Dave van den Bergh got the Red Bulls' season off to the best possible start, scoring the fastest goal in team history to lift New York to a 2-0 victory against the Columbus Crew at Giants Stadium Saturday night.
After Sinisa Ubiparipovic dispossessed Guillermo Barros Schelotto in midfield, van den Bergh took two dribbles and fired a left-footed shot from 22 yards out off a diving Will Hesmer and into the net just 46 seconds into the match. The Dutch midfielder also scored the lone goal in the Red Bulls' 1-0 victory against the Carolina RailHawks, the club's final preseason tune-up last week.
Van den Bergh also set up the Red Bulls' second goal, sending his corner kick to the far post where Juan Pablo Angel not only saved the ball from going over the end line, but pushed it back in front of goal where defender Kevin Goldthwaite slid in to push the ball past Hesmer in the 10th minute.
If not for the goalkeeping of Hesmer, the Red Bulls would have added onto their lead. After first diving to his left to get a hand on an Angel shot from 16 yards out, he parried Echeverry's attempt over the crossbar for a corner kick in the 21st minute.
Echeverry, the lone player new Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio has signed during the offseason, created scoring chances with his pace and set up a penalty kick in the 51st minute when former Red Bulls midfielder Danny O'Rourke pulled him down.
But for a second consecutive week Hesmer came up with a penalty kick save. After denying Collin Samuel of Toronto FC last week, Hesmer dived to his right to get a piece of Angel's attempt, which also deflected off the crossbar and out for a corner kick.
After playing on its heels early in the game, Columbus had the better of possession late, but Jon Conway was rarely tested even though the Red Bulls played the final nine minutes of the match a man down after Jeff Parke picked up his second yellow card for a tackle on Frankie Hejduk.
Goldthwaite slid over centrally for Parke, who will miss the Red Bulls' next match at FC Dallas next week, while van den Bergh moved to left back.
Osorio made his first change at the start of the second half, bringing on rookie Danleigh Borman for Sinisa Ubiparipovic, in the 71st minute John Wolyniec came on for Echeverry and Mike Magee replaced Claudio Reyna as the Bulls' final sub in the 79th minute.
After suffering a bruised knee in training Thursday, Jozy Altidore was sidelined and Echeverry got the start up front with Angel in Osorio's 3-4-1-2 formation.
Rookie Luke Sassano and van den Bergh started out wide in Osorio's five-man midfield, with Ubiparipovic playing alongside Seth Stammler in holding midfield roles in front of the three-man backline of Goldthwaite, Parke and Chris Leitch and Claudio Reyna playing a more advanced, attacking role.
Sigi Schmid went with the same starting XI he fielded in last week's 2-0 victory against Toronto FC. Schmid made all three of his substitutes by the 66th minute, bringing on Brad Evans for Adam Moffat, Nico Hernandez for a largely ineffective Schelotto and veteran Ezra Hendrickson for Stefani Miglioranzi.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
