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Red Bulls claim 2015 Supporters’ Shield

Red Bulls Supporters' Shield Celebration (USA TODAY Sports)
Photo by USA TODAY Sports

Coming off of an offseason filled with so much frustration and anger, the New York Red Bulls have claimed the club’s second Supporters’ Shield in three seasons.

The Red Bulls locked up the league’s best record Sunday, defeating the Chicago Fire, 2-1, at Toyota Park. With the win, the Red Bulls lock up the league’s top overall seed and the right to host MLS Cup should they advance to the league’s final.

Following Sunday’s earlier results, the Red Bulls will visit either Toronto FC, D.C. United or the New England Revolution for the conference semifinals’ opening leg on Nov. 1.

The Red Bulls opened the scoring just eight minutes in via Bradley Wright-Phillips’ 17th goal of the season. The finish came on a set piece, as Sacha Kljestan’s corner in was headed to the backpost by Sal Zizzo. Wright-Phillips was waiting in open space, and the Red Bulls forward tapped in from inside the six to open a 1-0 lead.

A Kljestan penalty kick helped the Red Bulls double that lead in the 35th minute.

Darting towards the end line, Red Bulls winger Mike Grella was bumped down in the box by the Fire’s Patrick Nyarko to draw the referee’s whistle. Kljestan stepped up and tapped his penalty kick to the right side to all but lock up the three points.

Fire forward Gilberto made matters interesting in the 77th minute with a close-range scissor-kick finish to push the scoreline to 2-1.

Just moments before Gilberto’s finish, the Red Bulls had their chance to put the game out of reach on a headed effort from Shaun Wright-Phillips that was parried away by Fire goalkeeper Alec Kahn.

On the other end, Luis Robles was forced into several big saves in the second half. However, the Red Bulls held on in the game’s final moments to lock up the Supporters’ Shield.

Comments

  1. hahaha – oh man the bro in the front of the picture with his backward hat and hoody just made my day. Its like my mental image of guys from new jersey come to life and clearly a meme waiting to be born.

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    • Too funny, everyone else in that pic belongs except him haha no idea who that kid is nor what he’s doing in a locker room in Chicago with the rest of the team celebrating, must be related to one of those guys.

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  2. Congratulations to the New York Red Bulls on this impressive achievement. I owe Curtis and Marsch props because I doubted they would have a positive impact (although I didn’t come down as hard on them as others). The play of the team has been extremely high and surprisingly consistent; the last home game versus DC United and the first half away to Portland were some of the best 135 minutes of soccer I have seen played in MLS history. They got more out of certain players — namely Lade, Perrinelle and Miazga — than prior leadership. I thought letting Oyongo go was a huge mistake but they found an even better left back in Lawrence. I thought Alexander for Felipe was at best a push but Felipe has made tremendous positive contributions and has been key. I owe Curtis and Grella an apology because I didn’t think Grella would have any positive impact and boy was I wrong on that one. Getting Zizzo for loaning Meara was another shrewd move.

    Probably, most impressive is that I don’t think the team will rest on its laurels / winning formula. I think they realize that if they don’t improve the players and tactics, they will slip so I think they plan to evolve — only time will tell on this point but for now, congratulations on a terrific first year. From the dog house to consideration as executive / coach of the year in eight months — not bad at all.

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  3. I knew that this team was much better than the doomsayers were predicting back in March, but I had no idea they’d be this good. The late-season replacement of Lade with Zizzo at RB, like almost all of Marsch’s moves, has paid off. There is something about the collective resolve and intelligence of this version of the club that gives me hope.

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  4. Vindication for Red Bulls organization. I always thought that attacking soccer would work in MLS, and that the Red Bulls would be tougher than most predicted. You could see how their offseason moves led to upgrades at key positions, and how the loss of Henry might help the team gel better. I did not foresee the back line working out so well (Miazga should have quite a future ahead of him), or that Grella would grow into a dangerous player during the year the way he has. How this team does in the playoffs is anybody’s guess, but Red Bulls have not lost two games in a row since June or failed to win the next game following a loss/draw since then. That consistency bodes well up to the final.

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  5. Love it. Who would have thought this team could turn around so quickly after the Henry and Petke era and accomplish this the first year. Good things to come.

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  6. Congratulations team. I forgive you for saying silly things J. Marsch, such as most recently “I don’t care about the supporters’ shield.”

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  7. Congratulations to Marsch and the whole team. This was a much better outcome than the fans imagined after the retirement of Henri, firing of Petke, and seeing Cahill go.

    Great job of building a team around the returning starters with judicious use of DPs and identifying young players who were more than capable of contributing.

