The Red Bulls have suffered more agonizing losses at the hands of rival D.C. than any other team, and last night’s will be at the top of that heap of misery. Their title-less drought reached 17 years and counting with a 1-0 defeat in the second leg of the Eastern Conference semis, having a goal waved off and a star player sent off.
For this team, chasing MLS Cup has been like Sisyphus pushing his rock, or Ahab chasing his whale; and they’ve had about as much success, despite three Designated Players and a bloated budget. But last night brought new twists, with Kenny Cooper’s penalty kick waved off for encroachment, followed by Nick DeLeon’s 88th-minute tally for their archrivals.
“I’ve been here for three years, playing in every (freaking) game and I haven’t won (crap). It’s (screwed) up,’’ said midfielder Joel Lindpere.
“Only one team is going to be happy at the end of the season. We will be a team obviously that didn’t win. Only one team is going to be happy so the rest will be talking about us. It’s not good enough, we want to win, but as I said to you only one team is going to win,’’ said captain Thierry Henry.
“Whenever you play well and you go out in a competition like this, you’re always upset at the end of the day.’’
Encroachment, elimination, and abject frustration; and Henry had his share of the blame as well, the most culpable of all Red Bulls in referee Mark Geiger’s encroachment call that wiped out Cooper’s penalty kick. The ig striker – second in MLS with a career high-tying 18 goals – was despondent afterwards, and his probably weren’t the only tears shed in the New York locker room.
After Hurricane Sandy forced the teams to flip-flop the legs and the Red Bulls escaped RFK with a tie on Saturday night, with top seeds Sporting KC and San Jose being eliminated, things appeared to be breaking well for the Red Bulls. Of 19 teams that had tied or won their first legs, all but five had advanced. Make it six.
This will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow for a team that piled up a club-record 57 points, but has now bowed out of the playoffs in the conference semis for the third straight year, a failure likely to cost coach Hans Backe his job.
“We have to wait and see,’’ said Backe. Considering his contract has expired and he hasn’t had any substantive conversations with new GM Jérôme de Bontin, the wait probably won’t have to be that long.
The Red Bulls outshot DC 18-8 and peppered both United keepers, first Bill Hamid – who took Cooper down in the box to concede a penalty and get sent off – and then Joe Willis, who got beaten by the big striker for a goal, only to see if waved off and then save the second attempt.
Rafa Marquez drew a 61st-minute yellow card for a forearm to the face of Chris Pontius, yet another Marquez blunder that came back to haunt them. Eight minutes later, Henry passed to Dax McCarty, who played Cooper in on goal with a one-touch pass that split the back four. Hamid tripped up Cooper, who’d been a perfect 10-for-10 in his career on penalty kicks.
Cooper beat Willis in the 73rd, but it was waved off in the midst of the Red Bulls’ celebration for encroachment, Henry leading several players into the box too early as Cooper stutter-stepped. His second attempt was saved, and two minutes later, Marquez drew his second yellow for a sliding tackle on Pontius to get sent off.
“The referees always takes the decision. Maybe I can say something but the referee takes the decision, so that’s it,’’ said Marquez, who may go on loan to Atlas this offseason, but wants to return for his final year on his contract in hopes of winning MLS Cup. “I want to try to be a champion in my last year, be a champion here in MLS.’’
While that thought may cause many Red Bull fans to cringe even more, they still pressed forward back at even strength. But United withstood a barrage over the final 20 minutes, and against the run of play, defender Robbie Russell played DeLeon through and rookie Connor Lade kept him on for the eventual winner.
“I’m gobsmacked,’’ said midfielder Tim Cahill. “We obviously could’ve won the game; we know it. That’s probably why it hurts so much.’’
United goes on to face Houston in the Eastern Conference final, while the Red Bulls, with three Designated Players and an aging, expensive roster, goes home to try to figure out how this postseason went so awry.
“United coach Ben Olsen said “When the chips are down there is a certain spirit about (this team).’’