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Red Bulls down Union to punch playoff ticket

RedBullsBeatPhilly (ISIPhotos.com)

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

The New York Red Bulls only needed a tie on Thursday night to secure their place in the 2011 MLS playoffs, but they stepped up despite missing their best player and delivered a victory and some hope for a dream ending to a largely disappointing season.

Playing without star striker Thierry Henry, the Red Bulls rode an own goal forced by Dane Richards and disciplined defending on their way to a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union at Red Bull Arena.

Jan Gunnar Solli set up the game's only goal when he sent in a cross to Richards that the Jamaican headed off the left post and off of Union goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon's back before going into the net.

The win moves New York into a tie with Houston for the No. 9 overall MLS playoff seed. If the Dynamo loses to Los Angeles on Sunday, the Red Bulls would then play the Colorado Rapids in the wild card match next week. A Houston win or tie would mean the Red Bulls would face either Real Salt Lake or FC Dallas, depending on which team finished lower in the standings.

The Red Bulls victory also eliminated the Portland Timbers and Chicago Fire from MLS playoff contention.

The Red Bulls midfield controlled play for much of the match, with veterans Teemu Tainio and Rafa Marquez held the edge in possession. In fact, there were solid individual performances throughout the Red Bulls lineup on Thursday, on a night when Philadelphia failed to deliver one of its better matches of the season.

The Union nearly salvaged a draw, but saw a would-be goal waived off for offside. Sebastian LeToux floated in a long free kick toward goal that appeared to touch the head of Carlos Valdes just in front of goal, but the flag was raised due to either Valdes or Dan Califf being offside when they purportedly interfered with Red Bull goalkeeper Frank Rost's ability to play LeToux's free kick.

The Union loss means Philadelphia will need a lot of help to finish first in the East (Sporting KC, Columbus and Houston all need to lose and Sporting KC must lose by two goals or more). The Union could actually wind up dropping into a wild card playoff spot if the Columbus Crew and Houston Dynamo both win their matches this weekend and Sporting KC doesn't lose by a two-goal margin. The Union could wind up finishing anywhere from first to fourth in the East.

What did you think of the Red Bulls victory? Think New York can make noise in the playoffs? See the Union going far?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Attendance figures are fascinating, I agree, but back to the game.
    Murph is right (above) about Tim Ream: He was terrific all night. He wasn’t exactly tested, but he looked strong. Good for him. Meanwhile — what is UP with Rafa? I have never seen worse passing and less intensity in a player. (Except for Roy Miller, the fast-break killer: TWICE he could have sprung Luke Rodgers; a pass ANYWHERE behind the defense would have worked, and TWICE he passes it into the feet of the surprised defender.)
    And has anybody figured out what the hell Agudelo did to Hans Backe???

    Or…is this not the forum for a RBNY discussion? SBI used to be almost a Red Bulls fan site. Is there a better place to ask these kinds of questions?

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  2. I may be cheap but I really resent that most of the giveaways both during the season and last night go to one-time fans sitting in the 200 sections. How about upgrading serats from long-time season ticket holder fans?

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  3. Whatever. Point is, in this kind of weather for a weekday game, we used to get like 5k in Giants Stadium. Considering our many many years of entrenched suck, attendance has grown pretty impressively.

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  4. What I want to know is in what alternate universe is a 10 percent off coupon considered a prize?

    And a roundtrip ticket to Panama City sounds more like punishment for a crime than a reward.

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  5. Unless you’re talking about pre- or post-game, there were not “entire sections of the upper deck with no butts in seats”. It was a decent crowd. 18-20k with the temperature in the mid 50s and a wind advisory in effect.

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  6. Yeah, the more expensive seats tend to be less popular, and plus a lot of the tickets that are sold there are bought by groups that give them away to their members and when people aren’t paying for the tickets themselves, they’re more likely to be no shows when it’s cold and windy like last night. RBA loves group sales, but it’s not best for actual attendance.

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  7. Yeah I showed up an hour and a half early to get my jersey and have some drinks and the line then was pretty long. My section didn’t fill up until the 30th minute with rows of kids wearing fresh new rebull jerseys.

    The “fan appreciation” night was pretty weak too. They gave out a few giveaways but nothing really stellar and the good ones didn’t seem like anything that was out of the usual for any sporting event. I remember I went to a fan appreciation night for the Knicks a few years back in a season that was dire for them and it was full of free food and great giveaways. I’m not expecting much but maybe give me a few dollars off my beer if you “appreciate” me so much.

