Sports

RBNY separating the Wheat from the Chaff

If there is a silver lining in the Red Bulls’ 5-3 U.S. Open Cup loss at D.C. Wednesday _ and I don’t think even Little Orphan Annie could find anything good in getting thrashed by one’s archrival _ it is that coach Juan Carlos Osorio learned a lot about his team, and his players.

He learned who competes, and who folds. He learned who he can trust, and who he can’t, and how to separate the wheat from the chaff. One can only hope he starts putting those lessons to good use Sunday vs. Chicago, a club that’s had the Red Bulls’ number.

“All the guys had a great chance to impress, and they didn’t impress me,” Osorio said. “Did I learn? Yeah, I learned. I learned about my players and about the character of some of them. I think they all know how I felt, because I let them know at halftime how disappointed and how upset I was at the lack of competitiveness in the first 30 minutes.

“I think _ like the way it is with it is with any human being _ you have to be around them to learn about them. And know I really know who can compete day-in and day-out, and who is not very competitive. But again, that takes time to really identify and learn more about those individuals.”

Obviously Osorio wasn’t about to call out players in print _ or in the blogishphere, as it were. But I’ll say Khano Smith, Dominic Oduro and Andrew Boyens didn’t do the Red Bulls or themselves any favors. “I don’t know if we weren’t battling or fighting, or if they just wanted it more than us,” said Seth Stammler, who _ like the other 11 starters _ sat out Wednesday’s debacle. “Unfortunately it all comes down to final score and we came up short on that end.”

They came up so short, Metro castoff Santino Quaranta said “it was embarrassing to play a team like that…We were getting chances like we were playing in a Sunday afternoon league.” And some players came up shorter than others.

After struggling for the first eight games, Smith saw his playing time cut and made it clear he wasn’t happy about it. Then, with a chance to earn his playing time back _ the same way Mike Petke had _ Smith went out and spit the bit with a horrid performance at D.C.

For my money, I wouldn’t even have put him on the field. I find it shocking Osorio didn’t start Jorge Rojas, especially since the midfielder had been playing better of late, was well-rested after his early red card last weekend, and likely won’t play a league game again for a month, until June 20.

Rojas got hit with an extra game suspension by MLS, so he’ll sit out Sunday’s game vs. Chicago and the May 30 tilt against Colorado. He was already likely to miss the huge Eastern Conference showdowns June 4 at D.C. and June 7 at New England due to international duty with Venezuela, and the Red Bulls are off the next weekend.

“I didn’t think about it that way. I thought there were guys that needed games, that needed to be playing. We all know what Jorge is capable of, so I gave those guys a chance to impress, and they failed the test,” said Osorio, insisting it wasn’t punitive for the red card.

“Jorge has been good for us this year. That was a great opportunity for other players to play and have some minutes and show they can compete for positions on the first team. That was my point; a lot of them missed that opportunity.”

Besides Smith, Boyens and Oduro also missed opportunities. The former is just proving to be too immobile to defend quick strikers. Yes, he handled Brian Ching well in last year’s Western Conference semi, and Sunday’s foe Brian McBride isn’t the worst matchup; but he’s a situational sub at best.

And Oduro is showing himself to be all speed but no skill. The Red Bulls could take a 100-meter sprinter from a local college and get the same production. They sent academy prospect and trialist Johnny Exantus back to Haiti without an offer rather than cut Oduro, but contracts aren’t guaranteed until July 1, so I don’t think he should rest too safe.

“We have a 24 man squad in here, and everyone has to play a part on it,” said captain Juan Pablo Angel. “When those opportunities come, you have to try to take it; and that wasn’t the case this time.”