BY DAVE MARTINEZ
Last week’s loss to FC Dallas forced New York Red Bull’s head coach Hans Backe to tinker with his lineup. Facing a difficult challenge against Real Salt Lake, New York changed their formation, tactic, and personnel in an attempt to steal points on the road. Even with the alterations and overhauls, the result was frighteningly familiar.
”It’s very frustrating,” Backe told the media after the match. “I mean, we played a very good first half, defended very well, got some breaks. (RSL) didn’t create any chances.”
Having fallen behind to FC Dallas early in their season opener, and recognizing the same issues haunted previous results against Salt Lake, New York molded themselves in a preventive tactic to assure history would not repeat itself. “We’re looking back at all the games we had; we have never won against Salt Lake, and we have almost (always) gone down the first fifteen minutes one or two nil,” Backe observed. “Now we said we just need to have a clean sheet the first 15 minutes and start well and hope that the game can open up.”
Indeed, they succeeded in shutting down RSL early, but the game never really opened up for them.
New York lined up in a 4-5-1, featuring a defensive minded midfield triangle of Teemu Tainio, Dax McCarty and Victor Palsson, who earned his first start with the team. The formation disrupted Salt Lake early, but did very little to generate an attack. As the match settled, Salt Lake began to probe New York’s midfield and defense, searching for areas to exploit. By the 39th minute, a rare Red Bull attack yielded a Salt Lake counter which properly exposed the Red Bull’s backline en route to their first goal of the match.
“The way they scored their goal – our back four were way too high and we basically tried to put them offside,” defender Jan Gunnar Solli said. Fellow defender Stephen Keel agreed. “We were able to neutralize what they wanted to do and we were also able to counter that by switching the field quickly. It’s just one mental breakdown and they punish you.”
”Problem for us in the first half is that we gave away in the middle of the park five breaks,” the coach lamented. “That was just sloppy passing which cost us one goal and then we gambled on an offside which cost us a second one.”
Down by two, New York managed to string together a good sequence of possession and attack, but it was too little, too late. Though they controlled the ball for a good portion of the match, they did little to threaten a superior RSL side.
“It looked very good, but you can’t make these unforced errors against good teams. They will kill you,” Backe said. “And we had five in the first half – not under pressure, sloppy passing – it’s the difference between the teams.”
Keel agreed. “If you look at the four goals we’ve conceded (this season), it’s just mental lapses, a couple of (bad) decision making here and there,” the defender noted. “You clean those up, and we’re ok. It’s about being focused and being switched on for 90 minutes.”
Even with the changes in the tactical approach of the team, the match felt substantively recognizable. Overall, New York lacked creativity in the attacking third, consistency in the midfield and stability on the backline. A pair of mental errors once again sunk their chances and the team earned their second defeat in as many games.
Coach Backe saw a silver lining amidst the chaos. “A good sign was the way we responded after going down two nil, and we controlled the game, dictated the game, created a couple of chances – that’s a good sign and credit to the players for the way they responded after going down,” he said. “It’s by far our best game against Salt Lake in two years.”
Whether that assertion is right or wrong is debatable. New York’s identity crisis, however, remains a stark reality as they head into their home opener against an undefeated Colorado Rapids side.
no european player with any kind of star power would even go to salt lake and play. who cares about them? title or no title. they’re irrelevant.
Hire Mick McCarthy. He gets maximum effort from his players and is never afraid to play youth. Just a thought.
“You clean those up, and we’re ok.”
Brilliant analysis, don’t commit errors that lead to opposing goals and you’re okay. Except you actually need to score goals of your own as well, if you’re trying to win games.
We don’t want him. Keep your stars. We will take the silverware.
The difference is Aron Winter is a smart guy who is turning things around in Toronto whereas Hans Backe is an arrogant Scandisnob who has no understanding of how things work in MLS.
Henry
Miller Lindpere Richards
Taino Marquez
or put Cooper up front and sit either Taino or Marquez.
Red Bull needs to get out. Their doing damage to their brand with RBNY.
How many goals would Henry get if he played with RSL’s midfield and defense behind him?
How about new ownership?
Solli and Lindpere have gone from studs to duds between last year and the beginning of this year. Not sure what happened there. Miller has been the week link for 2 years now. Hopefully Lade really does pan out. Holguson has been atrocious so far. They seem to be playing a pretty high line sometimes with 2 pretty slow centerbacks. hence they are getting burned.
