Red Bulls are Pulling a Metro

Is there a crisis going on with the Red Bulls 2016 season? Why has the first four games seems to be a problem as the only goals the club has scored was in the 2nd home game and third of the season that produced some beauties from Felipe and Mike Grella against the Houston Dynamo when they have been goal less against Toronto & at both Montreal and New England.

Well let me tell you that this situation has happened before. This is nothing new since starting to follow this club from their inaugural season back in 1996 once as the MetroStars as this club is use to starting from behind losing three of their first four games of the season. I have seen these types of starts before and the club has always found ways to fight back during the season and climb out of a hole and back into a playoff position.

The 1996 Season started with a road loss at the Los Angeles Galaxy, then a home opener that started the curse of Caricola with the own goal late in the 2nd half, then a home loss to the Columbus Crew which then led to their first win of the season against the former Tampa Bay Mutiny which led to that bicycle kick goal from Giovanni Savarese.

Then the 1997 season began with three straight road games with losses at San Jose, At Tampa Bay & at DC United till they finally got a home win against the New England Revolution. 1998 was also an issue with two losses against LA sandwiched with a loss at Kansas City till the club traveled to then expansion side Chicago Fire in their fourth game of that season getting the first win.

The only time the reverse happened was in the 1999 season as the club started with three wins in their first four games and all of a sudden became the worst side in the league and finished with a seven win and twenty-five loss season. It started with wins at Miami, against Columbus with a loss against DC United and then a win at Tampa Bay till the bottom fell out and became the worst season in the clubs history.

The 2000 season had the same rocky start with a loss at the former Miami Fusion, winning at home against DC United with two consecutive losses at San Jose and then against Columbus, of course that season ended up giving the club a divisional title back then and nearly getting to the MLS Cup Final that sputtered against the Chicago Fire.

Since MLS allowed draws in the league in the 2000 season this type of situation hasn't happened yet till the start of this current season. I can honestly say that this start hasn't really bothered me because the defending Supporters Shield Champions haven't looked that bad with the possession and the attack. The only issue of course has been the finishing as they haven't put anything away outside of the 4-3 win against the Houston Dynamo.

Bradley Wright-Phillips hasn't converted yet and most of his shots have been directly straight into the keepers arms which have become easy saves with the exception of the chance he had in the second half at Montreal when his rip nailed Evan Bush in the face. But I do believe that the Red Bulls and Jesse Marsch will turn this situation around as they have played well, but are a bit unlucky with the results.

So if you ask an old Red Bulls/Metro fan if he or she has seen this happen before, you better believe it and there has always been a positive end towards the regular season. So let's see what the club will do in their next game as they host Sporting Kansas City on the weekend.