes said. "We were sleeping and before we knew it, we were down 3-0. All over the field we were second best…The second half was better, but the first half was brutal. It was terrible."
What do you make of this defeat? Is it time for the Red Bulls to start making roster changes? Were you one of the fans who made the trip to RFK just to watch a shellacking from the upper deck? Share your thoughts below.