The Red Bulls will host Chivas USA on Sunday afternoon trying to avoid a four-game winless skid to open the season. Captain Thierry Henry and Designated Player Tim Cahill say they need not just a point, but a victory, and once they break through with their first, more will follow.
“We need to get the first one,’’ Henry said. “Chivas looks like they got their stuff together this year, so let’s try to see if we can win that first game at home.’’
After a five-game winless streak to open coach Mike Petke’s rookie campaign in 2013, they were hoping to avoid more early-season struggles this year. They have opened 0-1-2, but were buoyed by pulling out a come-from-behind shorthanded draw in Chicago last weekend, and hope to see continued improvement Sunday at home.
“If we win Sunday, we’re all good,’’ said Cahill. “But it’s a good fight back against Chicago to get the point. The penalty at home [against the Colorado Rapids], obviously we should probably be on four points, the same as Chivas. But it’s a long season. We’re going to have to start picking up points sooner or later, whether we like it or not, and the sooner rather than later is the objective for us.’’
Chivas USA, an abysmally disorganized mess for years, has been revamped under ex-Colombian international Wilmer Cabrera, who played for the Long Island Rough Riders.
“Yeah, a young team definitely,’’ Cahill said. “They got a few young players and we’ve already marked the field and they’re going to be in our faces and obviously wanting to prove something. I think for us it was a decent performance against Chicago … but overall the football was better, more opportunities, and definitely a bit more fluency in our football.
“Chivas is going to be tough and obviously they’re a new look team and they’re not one to take lightly. For us, we’re at home and we got to go at them and try to get our goals this weekend.’’
Granted, the Red Bulls did manage to overcome last season’s slow start to win the Supporters’ Shield. But with Henry, Cahill, Jamison Olave and attacker Peguy Luyindula — who hasn’t started yet this season, but whose creativity has been missed in the midfield — they are an older team that has hard trouble with hard-working young groups like Chivas.
“They’re a young hard-working team. You know, it’s the same thing I say every week,’’ Petke said. “It’s a young hard working team we’re playing against.
“They have some quality, they’re organized, they run hard and fast, and we anticipate them coming in being very organized looking to break us on the counter and it comes down to our approach to the game, it comes down to how we’re going to be organized and how we’re we want to want to hit them where it hurts.’’