Cooper should start since Henry fancies himself a midfielder now. I think maybe Marquez coming back will help with that. he won’t disrespect Marquez the way he will the other mids on the team by coming all the way to the midline to get the ball…
It has to work one of these times.
Yeah. Marquez made a huge difference last season, didn’t he?
wow! if you read these posts, its the same things said every year! just change the names to fit this year’s team… does any other MLS team have such a European management influence? (besides Toronto?)
BING BING BING!!!!!!!!
I predict no team will score any goals against NYRB this year except when NYRB makes a defensive mistake.
Hans Backe is brilliant
you consider Henry a has been? i question your credibility if thats the case.
If people were saying to start Paulson were they also saying to start him along with Dax and Temu? 3 guys who are basically the same player/role is not the way to win, or even tie a game.
When the coach/GM are pretty much only willing to scout players from north of the artic circle or USL 1 of course the additions are going to be useless.
Espy only had to do that because he took the flat corner the allowed RBNY to break so quickly, he better have gotten back after that display!
Not sure I agree with Hans claim that RSL didn’t create chances in the first half. I think it was more a matter of RSL trying to figure out the compact five man mid-field and super high line the backs were playing, that is such a strange formation that it took a minute to get the right looks and movements to unlock. There were a couple close offside calls prior to the Paulo chip to Espy that left RBNY wide open.
Henry is all class, I feel bad for the guy going out like this, living legend, won every trophy possible in Europe and is stuck playing with this crew. Im sure he’s happy when he looks at his bank account, but when he’s on the field, he seems to be in disbelief as to the crap service he is getting. Too bad he can’t come west and play for a non-disfunctional organization.
wow.. Note to self: Microsoft Word next time.
Hans Backe is a delusional. The only reason why it LOOKED like we were bouncing back after going down 2-0 was because RSL decided it was time to defend and take the win; as they did. However, the 4-5-1 just comes to shows how far out of touch Backe is with the club.
Victor Palsson was an embarrassment not only to himself but to the fans of RBNY in general. The kid could not complete a single pass, let alone a back pass to the Keeper. So what if RSL didn’t create much? Neither did we!!! The game was going to come down to who took advantages of their opportunities and RSL did just that.
It sucks because I don’t see Hans Backe getting fired yet but man o man do I wish RBNY show him the exit door…. I will even pay to upgrade him first class to gtfo of NJ.
Since we have no plan in place, I will stick by what I said pre-season. Let’s try playing the 4-4-2 but not in a flat formation. I will attempt to write my suggestion and hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be an Epic Fail lol.
—————Meara————-
Soli — Conde — Keel — Miller
——–Rafa——Teemu————
—-Richards———–Lindpere—-
————–Henry—————-
————–Cooper—————
Notice I put Teemu to cover for Rafa because I don’t think it’s that Rafa is lazy, but he just doesn’t have the speed to track back. Rafa already said pre-season he was upset about last year and plans to give it his all this season so I’m putting all my hate for him from aside and focus on this year.
I think Henry should play behind Cooper because until RBNY acquire a true number 10, there is no one on the team who provides his type of service. Cooper is a work horse and his runs between players are great…I think Henry will feed him every time and he will be able to find Lindpere and Richards on the wing at the right time.
Although I love Agudelo for his sake and ours, we need to part ways. As long as Hans Backe is the coach, he will not develop any chemistry on this squad. We need to make a blockbuster trade but I highly doubt Backe or RBNY will allow that… So I will place him in as a sub nearly every game.
HaHa right? Yeah Espindola has wheels too for sure. I remember thinking, as Henry streaked past our defense “if anybody can torch us here, it’s Henry” and boom, here comes Espy on a 100 yard sprint to save the day. Amazing.
I actually like that idea. But whom do you sit in place of Lindpere in the center of the midfield? Tainio? Marquez? Or do you sit Richards and play a midfield of Miller, Marquez, Lindpere and Tainio?
Except that Morales and Saborio also didn’t play until late in the second half. Red Bulls looked awful
It’s (a) and the curse is from Sweden and its initials are HB.
The problem is NY is overpaying marginal players. Tainio, Solli, Ballouchy and Miller are being payed way too much for how bad they play. All Henry does is b!tch and complain, he makes things worse
Agree with you on Cooper.
One thing I took from the RSL game is Henry is fast and so is Espindola. What a great endline to endline play where Henry collected the RSL corner sprinted downfield only to have his cross blocked by Espindola on RSL goalline!
