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.
As a neutral, I found that game pretty tough to watch. The number of unforced turnovers really made both teams look poor.
People buy season tickets but don’t show up to some games. It was a weeknight game and weeknight games don’t draw as well. There’s alot of casual fans that bought tickets that don’t care about playoff implication. They just know its a weeknight and would rather stay home.
Looks like typical Red Bulls BS to me. The card is very ambiguously worded – the card says “5 days, 4 nights” but the envelope says “the enclosed Cancun Vacation Gift Card is good for HUGE SAVINGS!!” To activate the card you need to call and book a vacation, meanwhile your name and phone number will be added to a solicitation list and you’ll be subject to high pressure sales for time shares. If the accommodations are free, count on spending all of your time in a conference room getting more time share sales pitches and getting brief glimpses of the beach while your kids end up in a death race with one of the locals whose father plans to demolish the youth center.
Have to give credit where it is due. Tim Ream anchored a very stout back line that gave Le Toux and Co. no options. His distribution out of the back was also impressive and shows why Backe, Bradley and Klinsmann hold him in high regard.
People who live in NYC view any trip outside of a ten block radius from their homes as if it’s a pilgrimage to Tibet.
I’d say it was closer to 20K, but nowhere near full. Yes, everyone around where I sit also laughed and mocked the announcement of a sellout. But don’t worry, Mr. heck told a reporter yesterday that the Red Bulls season ticketholders have “had it too good too long.” The sellouts mean demand is high, he said, which justified the enormous increase in prices for next year.
No thanks.
I think that Nowak realized that getting 1st in the East would likely mean facing Dallas or RSL in the quarters so he opted for the loss to face an easier Eastern competitor. Philly just didn’t seem to be trying very hard..
They said during the broadcast last night that yellow card accumulation is wiped out for the playoffs. Luke can play.
Did anyone get the cancun vacation card on their seat? Is this BS or a real free trip?
The # of empty seats can be attributed to a couple things. First off, weekday game has an effect. Second, is the team’s lackluster play since the beginning of the season. Most importantly however, is the fact that the seats are relatively cheap and missing a game isn’t that big a hit. Next year, ticket prices have gone up and I think you’ll see less and less of this.
From the RBNY perspective, the fans that are there make a lot of noise so missing the fill-in seats (that they are already paid for) isn’t that big a deal.
It looked like a Yankees game where half the $350 seats behind home plate are empty but most of the rest of the stadium is full.
I was watching on tv last night and half the seats that made it into the background on the screen (ie the overpriced seats low and in the middle of the field picked up by corporates etc) were empty, but presumably the rest of the stadium was pretty full.
Yea, with special Mexican chicken.
Mouf, how does it feel to be responsible for famine in Somalia and turmoil in the Middle East?
Does anyone know if yellow card accumulation is wiped out for the post season. Luke got #5 last night. Can he still play?
Wait! I get it. The bulls fans are like the front office and the players: hey the money’s been spent, we don’t need to actually show up, too?
At last all the union fans that bought tickets showed up.
Someone should hook a breathalyzer lock to their keyboard…
Delivered what, a pizza?
And your logic is everything that is wrong with the world. They’ve been absolute shite all season, but hey, they paid for it…
Occupy MLS.
If we have sold out the last 4 games because many fans committed to supporting the team BEFORE this train wreck of a season started, and before half the team was gutted by current management, but there are 10,000 of those fans that now don’t think enough of this franchise to make it to the most important games of the season….what does that say about next year? Guarantee that the fan base continues to stay away in droves while the Soler/Backe circus is in town. Shame for the players but true.
Mr Soler – please stop the silliness. Anyone at the game last night knows there were 15k max in the stands….for the biggest game of year for this team. There was open laughter everywhere in the arena when the “sell out” was announced. OPEN LAUGHTER!!! Management and coach have completely lost the fan base, which will not return unless a serious and credible front office and coaching staff are brought on board. Good for the boys for winning last night, but let’s keep the conversation serious on this board…
After all of their crowing they finished a whole… 2 points ahead of RBNY. Some world beaters, those Union.
Union fans sat on their hands. One minute of singing followed by 10 minutes of rest. They were seen but not heard. I expected better.