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    • One thing I find telling, at least for this trophy, is it wasn’t bought. NYRB has some well paid players but has economized and is spending no more than Houston probably. There are no millionaires. I listen to my fellow Dynamo fans pout about how much AEG spends with LA — and while I don’t like being the orange headed stepchild — you see between NY and Dallas (Castillo is pretty cheap) that at least for the regular season teams could compete economically.

      Granted, we’ll see what happens in the playoffs, and whether a few well paid stars can change some close games among strong teams, but at least this season (though perhaps not some other recent ones), quality on a budget is being rewarded. My Dynamo need to quit crying and be better (and on the same page between GM and coach) about each individual acquisition, because it plainly can be done.

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    • seriously. one of the most impressive seasons I have seen in this league for those reasons, Dallas as well. 2014 Sounders, 2013 NY and Galaxy 11-10 were just huge budget/star teams that had to win it, the 2012 Earthquakes were crazy lucky all year (equally impressive) but this year’s NY team, and FCD, was just really well managed. seems like just yesterday people were revolting against Marsh/Curtis!

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  8. Easier conference, unbalanced schedule = Red Bulls Supporters Sheild meaningless. Ridiculous they will get CONCACAF champions league advantage for this

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    • Wood Chip,

      Say what you want,…the Supporters Shield has its warts,…but as a season tickets holder I am very pleased that Red Bulls have made such progress in the last thre years. I am not certain but I would wager they have the most total regular season points in the past three years. As a paying customer,…that is great. Also, the prospect of an MLS Cup at Red Bull Arena is exciting. So demean the achievement all you want,….after many brutal years supporting this club,….I will take it?

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      • Brian K I am happy for you as a Red Bulls fan, but that is all the supporters shield should be, something for the fans to hang their hat on. It should not give a team an advantage in CONCACAF champions league because no one has the same schedule. And as long as an equal schedule is not a requirement, the system can be manipulated to favor certain markets.

      • I’m not sure what Champions League “advantage” you’re talking about. The SS gets a Champions League spot but they go into the draw the same as the MLS Cup winner, Open Cup winner etc.

    • Even if they win the cup, there will still be peeps like wood chip that’ll prefer to detract vs congratulate. Heaters gonna hate, while at least tonight, we celebrate. Metro!!!

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    • East and West winners get a CCL spot, both go in the same pot for the draw so I don’t know what advantage they get. Maybe I’m missing something.

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      • He may be referring to home field for the entire playoffs which is an advantage. Easy fix for that-each conference only plays teams from their conference–the top two finishers in each conference play home vs home for grandaddy of them all MLS Cup and the other “playoff” teams compete for CCL spots 3 and 4 (this will never happen lol).

      • Simple, go back to neutral site. They sold tickets pretty well with the exception of the TFC controversy. To me the home game thing is a gimmick that favors one team over the other for the championship. I don’t know how you can be upset at how the scheduling favors one team and not then also acknowledge the bigger similar issue that there is a Home Team to begin with. How is that level?

      • I don’t agree with neutral site idea. They only did that because back in the day you couldn’t guarantee a full stadium on short notice even for MLS Cup. There is already insufficient reward in the playoffs for regular season success, I wouldn’t take away home field advantage in MLS Cup.

    • The two teams with 60 points in different conferences tied when they played. I refuse to buy this is some travesty. Ideally everyone would play the same schedule but it’s not like this was college football where they scheduled Sisters of the Weak’s Anchorage campus to get a blowout win, playing a partial conference schedule plus weak non-conference teams. They played everyone at least once. It varies somewhat from there, but not enough to be like, oh, it’s some horrifying travesty that having said the best regular season team wins a trophy and CCL spot, they get it.

      Bear in mind also that part of the idea here is to render diverse the CCL representation so it’s not just some lucky USOC winner (remember DC’s years) or a surprise team emerging from the playoffs based on a run of a few games. I like playoffs but think it is reasonable to check the possibility of a team on a roll by also rewarding consistent season long output.

      Bluntly I’d be more concerned if we were melding the desire of some to decide the title in the league schedule, and then you had an uneven scheduling. But this is just recognizing the best regular season team and there are three other spots (two trophies) to play for.

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    • i never understood why so many fans consider five or six games after the season to be more important than thirty-four games across eight months! ya the unbalanced schedule is kind of an odd detractor to the argument, but the playoffs are the ultimate unbalanced schedule.. and they give equal CCL spots to both E and W conference winners. League Champions they are!

      34 > 6
      fans who go to 17+ games > ppl who show up to celebrate the last few

      congrats NY

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