CHESTER, Pa. – The Red Bulls hot streak has officially turned into an ice-cold slump. The question now is whether today’s 3-0 ten-man beating at the hands of the rival Philadelphia Union is them bottoming out, or will they sink even lower?
After reeling off an eight-game unbeaten streak, they’ve now dropped three straight. And they followed up getting bounced from the U.S. Open Cup on June 12 by New England with today’s humiliating in front of 19,013 celebrating fans at PPL Park, going a goal down in the seventh minute and a man down in the 28th.
“As a team, we did some good things and some things I didn’t like. But it was tough, especially without certain players, we were down three guys and then we get red-carded. Overall it’s a bad loss for us. There were some good things and some bad things,’’ said Red Bulls coach Mike Petke, who was notably composed considering his competitive streak and tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve.
“The reason I’m keeping it together is we got a red card 20 minutes into the game, on the road, (at a) sold out house, (against) a team that’s playing well and we’re down a man for 70 minutes. So there’s not too much…if we’d come in and lost 3-0 without a red card, I would’ve been very different right now, and I probably would’ve been damaging things.’’
Instead, it’s the Red Bulls’ momentum that has been damaged, if not broken outright. They played without Tim Cahill, Jamison Olave and Juninho – three of their top four or five players – and saw the Union hold a 17-9 edge in shots, and a 9-0 edge in shots on target. That’s not one single measly shot on frame.
Usually, no matter how bad things get, they can count on getting well against the Union, having beaten them in five straight. But today, the whipping stick was in the other hands. The Red Bulls (7-6-4, 25 points) fell into a second-place tie with the Union, and for all intents and purposes, this game was over quickly.
The highlights – or lowlights – can be seen below in HD.
After they had cleared a Union corner, Philadelphia’s Keon Daniel passed it to Sheanon Williams and the fullback sent in a cross. Roy Miller had been defending Conor Casey on the corner but got picked, and Casey eventually easily beat Lloyd Sam to head home the cross.
Keeper Luis Robles robbed Jack McInerney, but Sam suffered through a tough game. In the 28th minute, Casey flicked a header that his got by Danny Cruz. Sam raced Cruz to get to the loose ball, and as Cruz went low for the ball and Sam slid as well, the latter was shown a straight red.
“We saw the incident as a two-footed challenge by Lloyd Sam not in control of his body,’’ said referee Baldomero Toledo. “The assistant referee confirmed the challenge with visual signal and the player was sent off for serious foul play.”
The call was questionable, but also devastating.
“The ball was in front of me. I’m not really sure how to go for that ball. I’d like to see it again (on replay),’’ said Sam. “When I saw red, already being one-nil down, I thought I’ve let down my teammates here because obviously it was already a tough game. So that was immediately what I thought.’’
To be fair, after going down a man, the Red Bulls actually showed life in the second half. They subbed Kosuke Kimura on for Brandon Barklage to patrol up and down the right side; but they eventually wore down.
Philadelphia made it 2-0 in the 64th when Robles saved a Daniel shot but spilled it. Casey got to the rebound, juked defender Heath Pearce and slotted home an easy goal. The Union capped the scoreline in the 88th when Antoine Hoppenot scored.
Ex-Red Bull Sebastien Le Toux picked up his MLS-best seventh assist, Hoppenot trailing and Pearce lost in no-man’s land. The Red Bulls defender has struggled this season, a shell of his former self.
Meanwhile, a team that had gone eight straight unbeaten – holding foes to just six goals in the process – has come unglued in the back. They’ve leaked nine goals in their three-game skid, with their defense in abysmal disarray.
“I think it starts in the back. We don’t just defend with four; we’re supposed to defend with the whole team,’’ said Robles, who made six saves, and other than the ESC-led traveling support was one of few first-half bright spots. But he was betrayed by his defense far too many times in the early going.
“If you look back at that eight games stretch, what defined what we’re doing is we had a gameplan and we executed it. We’ve really struggled the last three games to maintain the same gameplan.’’
The Red Bulls haven’t had a four-game skid since Hans Backe’s debut season in 2010. They’ll aim to avoid that a week from today against Houston.
“It’s difficult to judge this game. I would’ve liked to see what we would’ve done 11 v 11m, but we weren’t,’’ said Thierry Henry, who had to drop back into midfield to try to salvage any possession. “Remember what I said (early): Maybe in two weeks we’re talking about a bad run, and that’s what’s happening. It’s not the end of the world, but hopefully we can react against Houston.’’