Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com
With seconds left in the match, and with his team staring a five-match winless streak in the face, Juan Pablo Angel lined up for a 35-yard free kick he knew his team had to have. He sized up the straight-ahead shot and picked a strategy on how to beat a goalkeeper who had stopped him all night.
Then Angel saw Pat Onstad cheat to his left, and Angel adjusted just before sending his floating free kick over the wall and just inside the left post to give the New York Red Bulls a 2-1 victory at Red Bull Arena on Wednesday night.
“I’m ecstatic. I thought it was a great victory," Angel said. I was disappointed because we had a number of chances where we should have done better. And there was always the feeling that after having these chances and not taking them, that they could get back in the game, and it happened.
"I think everyone could feel, when I stepped up to take the free kick, that there was so much energy in the arena, and that this was the very last chance," Angel said. "We played better than them, we were the better team over the 90 minutes, and it couldn’t get any better than this.”
The win was a well-deserved one for New York, which dominated possession for long stretches and created several more chances than the Dynamo on the night. Only a stellar performance by Onstad, and some poor finishing by New York, kept the match a close one that looked destined to be a tie before Angel stepped up and delivered his last-second game-winner.
The Red Bulls (6-5) moved back into second place in the East with the win, and also surpassed their win total from 2009. For the Dynamo (5-6-1),the loss keeps them in a tie for fourth place in the West.
New York opened the scoring in the 15th minute when a deflected Chris Albright shot fell to Sinisa Ubiparipovic in front of goal. With Richard Mulrooney playing him onside, Ubiparipovic quickly turned and shot past Onstad to make it 1-0.
The Red Bulls nearly made it 2-0 on multiple occasions, but could not beat Onstad, who stopped Angel on a breakaway in the first half and another close-range shot in the second half. John Wolyniec also hit the post with a close-range shot.
The Dynamo tied the score in the 65th minute when Brian Ching chested down a Bobby Boswell pass and slotted a shot past Bouna Coundoul.
The Ching goal appeared to rattle New York at first, but the Red Bulls eventually regrouped and started finding more chances. The winning goal came in stoppage time, after late substitute Conor Chinn drew a free kick 35 yards from goal in the final minute. Angel took care of the rest.
Here are the highlights from last night's match:
MATCH NOTES
MSG had technical difficulties during the match and was unable to air the match until the second half. The match will be shown in its entirety on Thursday. … The match was John Wolyniec's 100th start for the New York Red Bulls. … Red Bulls midfielders Dane Richards (hamstring) and Joel Lindpere (shin) left Wednesday's match with injuries. … Red Bulls forward Salou Ibrahim was a late scratch on Wednesday due to injury. …Houston Dynamo academy Player Francisco Navas Cobo did not dress for the match, but was with the team.
Well said. I’m a DC fan and am impressed by NY’s attendance numbers this season for a team that awful last season. New stadium or not it takes a lot to get people to come out when you are not playing your best and 11k on Wednesday isn’t bad and would have been one of their top 3-5 attendances last season. People just like to criticize.
What a great free kick and a great win for RB.
Those 3 points were huge. It feels like a lot more than 3. If we can take 3 points from Chivas on Saturday, then taking 6 points in four days would make the WC break a little better.
If the Crew lose to the Rapids on Saturday, and we beat Chivas by only 9 goals, we’ll be in first place again.
Well put.
you forgot Khano Smith
I stuck with MSG and caught most of the second half. Great goal! Yes, there should have been more and earlier, (JP was the first one to admit that) but it was a world class goal. Reminds us all once again NEVER to turn off the set until the final whistle has blown – I live in upstate NY (about 5 hours from Red Bull Arena)and am hoping to get to a game or two this summer. Stadium is beautiful and the supporters clubs are loud and loyal.
To be fair, RBNY is overachieving at the box office. With our history, we should be drawing like the NJ Nets, but we have a good strong core of loyal fans. Hopefully, with a few winning seasons, things will get better attendance-wise.
