BY DAVE MARTINEZ
The New York Red Bulls are quickly building a reputation as one of the most schizophrenic sides in Major League Soccer. The team squandered two early leads at home, getting victimized by a pair of brilliant San Jose goals en route to a deflating 2-2 draw.
“I called it,” Thierry Henry said after the match. “If you let a team like San Jose have any opportunities, they are going to punish you, especially Wondolowski.
"Everybody was raving about our game (against Columbus) and I told you I was not so happy about it. If they had Wondolowski on the other side they would have drew the game – even won it. And, well you know, back to reality.”
“Attacking wise, first half is good,” Red Bulls Coach Hans Backe observed, “but it’s very easy to see our defense must improve. Second half, nothing happens from either team. It looked quite lost. Not one of our better performances, that’s for sure.”
The Red Bulls opened the score sheet five minutes into the match. Thierry Henry found a tight lane through the San Jose defense which Cooper read perfectly, beating the offside trap and Jon Busch for the opening notch. Minutes later, a Dax McCarty giveaway put the ball at Chris Wondolowski’s foot. A lob over Markus Holgersson dissected the Red Bulls defense, sending Khari Stephenson behind the big Swede. A quick glance at the far post found Rafael Baca who put in his opportunity for the tie.
“Wondolowski, Stephenson were dangerous all night and we didn’t do a good enough job of containing them,” defender Stephen Keel said. “We can’t be going through the season giving up two goals every game; it’s not going to work.”
New York once again regained the lead. This time, it was Cooper playing distributor, flicking a Richards feed to the top of the box, finding a wide open Dax McCarty who nailed his opportunity. Wondolowski rounded out the scoring with a clever header off of a Shea Salinas feed in the box to send the teams tied up at the half.
San Jose pressed New York throughout the second half of play, limiting the home teams attack and opportunities. The Red Bulls held, but not without a few testy moments.
“It’s too soft back there,” Keel observed. “We are not going to score four or five goals like we have been. We’re going to have to win one nil, two nil; that’s what the championship teams do and that’s what we want to be.”
“Today it was, you can say, ball watching,” Backe said. “You could say the last three games have been quite okay – decent – but it has to be improved. We just have to work with it.”
As the match went on, the play became more physical. An ugly challenge in the box off of a corner opportunity in the first half saw Rafa Marquez tackle Shea Salinas to the ground. As he rolled over the winger’s body, he caught him in the face with a boot. Salinas was taken out of the game, with early reports citing a broken left clavicle.
During the same play, standout San Jose defender Victor Bernardez picked up a knock on a collision with Ryan Meara, suffering a strained MCL. This ignited a chippy start to the second half. Roy Miller was tackled from behind by Marvin Chavez, forcing the Costa Rican back to be subbed out of the confrontation with left knee inflammation. The physical play continued to the final whistle.
In the end, New York failed to respond to the San Jose onslaught, and took home a disappointing draw for their efforts.
Seriously guys lets get real. Yes soccer is a physical sport, I still play it, and yes and injuries occur when you get tangled up with someone at high speed. However, as a ref and a player I see 2 straight RED cards here no question. The RB give up a PK on that ugly foul by Marquez No if’s but’s or maybe’s and if the MLS misses this when they review it shame on them.( At least 2-3 games RB should see Marquez away from the Beautiful game) He is a punk and we will not miss him! Yes I am a RB supporter!
San Jose however should also have a straight red and a few game suspension on Chavez, for his wreckless dangerous knee crunching tackle from behind on Roy Miller.I am betting 2-3 games here as well. Time to get real and call out these vicious tackles NOW before we have a repeat of last season’s series of ugly end of season injuriesStop making excuses if it quakes like a duck, looks like a duck, it’s an ugly duck!
Coach K
“His leg flailed at the end.” That might be the dumbest thing I’ve read in quite a while. Watch the replay dude, it was an obvious kick directed at Salina’s face. http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-04-14-ny-v-sj/highlights?videoID=182262
Obviously the clavicle fracture occured when he landed on his left shoulder with Marquez on top of him, but the kick was still deliberate and intentionally directed at Salinas’ face/shoulder. The tackle was also deliberate, how could it not have been. To say otherwise is absolutely ridiculous. Please watch the replay a couple times before you say something that completely embarrasses yourself, as you did twice in the comments on this article.
Well said!
To be fair, I think to be a Metro-bull fan (not making fun of the name or the team, just including both eras in this statement) to be self-hating (as a fan) is in their nature.
No, man. Missouri. Get it right. The Show Me State: SKC, Branson, and some arch no one cares about.
And live in Kansas?
The contact wasn’t incidental, but it most certainly wasn’t the “kick” that broke his clavicle. The FALL WAS incidental. They were wrapped up running back at high pace and both started to go down. There was NO TACKLING, NOTHING DELIBERATE BESIDES HOLDING HIM. His leg flailed at the end. I don’t even like Marquez, but I am seriously appalled by how unable people are to project a sense of body control on to people when watching sports.
Seriously, WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE. I could care less about either of these teams, I really wish Marquez would leave MLS, but I completely agree with this. Do any of you actually play sports? As an exercise to all of you, try running wrapped up with someone at high speed. That’s right, one of you will probably start to fall, or your legs will get tangled, and the other one will come down on you very hard. That holding exists on every corner on every team in the world. He didn’t freaking kick him at the end, his leg flailed as he was falling. A foul? Certainly. A suspension.
