Top Stories

Late Luyindula equalizer helps RBNY salvage point vs. Chivas USA

Carlos Alvarez, Agustin Pelletieri, Peguy Luyindula

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

 By IVES GALARCEP

HARRISON, N.J.– The New York Red Bulls looked destined for a disappointing result at home on Sunday against Chivas USA, with another poor start dooming them to a late deficit. Peguy Luyindula helped ease some of the disappointment when he headed home a stoppage-time equalizer, but it was clear from Mike Petke that even the dramatic finish didn’t change the fact his team had another lackluster performance.

A second-half surge helped give Red Bulls fans some hope after seeing their team trail most of the afternoon, and Luyindula provided the finish, heading home an Eric Alexander corner kick in second-half stoppage time to help the Red Bulls earn a 1-1 draw.

“To say that I wasn’t happy in the first half would probably be the understatement of the year,” Petke said after the match. “So the second half was a good response. I thought we saw some very good play, specifically from certain players, and to get the goal in the end.

“But let’s put things in perspective. We tied Chivas USA in the 92nd minute at home. A better Chivas team that last year for sure. I think they’ve done well, but we tied Chivas at home in the 90th minute so that’s not good enough.”

The Red Bulls were a far different team in the second half to the first half, with Lloyd Sam causing problems for the Chivas USA defense, and the Red Bulls putting more pressure on goalkeeper Dan Kennedy, who made a handful of top-shelf saves to keep Chivas USA in the lead until Luyindula’s equalizer.

Chivas USA took the lead in the 25th minute after Erick Torres converted a penalty kick drawn by rookie Tommy McNamara, who was fouled by Richard Eckersley.

The first-half deficit didn’t seem to produce much urgency in the Red Bulls who sleepwalked through the first half managing just two total shots and two open play crosses.

Things changed dramatically in the second half, with the Red Bulls taking control of possession and pumping up their attacking output. They peppered the Chivas USA penalty area with 11 second-half shots and 25 open play crosses, and only some outstanding goalkeeping from Kennedy kept the Red Bulls from finding the net in regulation.

Kennedy denied Wright-Phillips in the 73rd minute with a beautiful kick save, then rose up to tip away a dangerous long shot from Dax McCarty in the 82nd minute.

“The second half I thought they all had a great game,” Petke said. “I don’t want to point at specific individuals. I could go down to every one of them. Obviously Lloyd (Sam) might have been the biggest change from the first half to the second half. It seemed like he just wasn’t in a rhythm from the first half. We didn’t get him the ball much but second half he just tore down the right side.”

“First half I don’t even remember much because I hardly touched the ball,” Sam said. “It was a bad performance all around from us in the first half. Second half was more like it. We always have to react to something. We need to start off the game how we played in the second half.”

The Red Bulls improved play looked like it might not result in any payoff before Luyindula rose to head home Alexander’s corner kick in the second minute of stoppage time to earn the Red Bulls a draw.

“It obviously hurts but if you said to me at the beginning of the game that we would come over here to Red Bull Arena to play this excellent team that last year was the Supporters Shield winner and we tied, I would have said “Yes, let’s do it”,” said Chivas USA coach Wilmer Cabrera.

“So, it’s a good result overall. It hurts because we’re 94 minutes ahead but the reality is that you have to play the whole game.”

Here are the match highlights:

 

Comments

  1. Eckersley needs to hit the bench. He is a problem. He is often beaten and does not overlap well. Armando shows quality in passing but he is liability on defense as he is slow and does not read the game well. Convey is also struggling on the left. He did better in the second half because he tucked in to the middle but this player is not starting material. Alexander came in and had great touches. He should be playing in the starting 11. Petke should move Kimura into the eleven

    Robles
    Kimura —olave —–? —-miller
    —-Sam —–Alexander—Dax—-
    ————Cahill ——-luyindula—-
    ——————-henry—————–

    Yeah it is not the best formation but the best striker should not be going back to the midfield and is not a playmaker and the best midfielder is not the lone striker.

    Reply
    • That card in the first half is just so idiotic it blows my mind – what is the use of flying in at full speed from the back at midfield 25 mins into the game, against a team know to dive/flop at the slightest touch to draw cards? Why put yourself on a card that early and add that element into the game, on a play that really meant nothing!

      Reply
  2. Put this into perspective Red Bulls fans, your team couldn’t beat Chivas USA. At home. Inside an empty looking stadium. More banners than fans. Get over it.
    Simply put, the ref refused to call anything on RBNY in the second half and our team struggled with the physicality.

