Red Bulls Ready For the Goats of Guadalajara

The day has finally come for the New York Red Bulls as they have waited a good two weeks to get back into International Cup Competition as their next opponents from Liga MX of Mexico will be the famed goats of Chivas from Guadalajara.

The same goats that use to own a club in the Los Angeles/Carson area that shared the Stub Hub Center at one time, but now the only club they are concerned for is their main side that plays down in Mexico at the Estadio Akron.

But for the Red Bulls this match will not be a cake walk, it is true that the goats haven’t had a solid league season so far, but they have played very well in this competition as they were able to get a series win against Cibao of the Dominican Republic, lost the 1st leg in Seattle, but scored three goals in their second leg to eliminate the Sounders.

But knowing Jesse Marsch he has never taken any opponent lightly either in league or other cup competitions, because when he use to play he was a member of that former Chivas-USA side back in the day. He spoke to the Mexican Media.

“Everyone may not know this but I played for Chivas-USA back when they were in MLS, so we had a connection with the club down here. But now there are different people here, than back then.” Said Jesse Marsch.

“But Jorge Vegara the owner is still here. But more than anything what I know about Chivas is the passion of the fans, passion of the team and passion of the owner and the responsibility of the club, I know the culture of Chivas Guadalajara.

They are very committed as a team, they go after their opponents and we expect them to give us their all, we completely respect them.”

Right now Guadalajara is in twelfth place with three wins, six draws and four losses for 15 points scoring 14 goals and allowing 17, but while they are having issues in the Clausura Season their form in the CCL has been very strong.

The biggest issue that the Red Bulls will have taking on Guadalajara will be playing in altitude, but as I have been told by John Jagou from Soccer Chronicals. com the level of altitude is the same as playing in Denver at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

But the respect for the Red Bulls and for clubs playing from MLS are quickly gaining respect especially from Guadalajara’s defender Oswaldo Alanis who spoke to Michael Lewis of Front Row Soccer and other American reporters this past Monday.

“Now they are competing just like the Mexicans, we have to continue with what we have been doing, we are working on the defensive part of the game.” said Alanis “If they do not score, we have already won a point.

We have done very well at home in the Champions League, in addition to the home league. It will be a difficult match, but we are working to nullify their attack”

They know very well that the main players they need to stop are Bradley Wright-Phillips, Daniel Royer, Tyler Adams and try to beat Luis Robles who was scored on twice in these Champions League ties.

Robles who allowed a penalty in the first leg against CD Olimpia and a goal during the run of play at home against Club Tijuana after he performed a massive 13 save evening in the first leg of that Quarterfinal series.

But Marsch knows that this series it will be a clash of two different styles going against each other. That will be a huge task in front of them, as he knows that the club will have to up their performance after defeating the Xolos.

“Chivas has a style that they stick to always and so does Red Bull.” said Marsch, “That’s what will make this game so interesting, we will not be defending for ninety minutes. We know that we will have to address their strengths and there will be moments they will throw a lot at us.

We like to be aggressive, we like to go after teams, we want to run, we want to press and we will do that tomorrow. It might be ugly but it will be exciting for both teams, for the fans and we will do that tomorrow.”

This will be an exciting evening at the Estadio Akron as the Red Bulls are trying to make their own history to earn another victory against a Liga MX club on Mexican Soil and try to make it three straight as well.

just to remind all of you that there are several Red Bulls players that are under a caution warning as one more yellow card will earn them a one match suspension. Those players are Tyler Adams, Aurelien Collin, Danny Royer, Alex Muyl, Luis Robles, Derrick Etienne, Michael Murrillo & Kemar Lawrence.

But any positive result will be just enough to head back to Red Bull Arena and the hope to finish the job in Harrison and become the second American side as well as the third MLS club to reach the two legged final of the CONCACAF Champions League.