The new, improved Red Bulls go down like Metrostars
Red Bull Arena. Photo via goddam's flickr stream.
2:29 pm Nov. 5, 2010
This was supposed to be the season that New York’s soccer team grew up.
It’s not that the earnest, committed boosters of the Red Bulls, including head coach Hans Backe, thought they’d necessarily win the Major League Soccer championship. But the season-obliterating 3-1 playoff loss to the San Jose Earthquakes Thursday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ meant that in the end, this once-promising year will take its place alongside all the others in the disappointing history of the franchise.
22,839 fans braved a cold, driving rain to see the revamped Red Bulls in what was supposed to be a coronation. There appeared to be lots of families there, despite the 8 p.m. start time. Gone were the sad echoes of disparate cheers in cavernous Giants Stadium, the team's home prior to 2010. As usual, the supporters in the intense-fan sections behind the goals were chanting and singing, but on this night their efforts were picked up all around the stadium.
And then, in the final minutes, it all disappeared.
New York lost, despite out-shooting San Jose, 23-11. Even a 0-0 tie would have allowed the Red Bulls to move onto the Eastern Conference finals; the convoluted Major League Soccer playoff system rewarded the top seed in the East with a cross-country road game, followed by a return home five days later.
But after a dominant performance in San Jose, a 1-0 win that easily could have been 3-0 or 4-0, the defense that had been so stingy all season long failed them, and the attack fell apart.
Megastar franchise-altering striker Thierry Henry sat on the bench for much of the match, still suffering from a knee injury that had kept him out of action since early last month. Backe said following the game that he knew he could get 20-25 minutes from Henry, leaving open the question of when to deploy him. After all, if the teams were tied after 90 minutes, an extra 30 minutes would be played, overexposing Henry. Backe described playing him at all as “a panic move.”
Earthquakes midfielder Bobby Convey, who had one goal all season, scored in the sixth minute to neutralize New York's gains in the first leg of their home-and-away series. He went on to score in the 76th minute, then assisted Chris Wondolowski on San Jose's third goal.
But for most of the match, even after Convey's initial goal, it still seemed far more likely that the Red Bulls would answer than that the Earthquakes would pile on.
New York received a particularly impressive performance from Juan Agudelo, a 17-year-old striker from their youth academy who started in place of Henry. He used his uncommon size and strength to create a free kick in the 12th minute, then dispossessed one San Jose player and fought off two others to restart New York's attack in the 15th. In the 26th minute he managed to steer clear of a San Jose defender and loudly rang the goalpost with a shot.
“It felt great,” a self-assured Agudelo told reporters at his locker after the match. “Just playing with all these top-flight players, and sticking with them, getting an assist, it was very pleasing for me, because I worked very hard for this.”
Chances continued unabated in the second half, but the momentum clearly shifted to San Jose with each errant shot, as the score left the Earthquakes one scoring chance away from stealing the lead, which Convey duly did just that in the 76th minute.
A few minutes before Convey's goal, the crowd began chanting Henry's name as the famous Frenchman started running short sprints along the far sideline to warm up. Just after Convey's goal, the referee in charge of substitutions had the numbers in the substitution ready: 14 in green, for Henry, and 9 in red for Juan Pablo Angel.
In other words, New York would keep Agudelo, the 17-year-old, but sacrifice Angel, the team's season and all-time leading scorer. And based on Agudelo's strong play and Angel's struggles, the move made sense. Angel hadn't scored on a non-penalty shot since July, but Agudelo set him up perfectly for a signature header in the 78th minute. The score stood 2-2 aggregate, and the New York coaching staff motioned furiously to the referee to cancel the substitution with extra time looming.
That opening allowed San Jose to score the match's third goal in five minutes, with New York's defense breaking down on the counterattack once again. None of the three San Jose goals was particularly spectacular&mdashleach time, New York defenders, even the stout Tim Ream, were beaten. The development of each of the scoring movements was so quick that Backe said after the game he'd need to go look at a replay to be certain of what happened.
“I think as a team, we needed to play more defensively as a unit,” a shattered Ream told reporters from the locker room just after the match. “We got away from that tonight, for whatever reason. We had done so well with that throughout the year. It's what won us a lot of games.”
With nothing to lose, the Red Bulls brought on three subs in the 84th minute, including Henry. He nearly provided a storybook finish. A corner from Roy Miller in the 88th minute found Henry's head, but the shot edged just over the top of the goal. In the 90th minute, Henry found himself with the ball inside the six-yard line, but couldn't turn to fire on goal in time. It is hard to imagine a health Henry missing either of these opportunities.
The difference between this loss and those suffered by New York in the past is just how bright the near-future looks. Ream, a rookie this season, is a tremendous defender with future U.S. National team possibilities. Agudelo looked ready to replace the departing Angel, whose contract is up. A full offseason to rest and preseason to train should allow Henry the opportunity to regain the form that made him one of the finest strikers in the world. And the Red Bulls will almost certainly replace Angel's salary with another top-flight import.
The season itself represents a triumph as well, with New York improving from five wins in all of 2009 to an Easter Conference regular-season title.
“Absolutely not,” Ream said when asked if he expected so much success so soon. “I said all along, I wanted to be part of something big. Thirty-two games later, starting and playing every minute, it's kind of wild to think about. It's kind of weird that it's over, to be honest with you.”
After a season built up to evoke a limitless Red Bulls future, the final act was pure Metrostars.