That was Jared Borgetti unless you are referencing another instance.
and your homer views are…different? or are you a self-hating red bulls fan?
Wish Oguchi would have beat the monkey !@#$ out of him when they almost got into it.
Cue Drogba: “it’s a disgrace!”
meara ran into bernardez not the other way around and he was fine… bernardez landed on his knee funny and sprained his MCL. enough with your homer views.
If you don’t see a kick at the end of that play you are just in denial. Look around, most viewers – fans and media alike – see Rafa kick him at the end. The play was off the ball and simply dirty tactics by Rafa which is really no surprise as he has a history of this behavior. They only went down together because Rafa brought him down. If Rafa is not suspended heavily for this play it would be a travesty.
Chavez was aggressive no doubt and he may be fined/suspended as well but at least the player had the ball.
“We’re going to have to win one nil, two nil; that’s what the championship teams do and that’s what we want to be.” Aw…that’s flattering that you want to be like SKC.
The problem with going to Red Bulls games is that your IQ decreases by at least 15 points because you’re surrounded by total idiots.
SJ/RBNY is heating up to be a great rivalry. Started with the playoffs in 2010 when they came to RBA and trounced them 3-1 (after losing 1-0 at home in the first leg). Then last year the 3-0 beat down of SJ at RBA is still a fresh memory. And remember 40K fans at Stanford last year to see the 2-2 draw. The Golden Boot race is also fierce between the teams. Last night you could see both teams’ animosity and their desire to win at nearly any cost. It felt more like a derby than when RBNY played DC in recent memory. Too bad they wont play again this year. Would be a great MLS Cup final though. (wishful thinking I know….RNBY will prob get knocked out in the wild card round)
Guys wtf are talking about …..have you ever fall down with impact ….Rafa didn’t kick him intentionally , they went down together.Should be a pk , but it wasn’t . And salinas should get a red for swinging at our medical stuff guy that try to help him,as their medic was helping out the defender . Chavez tackle on other hand was straight red and defenetly 5-6 game suspension…he didn’t go for the ball ,both of his feet were in the air , studs up. he wanted to injure him….did Rafa foul a guy yes , was it brutal no….Chavez was brutal and should get suspended.
C’mon – a penalty and a red card? I don’t think so. He was just giving Salinas a nice hug, and then when Shea ducked his affection gave him a little tap with his foot.
Seriously, you can see Marquez looking at Salinas before kicking down on him. Very, very low class, and dangerous to other players. If I was an RBNY I wouldn’t want him to be on my team – if he’s out there endangering players on the other team, I would be worried about potential retaliation from my opponents.
On at least 2 San Jose corner kicks, Marquez wrapped both arms around Salinas from behind and pushed him around, on the second when Salinas was forced to the ground and apparently broke his collar bone, Marquez’s foot struck Salinas in the face. Even on the first corner when Messing commented on it said words to the effect of what is Marguez doing, that is a penalty kick of the referee sees it.
Marguez should be punished for what was clearly repeated intentional, tactical fouls in the penalty area. These fouls were not committed with any attention other than to hold Salinas and prevent him from playing.
Were you there last night? I was. To say that was an unecessary & unfortunate foul and a non penalty call on Marquez would be correct. To say that Bernardez & Chavez didn’t deserve cards (Chavez a clear red) for the same overly physical play resulting in injury would also be right. Where’s your whining about them almost taking out Meara (he was on the ground for a while) and for the FIFA 12 tackle from behind on Miller? It was clear San Jose’s plan was to stop the NY offense by physically knocking them around as much as possible. It almost worked, and it did stop Henry from scoring. But it also left a trail of injured players post game. Peeps sound almost surprised Marquez is a goon, esp in this type of game. I’d suggest looking at the bigger picture before whining.
It was more than a “spell”. But, this guy has always been know for doing this type of stupid things, for some reason he never did it at Barca.
Seriously though, I get he was with Barca for a spell, yada yada… What is with this guy?
Which is why he ‘s still there… Oh wait.
the kick by marquez was pretty shocking. Curious to see what the punishment is. Quakes are very deep, but it’s all getting tested a little early. Lenhart, Gordon, Shea, Bernardez… and even Corrales is not reliably healthy. Any more injuries and it could be trouble.
Absolutely a penalty and card on Marquez… one has to wonder if the call against Seattle that went the Earthquake’s way was on the ref’s mind??
Not that Rafa intended to hurt Shea… but that wasn’t the first time in the game that he mugged someone in the box… if the ref had called something earlier… this would never have escalated to this point.
Commish… are you watching?!
You can tell from the way Henry talks that is very high on the Red Bulls.
screw marquez, he is a disgrace to the MLS. He doesn’t belong in the MLS. He deserves a sharp right hook to the jaw and a kick in the nuts
ricardo salazar needs his jaw broken..
he was pure class at Barca
you don’t get a broken clavicle from incidental/accidental contact… that was a forceful kick not a glancing blow. “red card rafa” living up to his name again.
Did Barca run him out of town for liability concerns, or to protect their other players?
Well, lets all wait for the inevitable rafa suspension which will leave our midfield even more depleted. I’m really running low on excuses at this point. For that much money, this situation needs to be settled. I can’t see the league not acting over this, which means maybe more Victor Palsson next week. Also congrats to Lade for his first start and Dax for his first RBNY goal.
All credit to San Jose for two well worked goals. Hopes for a speedy recovery for Salinas and Bernardez.
The word “thugs” comes to mind. Whaddya think? Marquez — 5- game suspension? 6? 7? More?