    ELAC

    Reply
  3. Dunno what it’s gonna take for us to stop giving up PKs or actually get PKs called for us. Sam got dropped in the box, no call, obvious handball by Chivas defender in the box, no call. But Chivas got absolutely owned for the whole second half. We should have won by two goals despite the PK. Credit goes out to Kennedy for getting the goats a point.

    Reply
  4. It should be blindingly obvious to the Red Bulls at this point that the attack needs to run through Sam more. He’s been the team’s best player consistently so far this season. He causes opposing defenses a lot of problems. And yet for large swaths of each game, the rest of the team seems to forget he exists.

    Reply
    • The Redbulls are making game to game offensive progress. Having only watched the highlights of their last two matches, Peguy has quickly learned that it is far more effective to score an equalizer using your head instead of your boy parts.

      Reply
  5. I think Chivas has the potential of being a good investment but from a soccer standpoint — that was one ugly display. I think MLS / Don Garber has really has to address this time wasting and flopping — it’s really anti-soccer and if they really want to be a “league of choice” that have to nip this in the bud. I couldn’t believe the referee only gave 3 minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half; I thought there was going to be at least 6 minutes. At times, the game was unbearable to watch.

    Reply
  6. Ives, please check out the last comments on your Soccer Sunday, Your running commentary.

    I hereby register my complaint. Someone, a regular for sure, ……………….well, you can see for yourself.

    Reply
    • My advice. Post less. People aren’t always nice. Slowleftam are gets people insulting him because he has opinions no one likes and expresses them. He comes off as a pessimist. Glass half empty. People don’t like that.

      You post too much and are very very positive. And mannn do you love Julian Green. Positive thinking gets the same treatment as Slowleftarm.

      I rather like both of you in that you have interesting if sometimes extreme viewpoints. In either case, ignore them. Its the internet. There is no justice and never will be.

      Reply
      • Sorry Increase0, I do appreciate your concern but that went over the line. And you only need to read The Zimmer’s post, just below, to see it again. Nothing like that ever was directed at slowleftarm.

        And to you and Joamiq, I ask this question. Is it because on 23. Feb. I said Julian Green would declare soon for the USA and that just so happened to go against everything that anyone here thought. And to Joamiq, yes what I said about someone, biff, being like a woman was offensive. But it was not out of line.

      • Increase0 hit it dead square. People will say what they will and sometimes it will be rude and that’s just how it is sometimes. To the extent a comment is profane, consciously anti-intellectual or and out-of-line, multiple people typically say so immedieately and it gets moderated out in a hurry. Heck, when I first started posting here I got moderated out twice in a day for what I thought was some pretty tame cursing. But mostly people are just passionate, and on occassion this boils over and starts flirting with disrespect. Best idea is what Increase0 said… let it go and go do something else for a few hours… fighting in the SBI sandbox is a bad look regardless of who is right (which is usually nobody).

    • Expat, I think it would behoove you to chill out at times. You post some weird, antagonistic comments sometimes. And sometimes they’re offensive too (that comment about women in that thread was out of line). You can also stop using the word “sockatoo” since none of us have the slightest clue what you mean by it.

      Reply
      • cockatoo, a speaking bird.

        sock puppet: a person who posts under another nym, who pretends to be someone else. Often the person uses his sock puppets to support him but most often the person uses his sock puppets to attack others.

        sockatoo, an internet term, meaning a sock puppet

    • LOL at you whining about your Forum Rights… why don’t you go back on down to the glory hole and suckle down whatever it is you find tasty there

      Reply
      • You know, there are many things I do not understand. Like for instance, what makes people like you The Zimmer. And of course, I know you are a sock puppet, but please tell me, because I don’t know, what made you like you are?

        Was it when you were a child and something bad happened? Was it when you were a teen and a boy did you wrong? Really, what made you the sad, sorry person you are?

    • Some people might’ve actually enjoyed reading comments about the Red Bulls/Chivas game and not more of your non-stop posting Expat.

      It’s tiresome. You bring hate on yourself. You can have an opinion without making everyone else hate you at the same time.

      Look into it.

      Reply
  7. “But let’s put things in perspective. We tied Chivas USA in the 92nd minute at home. A better Chivas team that last year for sure. I think they’ve done well, but we tied Chivas at home in the 90th minute so that’s not good enough.”

    Oh, Petke, if you become the MLS version of Jose Morinho, who said that Arsene Wenger is a “specialist in failure,” I will hate-love you forever.

    Reply
    • He’s right though. Getting a late minute equalizer puts everyone in a good mood at the end of the game but in reality the result wasn’t good enough.

      Reply
      • I know. The humor was that he said what everyone was thinking. “Let’s put things in perspective. We tied CHIVAS USA…” The horror.

Leave a Comment