NEW YORK RED BULLS v COLORADO RAPIDS
GIANTS STADIUM, E. Rutherford, N.J.
3 p.m. ET (TeleFutura; MSG; Altitude)
May 13, 2007 (WEEK 6 / MLS Game #38
An interconference matchup of high fliers in the early going is ahead at Giants Stadium, as the Colorado Rapids travel to the East Coast to take on the New York Red Bulls. Despite having gone undefeated in their five games to start the campaign and not allowing a goal for the opening seven hours of play this season, the Red Bulls are in second place in the Eastern Conference, a point behind the Kansas City Wizards. The Rapids come into the game off a 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake on Thursday - a game where both goals were own goals, and one where the single point moved Colorado into sole possession of the Western Conference lead.
REFEREE: Terry Vaughn. SAR (bench): Rob Fereday; JAR (opposite): Michael Salyers; 4th: Abbey Okulaja
MLS Career: 74 games; FC/gm: 31.1; Y/gm: 4.1; R: 23; pens: 23
Games involving Red Bulls: P14 W6 L2 T6; FC/gm: 28.7; Y/gm: 4.4; R: 6; pens: 7
Games involving Rapids: P10 W6 L3 T1 FC/gm: 28.9; Y/gm: 4.2; R: 3; pens: 4
INJURY REPORT: NEW YORK RED BULLS - OUT: DF Hunter Freeman (L ankle sprain); FW Mike Magee (R knee surgery recovery); MF Markus Schopp (sports hernia); QUESTIONABLE: GK Ronald Waterreus (L ankle sprain) ... COLORADO RAPIDS - OUT: DF Brandon Prideaux (R knee meniscus); DOUBTFUL: MF Nick LaBrocca (R hamstring strain); PROBABLE: DF Ugo Ihemelu (L knee tendonitis); FW Roberto Brown (neck strain)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: COL: Kyle Beckerman
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (25 meetings): Red Bulls 12 wins (0 shootout), 39 goals ... Rapids 10 wins (0 shootout), 29 goals ... Ties 3
AT GIANTS STADIUM (12 meetings): Red Bulls 7 wins (0 shootout), 24 goals ... Rapids 4 wins (0 shootout), 15 goals ... Ties 1
• This is the first of two meetings between the clubs this season, the only one at Giants Stadium. They will conclude the season series at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on July 8.
LAST YEAR (MLS):
7/14: NY 1, COL 0 (Guevara 35)
10/7: COL 1, NY 1 (Peterson 4 - Guevara 60)
• A year ago, the Red Bulls won the season series, winning at the Meadowlands before coming back to claim a draw in Denver. It was the third time in the last four years New York won the season set; they also won in 2003 and 2005, while the Rapids claimed wins in both games in 2004.
• New York has won on four of their last eight trips to Denver, losing just twice in that time, dating back to a 3-1 win on June 24, 2000. The then-MetroStars hadn't lost for more than four years at Mile High Stadium until a 1-0 reversal on July 26, 2003.
• Coaches record: Bruce Arena vs. COL: P9 W6 L2 D1 ... Fernando Clavijo vs. NY: P12 W1 L8 D3
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls remained unbeaten on the season, but finally allowed a goal in a result that might feel more like a loss, conceding two goals after the 90th minute as Real Salt Lake came back to claim a 3-3 draw last Saturday evening at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Red Bulls dropped out of first place in the Eastern Conference, now with 11 points from five matches, tied with the New England Revolution a point behind the Kansas City Wizards.
LAST MATCH
• Real came into the game winless in their four games to begin the season and goalless for more than five hours of play, which led to John Ellinger being relieved of his head coaching duties and replaced by Jason Kreis, still the league's all-time leading goalscorer. They were facing a Red Bulls with three wins and a draw in four games - and without a goal conceded on the year.
• Things didn't start out well for Kreis in his coaching debut, as the Red Bulls struck twice in the opening half-hour. First, Dave van den Bergh lofted a high ball over the RSL defense and Dane Richards outpaced his man to get onto the end of it, poking past Chris Seitz in the penalty area on the bounce (12). Then Clint Mathis scored for the first time against his former club, getting onto the end of another van den Bergh through ball and coolly slotting under Seitz to give New York a 2-0 lead after 28 minutes.
• Real finally became the first team to score on the Red Bulls when they pulled a goal back in the 61st minute - and took a beauty. Chris Klein cut across the top of the penalty area from the right and cracked a curling left-footed shot that beat Ronald Waterreus high inside the far corner.
• But Mathis seemed to have completed the misery for his old friend Kreis in the 83th minute, again doubling the lead in the 83rd minute when he headed home a Dema Kovalenko cross from close range.