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  8. Paid attendance is fine, but game day attendance does matter. When I get a coworker to get tickets to his first MLS match, we go to our seats and the entire stadium is basically empty (except for the SOBs) 10 minutes before kickoff it’s bad for the league and harder for possible fans to convert. I understand it did eventually fill in much stronger, but wtf was RBNY thinking with the jersey giveaway prior to the game. no one was in their seats for the first 30-35 minutes of the game.

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  9. From Philly but work in downtown NYC. First game at RBA, and the PATH was really easy and quick (20 minutes each way, less than driving and sitting in traffic for any Philly home game). I really dont see the excuse of location for poor attendance. Got tickets 2 days prior exactly midfeld, 13 rows from the field for 60 bucks each which is pretty cheap so close to a big game..

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  10. Red Bull Arena holds 25,000 so it is bigger than all but 3 (?) MLS arenas so when it has 5,000 empty seats(or 1/5th empty) it still has more people in it than Philadelphia, RLC or Colorado (not a knock but I’m just saying). If you have ever been there, you know it is loud, so I wouldn’t get on the supporters that is just a silly point.

    As for playing terrible all year… True they didn’t play as well as expected but more than any other team in the league the Gold Cup killed them. While LA (best record) missed only Landon for a month the Red Bulls lost Marquez, Ream, Richards, Aguedello and DeRosario (he was still with the team at that point)that’s half thier outfield players! You can’t convince me that if these guys were there for that month(when they didn’t win a single game) last night’s game would have meant anything other than possible seeding. There is a fair criticism of the management for building the team this way but they are playing now when the games matter and that’s all that counts.

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  11. My entire section at Red Bull Arena is sold out with season tickets, but the people to the right of my seats only come to games sporadically. I guess when you live in an area that is immensely wealthy (NY/NJ), you can throw money away by not attending games you paid for. It happens at NY Rangers/NY Mets/NY Yankees/NY Knicks games too. Anyway, RBNY is 5th in the league in attendance which means paid attendance is very good. The whole “low attendance” thing is an RBNY myth.

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  12. Value is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Sorry, but I can’t compare the Red Bulls to the other professional sports teams in the NYC area. I have supported MLS for years by attending god knows how many matches, but even at this point we rarely see players that are at the top of the profession.

    I also think RBNY management is foolish given the history of the franchise. Remember what is was like just two years ago in the Meadowlands. Only 4K or so showing up. Five wins all season. They almost killed any interest in the team or MLS in the country’s largest market. The new stadium is great, albeit in a poor location for anyone not living in Jersey or the west side of Manhattan, but I can’t see how they justify the enormous price increases. Plus, they devalued season tickets this year with the constant groupons and other giveaways. Then they offer people who buy one ticket to one match a free jersey, while offering season ticketholders the opportunity to buy a jersey at $20. How does this make sense?

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  13. Adam, good point. If the stadium were more centrally located or had an upgrade to the parking/PATH they would draw more people.

    I used to care more about the empty seats. Now my friends and I have such a good time going to the games it doesn’t bother me anymore.

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  14. Eddie, Red Bull tickets are ridiculously cheap compared to other professional sports in the area. My friend and I have season tickets between the 18 and midfield and we paid about $700 each for this year – an absurd bargain.

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  15. The amount of Red Bulls bashing on here is quite pathetic. If you want to rag on the team because you’re a D.C. United fan or even a Philly fan then that’s fine, but to constantly bring up that only 20,000 showed up on a thursday night when most stadiums in the country don’t get that much is just poor arguing. Are we in the playoffs? Yes. Was it a struggle with a team that should have been more consistent? Yes. But we’re in and now is the time to shine!! So let’s wait for the playoffs before you start bad mouthing the Bulls, you never know, you might be eating your words.

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  16. Heck would have you believe that. Next year you will see plenty of empty seats because a lot of season ticketholders (note: the ones that don’t sit in the supporters sections) are not standing for the absurd ticket hikes.

    And it is a big deal to have so many empty seats. Sure, the fans that show are great. RBNY management is arrogant and delusional and apparently went to the Netflix school of business decision-making.

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  17. Couple things. First, its still pretty amazing that a soccer team gets more fans on a regular basis than the local professional basketball and hockey teams (yes, RBA is a larger venue, but still). Interesting theory that fans don’t show up because seats are cheap (although I’d dispute that). Raising prices might get fans who buy the tix to show up, but it might also reduce the number of people buying tix. I still think the problem is that RBA is an out-of-the-way destination for most people in the region. The PATH is tremendous if you live near it, but its an hour an a half train trip from Queens, parts of Brooklyn, and LI and at least a half hour drive from suburban NJ, particularly when you add parking/walking. Truth is RBA will be regularly packed once parking improves, the PATH station gets renovated, and more things to do spring up outside the stadium. Until then, you’ll probably continue to see sell-outs with 4-6000 empty seats.

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