Ilsinho takes down RBNY all by himself

The entire match went to hell in twelve minutes forthe Red Bulls. One sub was all Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin needed to do, and with that one sub the entire match spun out of control for Chris Armas side.

After grabbing a two goal lead at the end of the first half, the Red Bulls were taken down very quickly and lost the match in the blink of an eye by a final of three goals to two. A crazy evening at Talen Energy Stadium where a positive quickly became a negative out of the blue.

It all started with a substitution by Jim Curtin in the 53rd minute, as he took off Brenden Aaronson for Ilsinho to add some offensive firepower to the match, and that one moment began the end for the Red Bulls.

Ilsinho found the space along the near side against Connor Lade, and made a little move to attack with the ball. He got close to the area, found Jamiro Monteiro trailing and scoring to cut the deficit in half in the 60th minute.

Then Ilsinho does it by himself, as he leveled the match inside the next minute. He had two Red Bulls around him but took on both Daniel Royer and Connor Lade. He made an incredible move to get into position, fired a shot that deflected off the inside of Sean Nealis leg and into the net.

The Red Bulls were under siege with this surge, but in the 70th minute, they put themselves again behind the eight ball. Nealis tried to slide tackle the ball out, but his left arm hit the ball in an un-natural position, and referee Kevin Stott pointed at the spot immediately.

Monteiro took the penalty two minutes later. He went for the near post which was saved by Robles, but the rebound was found by Ilsinho who buried it inside the far post. No one in red was watching Ilsinho making his run for the rebound, as they were caught ball watching.

This ended the match and a hard loss against the Union, as they couldn’t handle the attacking waves of Ilsinho. His determination put the Union ahead and earned the full three points.

“It hurts on the inside because we came here up for the challenge and believed that we could get three points tonight. And then [Philadelphia Union] threw a lot at us early in the first half, and were much like we thought it would be, we thought it could be a lot of direct play, which it was, and we were mostly organized and created some good chances and a few goals in the first half,” said Chris Armas “That was a big positive. We talked at half time what it could look like in the second half. We talked about them bringing on Ilsinho, the task that that would be.

“He makes a few really good plays, he makes a few really good plays that we wish we could have those back because we think as collectively we could handle it better, but Philly made a really good push, they pushed hard and our guys, I’m proud of the way they stuck together that’s for sure.

The way after the game they stuck together, and we created still some really good chances in the second half. Disappointing to be up then to be level, then to lose all the points so, we will rebound quickly.”

Many thought Andre Blake wasn’t going to be in goal tonight for the Union as Jamaica’s second friendly match fell through, so that meant he was available to play in goal, but Kemar Lawrence never returned for the Red Bulls.

“He played 90 minutes the other night. He’s been carrying a little bit, he’s coming off an injury and we trust the player when it just doesn’t make the most sense,” said Armas. “Certainly, it would have been nice. I know what you’re thinking, Kemar Lawrence, bring him to the end of the game and help, but it just wasn’t realistic tonight.”

While the loss hurts, the Red Bulls did play well in the first half. Kaku converted for his second of the season in the 29th minute; A nice looping ball from Marc Rzatkowski floated towards Kyle Duncan, who passed it one time to a trailing Kaku and buried it.

Or how about what Brian White has done so far by leading the club with four goals as he got a looping ball himself from Alex Muyl, chipped it towards the net, catching Blake in no man’s land in the 42nd minute.

But now this side has to regroup quickly, as the New England Revolution is the next opponents in the fourth round of the US Open Cup. The match will be this coming Tuesday at the MSU Soccer Park at Montclair State University.