One explanation I have heard consistently about RBNY fan attendance is that the team has a marked history of starting hot and then burning out early and failing in the home stretch.
Might be a reason why so many tickets sell, but so many seats are empty later in the season?
RBNY could fix this by making some noise this time around, and I hope they do.
Haha grey mullet speaks the truth
Oh, you meant Sons of Ben. They have culture, who needs history when they’ve developed one so quickly? Props to them.
Funny history that connects to another team back to 1975. We’ll “roll” into our role at some point when the entire fanbase can recite nearly all TA chants. Most could probable do half of them already.
I was hoping New York wouldn’t make the playoffs to increase the chances of Soler and/or Backe being fired, plus Portland is a great atmosphere so their fans deserved to see their (mediocre at best) team in the playoffs. On the other hand NY is a big market with star names…
Hopefully in future years both make the playoffs at the expense of teams with empty stadiums (Columbus, Colorado, Dallas), that would be best for the league.
5.6m people in the DC metro area and they only got 14k in a must-win home game vs. Portland? These same fans that spent 10 years telling the entire league that they were the best fans in the country, and that their team won because they were so great and they deserved it?
Front-running posers.
People who actually live in NYC and not Jersey?
I’d like to dedicate the playing of this very small violin to the Philly fan who crowed to me about the Union being in first place, in April.
Way to be.
They’ve actually sold out their last 4 home games, a lot of fans just dont show up for one reason or another.The whole middle section has been pretty much sold out the whole year but you always see empty seats. I dont get it but i also dont really care much,I sit in the supporters section, i go to every game except weekday games. Im also very tired of hearing other fans bashing RB attendance, they avg over 20,000 this year. Get off our backs!!
Do you think we all do not have ears? that was well above 80 percent full, not to mention the fact that it was insanely loud for 90+ minutes… it was televised nationally on ESPN… we all heard it… get off your bitter high horse. we out attend most other teams in the league…
expansion teams with no history deserve no credit anyway… you have at least 15 years to even be acknowledged.. know your roll. btw, your fans are some canary snitches
Prediction: NYRBs get knocked out in the first post season match/. they looked meh tonight against an off form philly…
Match was sold out. Tickets were not available, so I don’t understand the empty seats. It was well attended, but not packed. But I do not understand the weird pleasure fans of other teams get in disparaging RBNY attendance. It’s just … sort of pathetic.
Ten million plus people in the NYC area and they can’t even come close to filling up a 25,000 seat stadium for the last game of the regular season, which also happens to be a “win it or don’t go to the playoffs” match against a regional rival? There were entire sections of the upper deck with no butts in seats!
And NY is in line to get another MLS franchise? Who is gonna go watch the games?
That was a wholly boring game it seemed the Union couldn’t care less if they won or loss. Disappointed to say the least I would’ve been so entertained by the fact that NYRB couldn’t make it into the playoffs.
PLAYOFFS?!?…welcome you drama queens
i’ll take Solli as tonight’s mvp. he was right on w/his crosses and aggressive play. 1st half had more energy in, all in all, a good game. maybe we’re finally coming into our own.
At the game tonight,….
Union fans were great,…very, very loud.
Union didn’t show much. Le Toux was very quiet. Second half subs Adu and Mwanga did nothing. Mandragon had a couple of decent saves.
Thought Joel Lindpere had a strong game.
I don’t think the Galaxy is going to beat Houston on Sunday,….so it’s probably RSL or Dallas away for the Red Bulls. Can’t see RBNY beating RSL on the road. Dallas,….in their current form, maybe.
Does said pooch know about this? Has this been occurring throughout the season? If so, it should be investigated!
He delivered
If that was a packed house, a bunch of those drifters were wearing stadium seat costumes.
I don’t care how it happened, only that it happened. Now don’t blow the pooch in the playoffs.
Someone chose Marquez as captain tonight. Enough said.
NEWS FLASH!!!!!!
In front of a packed house of many drifters finding shelter from the rain, RBNY receive the only punched ticket tonight at Red Bull Arena.
Newsflash Red Bulls, your coach doesnt care about the MLS Cup ha hahhahahhaaa
God, can we hurry and start the playoffs so we can win the MLS Cup already?
Good for the Red Bulls, they paid good money for it. Wish Agudelo played more, would enjoy their games more