The Red Bulls had to fight their way back from a season-opening five-game winless streak to capture the Supporters’ Shield last season. They are hoping to avoid putting themselves in an identical hole this year, seeking their first victory Saturday at Montreal (4 p.m., MSG).
They have shown signs of improvement, coming off a 1-1 draw at home against Chivas USA last weekend, their third straight draw after a season-opening blowout loss. Nevertheless, the Red Bulls (0-1-3), who are facing a winless Montreal team, still have just three points.
“We want to carry momentum,” coach Mike Petke said. “We didn’t lose, we haven’t lost in three games, so that’s a positive for us. Now it’s about going into Montreal and taking the mentality of a road game.
“They’re going to be eager to get the win, of course. You know, they’re at home. It’s been a slow start for a lot of teams in this league, a lot of teams are quality and I put Montreal as one of them. They’ve been unfortunate in certain situations. We’ve looked deeply at them and we know the quality they have, we played them in preseason, and it’s going to be a very tough challenge for us.’’
The Red Bulls will be without injured starters Tim Cahill and Richard Eckersley. Petke was coy about the status of captain Thierry Henry and defensive anchor Jamison Olave, who typically don’t play on artificial turf to spare long-standing leg injuries. Olympic Stadium has notoriously-poor turf.
“Well, I don’t actually know the starting 11 yet,” right winger Lloyd Sam said. “But how do you prepare, everybody knows their role, everyone knows what’s expected of them from each position, so I don’t think it’ll be too difficult. We have a good squad. Even players that won’t be near the starting 11 I’d say are good enough, so we should be all right.
“[Montreal is] hungry, but it’s all about us at the end of the day, and if we do the right things and do what we got to do and possess the ball and defend well and take our chances, we should be all right. It’s not really about them. It’s about us. We want our first three points. I’m not really too worried what they want. We need our first three points.’’