Houston’s defense is still painfully slow. As I said when Cameron got hurt, Dynamo will be lucky to make the playoffs.
@ Ives…normally I would send you an email but I felt I needed to defend integrity out in the here as an avid hourly reader and commenter..
My brother has been in town from Denver for my little sisters graduation and been staying with me. He normally is a big soccer guy but I turned him onto your site recently and his post did come from my laptop this morning.. Considering he is a Rapids fan he has no room to talk about RBNY attendance.. Just wanted to clear my name as I am no troll ;o)
Regarding the attendance.. I’m a STH and proud of my team. I work in White Plains which is a 50 minute drive to the arena with _no_ traffic. Rush hour starts at 5 and runs till 6:30. That pushes the drive to 90 minutes minimum. I don’t get out of work until 6:30.
Now make it a _weekday_ with a 7:30 kickoff time and there is no way I make the game. I can kill myself getting there after a long day, and stress out to the max or I can bite the bullet and stay home.
Sometimes the choice isn’t hard.
People that don’t live in the northeast (Boston down to DC) have no idea what congestion and traffic is like and how that impacts getting to games.
Before you say it.. mass transit.. right? Yeah.. from my office it’s 2-2.5 hours both ways.
…I was at the game last night. Incredible atmosphere. Well Done ESC & GSS. Saw Polish romping around behind the Southward goal.
I drove from NYC last night, arrived from the turnpike. No problems with traffic. Left Manhattan about 5PM, got to RBA in about a half hour (admittedly, I know the rush-hour secret routes).
The Yanks were also playing last night, that might take some people away…
15 years of sucking is an easy way to explain why people do not attend Red Bull matches.
Here are some of the other low lights:
Jeff Agoos (2005) – why?
Branco (1997)
Albert Celades (2009)
Saša ĆurÄić (1999)
Antony de Ãvila (1996–1997)
Youri Djorkaeff (2005–2006) actually he was a highlight and one of thier best European players.
Roberto Donadoni (1996–1997) Also one of the better Metrostars – he just had no support
Cornell Glen (2004)
Amado Guevara (2003–2006) Never should have let him go but he became a head case.
Eduardo Hurtado (1998–1999)
Peguero Jean-Philippe (2006)
Andrzej Juskowiak (2003)
Mohammad Khakpour (1999–2000)
Dema Kovalenko (2006–2007)
Alexi Lalas (1998)
Lothar Matthäus (2000) – Major Bust! Spend more time on the beach in Europe than in a NY Jersey.
Jaime Moreno (2003) – only bad year in MLS
Eddie Pope (2003–2004) – end of his career
Tab Ramos (1996–2002) – Bust. He played like 5 games for NY?
Sergio Galván Rey (2004–2005)
Claudio Reyna (2007–2008) – Bust – another 5 games.
Jorge Rojas (2008–2009) Bust
Giovanni Savarese (1996–1998) – a highlight
Markus Schopp (2006–2007)
Adolfo Valencia (2000–2001)
Mack, you’re dropping names of small clubs in small villages in England. That comparison doesn’t make sense.
Are you forgetting that we’re competing with bonafide organizations like the Mets and Yankees here? In fact, MLB doesn’t even want the Mets and Yanks to compete against each other, and thus schedules to have just one team in town at a time.
Yes Angel missed some chances but he made the one that counted… He showed the desire needed to win and that is enough for me.
Thanks Ives! 11K+ for a mid week game is terrific for RBNY and with a few more golazzos from Angel et al it can only get better!
I thought Ching said it best when he said the Dynamo were unlucky to not get a point, but that it was a fair result given the course of the game. To maintain a tie on the road 3 minutes into stoppage time, yet not get the point? That’s unlucky. To lose a game where the opponent had the better chances yet were unable to capitalize on them? That’s fair.