On Marquez: part of bringing players is not just what they contribute on the field and in the locker room, but also whether they help draw fans. Were Backe and Soler aware that Rafa, along with Osvaldo Sanchez, is probably one of the players Americans will have the greatest difficulty ever cheering for?
How about starting Ladde and moving Miller to LM and putting Lindpere in the center?
LOL yea. I agree. RB should get in the habit of doing this every 2-3 years. It’s perfectly healthy.
Just a week ago everyone was saying start Pallson. Now everyone is saying he is awful. Could it just be that Hans doesn’t know what he’s doing? This team just does not improve!
You need to build a team like RSL and Seattle. Wasting money on has been DP’s is whats holding teams back
Just my observations from the stands:
Maybe just me, but I thought Solli looked Awful. Not just sub-par, but flat out awful. It seemed like he always gave the ball away, but provided no D. I used to think he was impressive….Off day?
Cooper makes the team much better.
NYRB has problems, but if they get a DP in midfield with vision (Del Piero, maybe ballack), I could see them working.
Henry is at his best when playing as a Forward. This team is so bad though, he tries too hard. If they get a player that lets Henry do what Henry does, they could still be very good.
lastly, Henry is fast. Like super fast. I think he outran every RSL player but Olave multiple times.
How did almost every other team find several players to strengthen their squads and RB could not? I don’t believe they can not scout players, this management team is capable.
I think it is an unavoidable conclusion that Henry and Marquez cost so much there is little left to bring in other quality players. Sad to say but Rafa has been a complete bust for that much money. Conde was purchased at a reduced price because he was damaged goods when they bought him, hoping he can be rejuvenated, we’ll see. Henry proves himself week in and week out, clearly he remains the class of the squad.
There’s no excitement here no matter how much Red Bull you drink, do something to energize this franchise!!
Fire the Manager & bring someone else in with a different philosophy. This team is too high profile & spends too much money on players not to be a top seed in the east.
The manager is a joke!
Henry—Cooper
Lindpere
Ballouchy–Richards
Marquez
Lade–Conde–Holgersson–Barrajo
Vuolo
It’s only 2 games in; team without some key players and both games away, so relax; we should be able to see where we really stand by the summer
Sit Miller. Sit Palsson. Start Lade. Start Cooper.
PALSSON: god awful! I haven’t seen a single half of terrible soccer this bad since Rico Clark in the World Cup against Ghana. He should never see the field again.
I know we were trying to be in a defensive shell against RSL, but hey, you have to POSSESS the ball to defeat in team like this. As much as I used to hate on Cooper, he’s much better at holding the ball up, keeping it than a third defensive midfielder like Palsson. He should’ve started.
Every club gives away passes in the midfield. It’s part of the game and not an excuse for scoring 1 goal in 2 matches. That’s the problem, not individual errors.
2 things:
Either,
A) Red Bull is carrying some sort of curse that they seriously haven’t been able to shed.
Or,
B) They seriously just don’t want to win games.
It’s time to clean house at RB. New management, new players is the solution.
Marquez is coming, no worries! 🙂
It’s so simple and no one on the team even sees it. Miller and Soli go on almost every attack and rarely even attempt to get back on any type of counterattack.
You can’t beat anyone playing a 2-7-1. Attack-minded defenders still have to defend, and those two simply don’t bother.
Very god hence we might 0-3 this time next wk. I can only hope it’s not empty RBA. Far as am concern for right now, my cable bill is enuff. Not wasting my $$$
Taint of Sven…..
.in my opinion how does Arsenal wanted Henry to teach/ influence their younger players, then how does the RB justify not having any young players around to learn from his legend is a crime. They can sugar coat as much as they want, but when u look at other team’s players ( young) & RB player where exactly is this team 2 or 3 yrs from now? Go ahead, bring another DP. Won’t make a difference. That’s my opinion. That’s they need new management/ philosophy
Connor Lade needs to get a shot this weekend…he cant be any worse than Solli and Miller…I think Miller has proven he cant defend anyone in this league
Here is an answer. Just about every team in MLS got better…..NY didn’t ( probably worse ), AND NY barely made the playoffs last year.
Red Bulls need more movement with the ball. They have two many central players that stop and pass. They’re really missing Luke Rodgers. Cooper is too slow. They need to sign a left wing player and move Lindpere to the middle.