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To salvage their sorry season _ and perhaps coach Juan Carlos Osorio’s job _ the Red Bulls must do something no MLS team has ever done: Advance through the CONCACAF Champions League prelims and into the group stage. And that comes down to one presure-packed game, tomorrow vs. W Connection.
“With the MLS season being what it is, this is what we’re concentrating on right now. We got a good result down in Trinidad, so we’re happy with where we’re standing right now,” said central midfielder Seth Stammler. “Moving on to the group stage, that’d be big if we got out of there with a win and a little bit more confidence.”
After pulling out a 2-2 tie last week in Trinidad, getting a pair of vital away goals, the Red Bulls are in the driver’s seat tomorrow (8 p.m., FSC). A win against the defending Caribbean champs sends them through, as would a 0-0 or 1-1 draw. A desperate Osorio wanly joked he’d give his players a bonus out of his own pocket if league rules let him.
“If the rules allowed me I would. I would do just about everything to win, to progress. I think it would be huge,” said Osorio, whose team is mired in a 14-game winless skid, and has a chance to salvage some pride in the group stage. “I think it’s extremely important that we advance, and hopefully that will be the case.” The Red Bulls did show some guts in rallying from a 1-0 deficit in Trinidad. They got two deflected second-half goals, the first by newly-signed winger Ernst Oebster and the second an own goal by W Connection captain Elijah Joseph.
“It was a good day for us, not only for the result but also for the mentality, because in this situation when you (allow) one goal, it’s difficult because you think it’s always the same again,” said Albert Celades, who helped Stammler control the midfield. “In Trinidad, we (allow) one goal in the first half and after we started the second half with a very good mentality.”
The 33-year-old Celades has won la Liga titles with Real Madrid and Barcelona, seen big wins that saved regimes and bad losses that brought down coaches. And he said his big-game experience _ and that of players like captain Juan Pablo Angel _ will be needed Wednesday.
“I think in these kind of games, maybe the older players, the veteran layers they’ve played sometimes in this situation and sometimes they play with experience,” Celades said. “It helps to play in this type of game, because sometimes the match will be not going good, maybe we start the game and they score and we need to have control and a good mentality.
“You need to play a game for 90 minutes. Maybe you’re 1-1 but you must play with the soul sometimes. It’s important to have players who have played in this situation. It’s important in this kind of game, big competition.”
Angel won’t have strike partner Mac Kandji, with the Senegalese striker expected to miss tomorrow’s game and the next league match as well.
“I’ll take the result (in Trinidad). I’m hoping we can finish off this leg back home. It’s not over; we’ve got to get the result,” said Angel. “But it’s important to have the two goals cushion, and hopefully we can finish it off.”
W Connection will be without leading scorer Jonathan Fana Frias, stretchered off the field with a hamstring injury in the first leg. Still, with the Red Bulls’ hideous injury woes this year _ and fullback Carlos Johnson is expected to miss another week _ they’re unlikely to have much sympathy. Tomorrow’s game is their entire campaign rolled into one night.
“I think it’s very important. It’s been a very disappointing frustrating and challenging year from all aspects. Not many teams have the opportunity to throw a second lifeline and I think this is ours,” said sporting director Jeff Agoos. “We take it very serious. We take this tournament as if it were the goal for this year at this point. This is what we need to do.
“With the way the seasons gone, the disappointing results we’ve had, getting into the playoffs is almost (impossible). It’s a long shot at best, so this game will give us the opportunity to move into group play of a prestigious tournament and hopefully gain some of that credibility back.”