3 Thoughts: NY Red Bulls see stars in LA

Rested starters

Thierry Henry, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Tim Cahill. Arguably the New York Red Bulls' three biggest players all were left out of the team's game day squad for the CONCACAF Champions League match-up against CD FAS. The reason cited was to heal "injuries". If these players were rested, it didn't look it tonight. Henry & Wright-Phillips showed moments, but overall all three looked lackadaisical. I understand that three games in 9 days can take a toll, but if this is the result we were going to get, why not play them in CCL and get three points there?

Defensive miscues

The Red Bulls defense (Chris Duvall in particular) didn't have a good day. They got exposed a few times by Landon Donovan & Robbie Keane. The whole team got embarrassed on Gyasi Zarde's goal.

The pass sequence that led to Gyasi Zardes' goal for @LAGalaxy: pic.twitter.com/ca4SuGtMCb

— Paul Carr (@PCarrESPN) September 29, 2014

Keane made the back line & Luis Robles look really stupid on the last goal. Hopefully they shore up the defense for the upcoming 3 game home-stand.

Lloyd Sam & Ambroise Oyongo

The Red Bulls two wing midfielders were out with injuries, both of which were picked up on Wednesday night. The Red Bulls missed their presence. Without them, the Red Bulls had no pressure down the wings. When they did get players into those forward positions, they couldn't get the ball into the middle. They tried going route 1 into Wright-Phillips but the LA Galaxy defense was able to stay compact and deflect any offensive thrust. These two guys missing shows how much the team is lacking for depth with speed, which is something that just can't be taught.