• Yet Real weren't done. Carey Talley took a bump from Red Bulls center back Jeff Parke in the area while jostling for a corner kick, and referee Ricardo Salazar pointed to the spot, where Jeff Cunningham converted for his third goal of the season.
• Then two minutes into stoppage time, it took another stunning strike from Real to tie the match. He chased down a long ball in the right side of the area, cut back around a defender to get an angle and ripped a rising drive high inside the far corner.
• Red Bulls manager Bruce Arena made one change to the team that defeated FC Dallas 1-0 at Pizza Hut Park 10 days earlier. Clint Mathis returned from suspension and came back into his role behind the lone striker, preferred to Dema Kovalenko, who went to the substitutes' bench.
• Here's Arena's team (4-4-1-1): Ronald Waterreus (Jon Conway 72) - Hunter Freeman, Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, Todd Dunivant - Dane Richards (Dema Kovalenko 80), Claudio Reyna, Seth Stammler, Dave van den Bergh - Clint Mathis - Jozy Altidore (John Wolyniec 86). Substitutes Not Used: Taylor Graham, Jerrod Laventure, Tim Regan, Sinisa Ubiparipovic
• "Obviously the last 5-6 minutes of the game were a complete disaster, but I think for the most part we played pretty well. I don't even remember when we scored," Arena said. "In the last five minutes they scored three goals. It was a poor job of managing the game."
TEAM NEWS
• Although they have still not been on the losing side of a league contest this season, the dramatic loss of such a commanding lead so late in the game felt almost as bad to some of the Red Bulls players.
• "We were fully in control," said Red Bulls captain Claudio Reyna. "Probably, for 80 minutes we played a very good game, but obviously it's 90 minutes and the last 10 minutes we got very sloppy. They pushed some numbers forward and had nothing to lose. It feels like a loss, to be honest."
• Mathis continued as the driving force of the Red Bulls attack, scoring two goals. In his three starts for New York in league play, he has the two goals and an assist.
• "He fits in really well to the system we're playing, where he plays off behind the target striker," said Reyna. "He can create a pass and he's also very dangerous scoring. Today he just played in that hole as a free player and that's definitely his strength. It's difficult to mark against, as he plays in front of the back two defenders and behind the midfielder. It causes the team problems."
• On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the Red Bulls 3-1 in extra time in their second-round play-in game in the U.S. Open Cup. After each team went a player down in the regulation 90 minutes - a period in which Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin made 10 saves, including stopping a Jozy Altidore penalty kick in the first half - the Galaxy struck first in the extra period.
• Peter Vagenas was pulled down in the penalty area, and Landon Donovan converted from the spot to give the Galaxy the lead on 93 minutes. Then 10 minutes later, Santino Quaranta drove a cross into the area that Kyle Martino headed off the underside of the bar and down just over the goal line to double the Galaxy lead.
• Juan Pablo Angel, who made his Red Bulls debut, coming on in the 62nd minute, finally beat Cronin from a free kick in the 109th minute to pull the visitors back to within one, but Quaranta finished off a counterattack with an easy tap-in of a Donovan pass to round out the scoreline.
• Here's Arena's team: Jon Conway, Hunter Freeman (Seth Stammler 33), Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, Todd Dunivant, Dane Richards, Claudio Reyna (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 11), Dema Kovalenko, Dave van den Bergh, Josmer Altidore (Juan Pablo Angel 62), Clint Mathis (John Wolyniec 71). Substitutes Not Used: Danny Cepero, Taylor Graham, Tim Regan
• "It was a game we should have won but we didn't. At the end of the day, we had enough chances where we could have buried one and won the game in regulation," Arena said. "But Steve Cronin was excellent today."
• In addition to Altidore's missed spot kick against the Galaxy, Mathis missed one in the 1-0 win against Houston on April 21. "It wasn't real good. We have had four now since preseason, and we have missed all of them. Four different players have taken them, and we haven't made one," Arena said.
• Although Angel's goal in his New York eventually had no impact on the final result, he impressed his team nonetheless. "For his first game with us, I like what I saw. He got a goal, got a number of goal-scoring opportunities," Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena said. "It was pretty good. He had some other chances. I think he'd love to have a couple of those headers back." Said Angel: "I felt good, and the most important thing now is having more regularity. We have an important game coming up against Colorado at home. It will be my debut at home, and I hope to be better than I was tonight."
COLORADO RAPIDS
After each team scored through an own goal in the opening quarter-hour, the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake settled for a 1-1 draw in round two of the Rocky Mountain Cup at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Thursday evening. The Rapids moved into sole possession of the top spot in the Western Conference with eight points from six matches, one ahead of Houston Dynamo (who have played a game less) and the same as FC Dallas.
