The Red Bulls’ Supporters Shield dreams died tonight, killed and buried six feet under their own stadium by Sporting KC.
They didn’t allow another early goal in tonight’s first-place clash; they doubled down and coughed up two on set pieces. And those may prove the costliest scores they’ll surrender all year, harried, harassed and eventually humbled in a 2-0 defeat that was their first home loss and left them five points behind in the East.
“Poor marking on a few set plays in the begging, too many lost 50-50s, too many unforced errors, no rhythm in our attacking game. It’s a tough one to go down like that,’’ said coach Hans Backe. “We created a decent number of chances, but couldn’t really hurt them. They were the better team tonight.
“Yeah, I’m surprised. It’s a big game, we were fighting for No. 1 and you want to win; but they are No. 1. We played so slow and couldn’t come out in our attacking game. Of course everyone is disappointed.’’
After going on a five-game unbeaten streak to slice what had once been Sporting KC’s 11-point lead in the Eastern Conference down to two, the Red Bulls (14-8-7, 49 points) lost all that momentum. Or more to the point, they let Sporting KC strut right into their mostly-house and take it, before a season-low crowd of 10,286.
“I told you for a very long time we won’t be able to keep coming back. It happened tonight. We played the same way defensively we played since the beginning of the season; but offensively we didn’t,’’ said captain Thierry Henry, who has been harping on the slow starts and saw another one doom them tonight.
“I thought we created chances; we didn’t score. I said to you so many times that you’re not going to be able to come back sometimes in a game like that, and that happened tonight. KC were better than us, way better. They attacked the game better than us, and we found ourselves down 2-0 after 20 minutes.’’
Goals by C.J. Sapong and Kei Kamara left the Red Bulls trailing 2-0 after 19 minutes, and they’ve lost all seven of the games this year in which they’ve trailed at halftime. But this defeat finds them five points adrift of Sporting KC with just five games left, and one behind a hot Chicago team that holds a game in hand.
It was a physical affair, with some pushing and shoving ensuing in the 90th minute. But in the end Sporting KC tightened their stranglehold on the East.
Midfielder Teemu Tainio was whistled for a soft foul on Graham Zusi outside the box, and the MLS assist leader hit his free-kick off the crossbar. The rebound fell to Matt Besler, who tapped it to Sapong for an easy 12th-minute goal.
It was the MLS-high 11th tally they’d surrendered in the first 15 minutes of games, three more than the next-worst team. And their nightmare got worse just seven minutes later, when Kamara beat defender Wilman Conde badly on a Zusi corner, getting open for an all-too-easy header and a 2-0 lead.
They were a league-best 10-0-3 at home, but just 0-6 when trailing at the half; and the latter won out. Sporting KC, undeterred by being on the road, stuck with their high pressure and 4-3-3 formation and simply took it to the Red Bulls.
“We lost the game ourselves,’’ said Tim Cahill. “They’re a good team (but) we definitely should have competed a lot better. I really wanted to win this game so much time for us and the fans.”
Sporting KC – without a Designated Player and using a fraction of the Red Bulls’ $15 million, three-DP payroll – were clearly the more explosive athletic and physically-imposing team. Even with Teal Bunbury out due to a knee injury, Kamara gave Conde fits and Sporting KC were first to seemingly every 50-50.
“Overall, they played better. Let’s not hide behind anything. They deserve to be first, and they are,’’ said Henry. “Now we’re not in the playoffs yet, and we’re going to have to fight to try to go there. And our paths are going to cross again. Hopefully we can improve.’’