That's just about all you can say about last night's 1-1 draw with D.C. United: It wasn't particularly pretty, but it got the job done.
Two own goals were all the scoring seen at RFK. The first by Roy Miller, who came on at the half for a probably-injured-again Rafael Marquez, put D.C. up 1-0 with a spectacular flying finish (only into the wrong net). Then, Bill Hamid's butterfingers brought the game level. It'd stay there, even after the 72nd minute red card to Andy Najar.
The Red Bulls didn't generate a tremendous amount of chances, and only finished with a tremendous 65-35 possession advantage thanks to United putting all 10 men behind the ball for the last 20 minutes.
As we said earlier in the week, the important part of the two-legged series is that the Red Bulls, Hurricane Sandy be damned, have a home game. With the team's Jekyll-and-Hyde home/away form, it's a solid result, even if they could've won.
Based on player reactions post-game, it seems it's all going according to plan. Now they head home, where the team is miles better than their road-selves, even for Wednesday's second leg.