After finishing atop last year’s MLS standings and winning the Supporters’ Shield — their first-ever meaningful silverware — the Red Bulls will head toward the All-Star break having slumped into mediocrity, and teetering on the precipice of the playoff race. And they have their own shoddy defense to blame.
They’ve coughed up more goals than any other playoff contender, and more early scores than any team in MLS. It’s not a lack of talent, but of concentration and grit. Either way, it’s a problem them need to fix, starting with Saturday’s game against San Jose.
“It doesn’t matter the talent if you don’t have the workers. Talent is a secondary thing. Are we a better team [than San Jose]? Do we have better players? We are and we do,” coach Mike Petke said. “But at the end of the day, it comes down to fighting, competing, being willing to go out there and do the dirty work. If we get back to the mentality we had last year, good things await.’’
They’re far from that. The 30 goals they have allowed are the most of any playoff contender. The eight they have conceded in the first 15 minutes of games the worst in MLS, as are the seven they have surrendered in the first 15 minutes after halftime.
“That’s just concentration,’’ said Peguy Luyindula, who practiced Friday and is back after toe injures suffered playing consecutive games on turf.
“When you make mistakes and concede goals as early as we do away from home — and sometimes even at home — it puts an awful amount of pressure on the team,’’ said Tim Cahill, who just won an ESPY for MLS Athlete of the Year.
But Cahill’s 2014 isn’t measuring up to his 2013. He and Dax McCarty excelled as a central midfield pairing last year, but have struggled due to injuries and World Cup absences.
McCarty has fallen from 58th in the Whoscored.com ratings to 114th, Cahill tumbling from fourth to 208th. The Red Bulls are just 1-3-3 when they’re in the lineup together, with even Cahill — drawing interest from QPR and Sunderland according to the UK media — admitting they haven’t replicated last year’s form.
“No, we haven’t, and it’s obvious,” Cahill said. “ Whether its personnel or gelling youngsters or whatever. It’s not an excuse, because I can play with anyone and I can play in any position, but here its knowing your roles, what your objective is to help the team. [As a team] we’re going into the old NBA-style of MLS, and we want to get away from that … go back to the team we were — hard to beat, nick it 1-0.
“It wasn’t always pretty, but if you want silverware, that’s the only way to do it. We’re lucky its midseason and it can be that way now, but it can’t be that way for much longer.’’
Cosmos sign striker Flores
The Cosmos inked acquired El Salvador national team striker Andrés Flores on Friday, on loan from Turín-FESA Fútbol Clube in his home country.
“I’m really excited to be joining the Cosmos,” Flores said. “It’s a championship-winning squad with a lot of quality players, but I’m here to try and help the team and ready for a new challenge.”
Just 23 years old, Flores has already been capped 31 times by the El Salvador senior national team. He made his debut in 2008 against Trinidad and Tobago, and has even served as El Salvador’s captain, most recently in a friendly against powerhouse Spain in Washington last month.
“We’re delighted to have added Andrés Flores to our squad,” said Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese, a former striker who has an eye for goalscorers. “He’s a young player with lots of international experience and potential. His pace and skill will add another dimension to our attack and gives us more options on the forward line.”
Flores started his youth career with Academia Chelona and moved to Argentinian power River Plate in 2006, where he spent three years. He went back to El Salvador in 2009 with A.D. Isidro Metapán, where he played over 60 games and helped lead the team to multiple Primera Division crowns. In 2012, he joined Viborg FF in Denmark for one year on loan before returning to Metapán.