3 Thoughts: Red Bulls give the Fire life

Petke's Poor Gameplan/Offensive Woes

With the suspensions to Jamison Olave and Matt Miazga forcing Mike Petke to shift pieces around, Ambroise Oyongo was slotted back to the left back position while Roy Miller was moved into the center. That opened up the left wing, and Eric Alexander got the start. The result was a poor offensive performance. Yes, the New York Red Bulls actually managed to control the possession (59.8%), but they couldn't do anything with it. Long balls in to Bradley Wright-Phillips were covered by the Chicago Fire defense. Any crosses in from the wings were met by Fire players and cleared. Petke also didn't adjust to the game, not bringing a sub on until the 80th minute, and it was Bobby Convey, who is not an offense minded player. Peguy Luyindula, who has been surprisingly missing from the Starting XI, came on in the 83rd minute, which really isn't a lot of time to affect the game.

Playing Down to the Opponent

The Red Bulls have been doing this all year, playing up or down to the level of their opponent. They did it again tonight.

Stupid Penalty Kicks

The center referee for tonight's match was Ted Unkel. It's important to mention who the referee is, because he is the same one that got Toronto FC's Michael Bradley to rant against MLS referees a few weeks ago. Unkel again caused some controversy for calling a penalty kick against the Red Bulls' Oyongo. Replays aren't conclusive, but it looks like Chicago's Quincy Amarikwa runs into Oyongo, instead of Oyongo causing the foul. The resulting penalty was saved by Robles, but the rebound was too easy for Mike Magee to put away, and that was the ball game. MLS really need to look at the referees, because this isn't the first time all year the Red Bulls have seemingly lost/drew a game on a poorly given PK.