After Rafa Marquez getting beat for pace and Bouna Coundoul’s ill-advised charge off his line condemned the Red Bulls to a 1-1 tie with Houston, coach Hans Backe publicly chided his keeper’s mistake. But Coundoul _ who got in Backe’s doghouse this preseason and lost his starting job to Greg Sutton for the opener _ was in no mood to take the blame for a disappointing result, pointing the finger at the team’s poor finishing.
“Well, what is done is done. There’s nothing you can do except learn from it,’’ Coundoul huffed. “There are some other plays nobody complained about. But it’s a start. If we scored a second goal we wouldn’t even talk about the goal we conceded. But that’s part of the game; every day you learn and you get better.’’
In the 50th, Houston keeper Tally Hall boomed a kick that Will Bruin headed over the top of the Red Bulls defense. Márquez lackadaisically tracked back, presumably figuring Coundoul would clear it. But he came off his line and Cam Weaver touched the ball around Coundoul for a game-tying goal.
“Conceding a goal from a goal kick should be impossible in today’s football,’’ Backe said. “He should have stayed in the goal, of course. There is no idea to run up like that when Marquez was rather close to Weaver who scored. He should, of course, have stayed on the line.’’
Coundoul _ who had a club-record 11 clean sheets last year, but got benched for the season-opener two weeks ago largely because he chose to accept a call-up from Senegal during training camp _ assumed Marquez would win his footrace with Weaver, and claimed he called for the ball to be played back to him. For his part, the Mexican National Team captain insisted he never heard Coundoul call for the ball.
“I thought he was going to get it so I was yelling to him pass it back pass back the ball,’’ Coundoul said. “But I didn’t see the guy was ahead of him and I already made up my mind to come up. Maybe I didn’t come up quick enough. Maybe I should’ve just held on my goal line to wait.’’