Week 24: Crew-Red Bulls in Review

August 10, 2013: Columbus Crew 2, Red Bulls 0

No Thierry Henry, no Tim Cahill, no Mike Petke? Problems.

If anything this game just goes to show how much parity there is in MLS. Without two of their star players, their super-sub in Lloyd Sam and their head coach, the Red Bulls were a depleted side heading into Crew Stadium Saturday night.

In other leagues, a top-of-the-table side might not have anything to worry about. But this is MLS. And in MLS everybody beats everybody. And so it goes with Crew-Red Bulls last night.

Truth be told, I'm still not sure I see the penalty call, which inevitably lead to the second goal -- as nice as it was off the foot of Federico Higuain (and it was very nice). If that doesn't get called, it's likely a whole different game, though one I'm not sure the Red Bulls win.

Positives

• Jonny Steele continued to play well last night, showing up as, pretty much, the Red Bulls only offensive threat for stretches of the game.
• When Ruben Bover and Marius Obekop came on, they brought a lot of energy to a Red Bulls squad that looked listless from time to time. However...

Negatives

• Obekop is so left footed, I wonder if he's got Body Integrity Identity Disorder going on with his right foot.
• With the loss, the Red Bulls go from tied for first to third in the Supporters' Shield race. They sit three points behind Real Salt Lake and one point behind Sporting Kansas City.

Notable Quotes

Assistant Coach Robin Fraser, via the New York Post...

I think that we didn't come with the right mentality and as a result we put ourselves behind the eight ball. But to be fair we hung in there, plugging along, trying to find a way forward and obviously a disappointing goal to give up.

Brandon Barklage, via the Post...

We are very disappointed. Once again on the road I don't think we came out with one hundred percent effort - we just have to bounce back next week.

Relevant Statistics

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