Thank you, Ives. I’m getting really sick of people who don’t live here and also don’t go to RBNY games complaining about attendance without ever considering the myriad reasons why the stadium is not full.
I was there last night, and the atmosphere was fantastic.
Missed this one, and of course, it’s an awesome match. But agree with Chris, Angel’s goal was sublime and helped soften not being there.
No goalie could have saved that ball, it hit the pipe and went in.
several small clubs in the UK get 11,000 home attendance on average…I am talking towns like Swansea, Blackpool etc… I mean you are in NY one of the largest cities in the world… 15k should be the minimum accepted…
(SBI-Mack (Andy), you’re right on the verge of trolling at this point. Mid-week games don’t do well anywhere in MLS, and it’s been stated before that a stadium alone isn’t going to draw crowds to come back to watching the Red Bulls. Winning and some big-name signings will be key to filling the seats. What the stadium does do is create a better game-day atmosphere so people who are going are living a better match-day experience. Last night was another example of a small crowd still creating a great and loud atmosphere. Over time, that should help convert people into regulars. It won’t happen overnight. I was someone who thought it could happen overnight, but in the New York market that’s a lot to ask for.)
ching was off
Too many quality losses (Holden, Rico, Cameron) without replacement and failure in the DP market.
Might be a middling year for Dynamo.
Also, some of the old faithfuls are looking, well, old…except Onstad.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s tough to love a striker who, at this point in his career, is scoring 1 out of every 5 chances.
It’s a game winner at the death, but this one looks more like a botch by Onstad than an amazing strike by Angel.
I wasn’t there (I was home sick) and Angel’s goal made me feel a lot better.
LOL why the hell are people soo butthurt over attendance?? Its really laughable.. With success, people will come, 15 years of sucking, of course fans wont pack the stadium… I would be correct to assume that 95% of the people whining about attendance ever go to a game. What you should be worrying about is your next topic to hate on the red bulls, which is the formation of a superclub that will day in and day out dominate the league… You watch
Mack, you aren’t going to shame people into showing up for games. Honestly it’s going to take some star power. Henry might be the trick.
Would have been nice to see the match, but, you know, after checking MSG 3 times and seeing boxing instead of soccer, I gave up.
As for the 11,000 crowd – that doesn’t seem awful to me for a Wednesday night fairly early in the season. But is that tickets sold or actual attendance in RBA?
There was also construction around the area where traffic is already a headache on a normal day
“MSG had technical difficulties during the match and was unable to air the match until the second half.”
MSG has technical difficulties almost every single game. What’s the F’ing deal? I guess this is a subtle way of saying “sorry you only go to half the games, if you want to watch the others you need to go to the stadium.”
Worry about the standings, my friend. We just got a huge win and you are b*tching about attendance. Do you work for MLS??
If you must know, their were 11,462 in the Arena (I was one of them). I’d say that’s pretty good for a Wednesday night match.
I was there, as I have been for every game this season. The fans are not the problem. Even with 11,000 an incredible atmosphere.
Great goal by JPA. He’s got to retire, but great goal nevertheless.
HC
RBNY fans… I do mean this with the utmost respect and realize it was a Wednesday night but really… new stadium…awesome night out and more than half the stadium baren blue seats… Wasn’t this new shiny arena going to be the problem solver?
The Orange have traditionally been conservative in the transfer windows, so I wouldn’t count on too much there.
Amazing goal by Angel. He’s a clutch player.
goal of the week… and that includes saturdays games to come. GSS GSS GSS
Kills me as a Dynamo fan to say it but RBNY deserved the three points. It may be time for some changes or new blood in Houston. Defense has been suspect at best this year. Having Chabala would have helped on the left side though. I just do not think Brad Davis is the guy the center of the pitch. Is Geoff Cameron? Probably not. Houston needs better depth at LB and a creative CM. Hopefully the transfer window bears some fruit for the Orange.