When Juan Carlos Osorio became the 11th coach in New York Red Bulls history, he stressed the importance of defending, which was something lacking last year.
A little more than a month into the season, the Red Bulls have embraced responsible, collective defending. The result is the second-best defensive record in Major League Soccer and a four-game unbeaten streak heading into Saturday night's match against the Kansas City Wizards at Giants Stadium.
"We work very hard every day and I'd probably say we work on 50 percent attacking and 50 percent defending," Osorio said. "The players now realize that we all appreciate all the effort and the fact that we limited two very good teams to very few chances. I hope that continues being our theme."
Red Bulls fans, though, might be deservedly skeptical. After six games last year, New York was unbeaten, had five clean sheets and had conceded four goals. But injuries, a lack of depth and some dubious trades led to the Red Bulls finishing tied for seventh in the league with 45 goals against.
"Last year we got off to a real good start early, too," Hunter Freeman said. "As we know in this league it's not really how you start, it's how you finish."
The Red Bulls are coming off an impressive 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Galaxy last Saturday at The Home Depot Center. Playing without both Claudio Reyna and Seth Stammler in the center of midfield, the Red Bulls did a great job limiting red-hot Landon Donovan.
Much of that credit, according to Osorio, goes to rookie Luke Sassano, who filled in admirably in defensive midfield.
"Tactically speaking that was probably our best player," Osorio said of Sassano. "The fact that in the first half we limited them to only four fouls tells me a lot. It comes not only from him, but the back four."
But Sassano is too humble to accept Osorio's praise.
"I won't take any credit for that," he said. "(Jeff) Parke and (Kevin) Goldthwaite, Hunter and Dave (van den Bergh) were awesome, not to mention Jon (Conway) played out of his mind."
Sassano will likely find himself in the same shutdown role with Stammler ruled out with back spasms. Stammler received an epidural Tuesday and is hoping to return to the training ground next weekend.
"Not this week, but the next," Stammler said. "Maybe that's optimistic, I'm not sure. But it sounds like the training staff is on the same timetable."
Reyna is also out for a second consecutive game with a left calf strain and Mike Magee will once again start as the attacking central midfielder. Juan Pablo Angel is still bothered by a nerve-related lower back injury, but he scored his first goal of the season, the winner at Los Angeles. And after a few harsh tackles tested his right knee, Dane Richards is closer to being fully fit, which adds an extra dimension to the Red Bulls attack.
"The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that he stretches the teams very much and Juan can use that space as well as Josmer," Osorio said. "He's about to be 100 percent fit. If that's the case, we will always have a threat going forward on that side. The one thing that I appreciate personally the most is his willingness to come back and help us defend when he doesn't have the ball."
Collective defending will certainly be important against a Wizards team that spent a lot of money on foreign attacking talent. Claudio Lopez, a tricky veteran attacker and former standout at Club America in the Mexican Primera Division leads Kansas City, which is in the midst of a six-game road trip.
"He is intelligent, he's very good as a counterattacking player and he can drop deep and put crosses from very dangerous areas," Osorio said of Lopez. "But he can also play as a second striker and be very good in and around the box."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
