The Red Bulls might have put the game away with a six-goal barrage in the second half in a 6-0 win over Real Salt Lake Saturday night at Giants Stadium, but the game changed just eight minutes in, when Real defender Jack Stewart was sent off by referee Gus St. Silva.
Stewart was sent off with a straight red for taking John Wolyniec down from behind on a breakaway opportunity. RSL was reduced to 10 men and head coach John Ellinger was forced to do some early juggling, having to take off rookie midfielder Medhi Ballouchy for defender Nelson Akwari in the 20th minute.
"I thought it was extremely soft," Ellinger said of the red card. "I didn't see the replay but I remember seeing the contact and with only nine minutes into the game ... whatever."
After holding the Red Bulls at bay and actually having a solid scoring chance of their own -- a Carey Talley 37th minute shot saved by goalkeeper Tony Meola -- the Red Bulls finally struck in the 54th minute, on the first of three Edson Buddle goals.
"I think the first half was a super effort on our part, a lot of guys put a lot into it to keep the scoreline 0-0 in the first half, so we take the first 45 minutes out of here and try to move on," RSL forward Jason Kreis said. "We know we need 90 (minutes), and to be honest with you, we haven't played good for 90 minutes in a while so we'll need to focus on that."
Suddenly, a team that was third-worst in the league in goals scored couldn't miss and Real's club-best four-game winning streak was a distant memory.
"It was disappointing because we were down a man early," defender Eddie Pope said. "I thought we finished out that [first] half very, very well. To give up a goal early [in the second half] and then collapse, it was very disappointing."
Added Kreis: "We refuse to hang our heads about it. We suffered what we thought was a difficult decision in the first half and New York was a good enough team to exploit that and they did a good job. The back breaker was the first goal. We were a little bit disappointed with how we reacted after that, but we'll move on."
Fortunately for Real, there's a quick turnaround as they host the Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday night.
"It just got uglier and uglier and it's an ugly loss, but it's only one loss," Ellinger said. "I still believe in these guys and it's out of our system and we'll move on to Wednesday."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
