Connect with us

Soccer

With Two Man Advantage, Red Bulls Pull Out a Win

Red Bulls top Real Salt Lake 1-0.

(Photo by Catalina Fragoso - DoubleGSports)

(Photo by Catalina Fragoso – DoubleGSports)

 

You’re probably thinking that as the Red Bulls had a two man advantage Wednesday night, they probably cruised to an easy win.  Win they did, beating Real Salt Lake 1-0, but it sure wasn’t easy.

It’s not often you get to play a majority of the match up one man, let alone two, and yet that’s just what the Red Bulls did. They had more players on the pitch for 50 minutes once the first red card was handed out to Real salt Lake’s Javier Morales , and 35 of those 50 were spent with two more players when the second red card was rewarded to his teammate Demar Phillips. Despite playing with the 11 player to nine advantage for this amount of time, the Red Bulls did not generate a single goal.

The lone goal of the game, and the winning goal at that, came in the fourth minute off of the foot of Mike Grella. Sure, the Red Bulls had a lot of the ball once the second red card was handed out — 61% possession — but it’s not all about just holding onto the ball. It’s about scoring as well.

The Red Bulls did crowd the Salt Lake penalty area for a good amount of time forcing their goalie Nick Rimando to make seven saves, but despite that they only put one ball into the net that was ruled offside and thus it did not count.

Regardless of the lack of goals scored, the Red Bulls will gladly take the three points ahead of their major derby clash with NYCFC on Sunday. The win rounds off the Red Bulls record at a tidy 5-5-5 and gives them 20 points, just enough to sit in the final eastern conference playoff spot. They also have some games in hand on the teams in front of them.

It will be a hostile environment at Yankees Stadium Sunday evening at 5:00 when the second meeting between the two New York MLS sides takes place. No doubt the Red Bulls will have to find a way to create more offense if they want to do the double over NYCFC.

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in Soccer