By BRIAN LEWIS
OK, so what do you need to know about the Red Bullsâ shorthanded 2-0 win over Toronto?
Theyâre resilient. They make their own messes, but theyâre starting to find ways to get out of them. They followed up last weekendâs come-from-behind 4-1 rout of D.C. with tonightâs victory despite essentially playing the second half a man down after Gabriel Cicheroâs 46th-minute red card. âIt was a fantastic result. I think we went the entire 90 minutes and deserved the three points,ââ said Juan Carlos Osorio. âWe had a great effort and some outstanding individual performances. It was great to have a clean sheet and a second consecutive win.â
Theyâre selfless and developing good chemistry _ and karma. The first goal came when Seth Stammler cleared a cross put of the box, and Juan Pablo Angel _ standing at midfield, but seeing he was offside _ came to a dead stop, and his defender stopped with him. Mike Magee raced by, eventually outrunning Marco Valez to the ball and a breakaway goal.
âI was surprised. Juan didnât go because he knew he was offside. He signaled me to go; he didnât go because he knew he was offside,ââ said Magee. âHe signaled me to run and I started running. I didnât think by any chance Iâd get there. I thought he would have caught me and cut me off..â
Then Angel got rewarded in the 92nd, when Jorge Rojas sprung Dane Richards perfectly down the right flank. The Jamaican trotted in alone on the keeper, drawing him out and rather than shoot he sagely slid the ball to a wide-open Angel who tapped in arguably the easiest goal heâs ever scored or ever will score.
Theyâre starting to get help from attacking options other than Angel. Richards returned after missing a month with a hip flexor, and notched his team-high tying fourth assist. And Magee scored for the second straight game as a support striker.
âI was caught (offside) and I saw Mike and I stopped. Lucky for us, the defender stopped as well, giving Mike enough time to get there early. He finished off the ball really, really well,ââ Angel said. âHeâs a really good player. He has ability. He understands the game. He can score goals, and goals build confidence up. If he plays like that heâll be a great help to us.â
They’re getting great play out of Juan Pietravallo, Seth Stammler and Jon Conway. The first did the work of two men as the lone midfield destroyer when they went to a 4-4-1 after the ejection, Stammler excelled at right back the same way he’s excelled as a d-mid and a winger, and Conway made the one huge saves he needed to on a first-half free kick and Johann Smith’s breakaway .
âJuan Pietravallo was terrific today when he was playing basically by himself, an unmarked man, he regained a lot of possession and had good distribution. Our goalie, Jon Conway, also came out strong and big when we needed him the most. In the first half, they had a free kick from the center of the field towards the far post and Jon kept us in the game.
“Seth was absolutely fantastic. He has played as a box-to-box midfielder, he has played out wide, and today he played as a fullback and every time, he does very well…He has proved that he is a very versatile and reliable player and a great team player.”
Theyâre creative. In the 16 games before Rojasâ arrival, they mustered exactly 16 goals. In the four games since, theyâve scored nine _ and he has four assists in that span. The Venezuelan midfielder is clearly their talisman.
They just love doing things the hard way. Now they face Houston next week minus Cichero, and possibly without Jeff Parke. The central defender sprained his ankle and came off in the 25th minute.
âIâm all right. Itâs not bad. Itâll probably take a week,ââ Parke said. When I asked if that meant heâd miss the Dynamo tilt next Sunday, he said âI hope not. Thatâs why Iâve got this.ââ (He held up what looked like a big suitcase, which was really a device that gets filled with ice, and then raises and lowers the pressure around the injured ankle. Back in my day we just had a bucket.)
And for the record, the team is NOT chasing Sylvain Wiltord. But they’re still very much targeting three U.S.-based strikers. We’ll check in later.