LAST MATCH
• The Rapids were looking to win for the first time at home since the 2-1 opening day victory against D.C. United, while Real were looking for their first league victory on the campaign. The teams were meeting for the second time in 10 days, after the Rapids claimed a 2-0 victory in Salt Lake on April 30.
• The game got off to a strange start, as four minutes in, Herculez Gomez got free down the right flank. He whipped in a low cross and Nick Rimando dove out to get a hand onto it, only to see it bounce off the thigh of a retreating Jack Stewart and into the RSL goal.
• But the Rapids returned the favor 11 minutes later. Freddy Adu - very active and dangerous all night long on the left flank, drove in a rolling cross from the left side of the penalty area that Pablo Mastroeni stuck out his foot to stop, only to see slip inside the near post as Rapids 'keeper Bouna Coundoul went the other way.
• It was the ninth time in MLS history there had been two own goals in the same game, and the sixth that each team had scored from an own goal in a game. But it was the first time that all the scoring in a 1-1 game came from own goals.
• Gomez had two apparent goals - one in each half - flagged for offside. He got on the end of a rebound and sent it off Rimando and home in the 13th minute, but was offside on the initial shot. In the 67th minute he again looked to have scored off a pass from substitute Jose Cancela, but again the assistant referee's flag went up.
• Rapids head coach Fernando Clavijo made no changes to the team that lost 3-1 to Houston Dynamo the Saturday before at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
• Here's Clavijo's team (4-4-2): Bouna Coundoul - Dan Gargan, Pablo Mastroeni, Mike Petke, Greg Vanney - Terry Cooke (Jacob Peterson 90), Kyle Beckerman, Jovan Kirovski (Jose Cancela 57), Nicolas Hernandez - Herculez Gomez, Roberto Brown. Substitutes Not Used: Conor Casey, Nico Colaluca, Ugo Ihemelu, Zach Thornton, Chris Wingert
• "In the first half we didn't play well, simple as that," said Clavijo. "The second half we moved better. We sent people forward, we attacked. We were playing too conservatively in the first half."
TEAM NEWS
• Clavijo said a big difference in his team's play in the second half was the addition of José Cancela into the center of midfield for Jovan Kirovski.
• "In the second half I think the change of Jose Cancela changed the game," Clavijo said. "We started attacking with numbers, creating chances. We created chances, but we didn't come up with the goal that we needed."
• The biggest difference was Cancela moved more forward into the attack, in behind the front two, while Beckerman sat a little deeper in more of a holding role.
• "If you can keep the tempo through possession, you're going to be able to make teams run," Clavijo said. 'We need to do a better job on this field possessing the ball, and the first half that was not the case. But the second half I thought we did well. We moved the ball around, we created chances, we overlapped on the left, we created on the right side. I'm pleased with the way we played in the second half, but we need to play 90 minutes."
• Since the start of the season, Herculez Gomez and Nicolas Hernandez have also changed roles, Gomez now playing up and Hernandez now wide on the left. Gomez ran onto a ball played down the line by right winger Terry Cooke before putting in the cross that led to the Colorado goal.
• "I felt like it was going to be a good day. I had a hand in the first goal, and I thought it was going to be the first of many. I felt confident," Gomez said. "We've got to give our midfielders a chance to participate in the play. We've got great midfielders and we have to get them the ball. I think when (Jose Cancela) came on, it showed, we started connecting more moving the ball more and Real Salt Lake was just playing for the counter attack."
• Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has held onto the starting goalkeeping job ahead of veteran Zach Thornton from the start of the campaign - and once again ensured a result with a terrific save on Freddy Adu from close range late in the first half.
• "Amazing save," Clavijo said. "Hopefully next game somebody else can save the game and Bouna doesn't have to make a spectacular save. We wanted three points today, but we got one. And we allowed them to take one today. You got to remember, this is not just a regular game. We've created a rivalry right now with Real Salt Lake and every time we step onto the field we better be ready to perform."
• The intense matchup in the second installment of the Rocky Mountain Cup was just another game for the Rapids in some ways, Gomez said. "I'm starting to find out in my time here that a lot of teams don't like us," he said. "We've got guys who love playing under that type of pressure - Pablo, Kyle, they love getting under the opponents' skin, and I love helping them. I don't really have to run my mouth, but my play will help them."
• Dan Gargan was making his second consecutive start at right back, as Clavijo continues to battle the loss of two starting defenders, Brandon Prideaux (right knee meniscus) and Ugo Ihemelu (left knee tendonitis). Ihemelu was available Thursday, and should be able to play Sunday in New York, though the artificial turf could be problematic for him.
