The pressure was squarely on the Kansas City Wizards. After all, the New York Red Bulls had already clinched a playoff berth. All that was left was knowing who they'd play in the first round.
But that's not to say the Red Bulls had nothing to play for Saturday night at Giants Stadium. They won just one of their past eight games and were victims of several defensive miscues during the past five games.
A win would be nice, but a tighter defensive performance was more critical.
The Red Bulls got both in a 2-1 win against the Wizards in their final regular season home game.
Bruce Arena tweaked his lineup, inserting both Jon Conway and Carlos Mendes into the starting XI for the first time since the two combined for a costly own goal at New England Aug. 25. He also brought Hunter Freeman back into the fray, starting him in place of Chris Leitch, who had an own goal in a 2-1 loss at Toronto last Thursday.
"I don't think any of our first XI, with a few exceptions, have merited starts each and every game," Arena said. "We haven't really had a good run over the past few weeks and defensively we haven't played well enough."
On Saturday, they did. With the exception of one goal off a restart when Jack Jewsbury put an open header past Conway to level the score in the 21st minute, the Red Bulls limited their defensive mistakes.
"We've been giving up a lot of goals and as a defender I look at it as mainly our fault," Jeff Parke said. "If we can't get the ball in the net, we're not going to win, but if we hold (the opponent) to no goals or a goal, I think our offense is potent enough to keep us in the game."
And when there was an opportunity for the Wizards, like Eddie Johnson's 53rd-minute penalty kick, Conway came up big. He dived to his right to stop the attempt after referee Mark Geiger called the penalty on Carlos Mendes pulling Scott Sealy down just inside the box.
"I haven't stopped one since I've been here," Conway said. "In San Jose I stopped a few, but since I got here I hadn't stopped one. I got a little bit of a read on Johnson was trying to do."
K.C. had another chance to equalize, but Dave van den Bergh cleared a ball off the line with a quarter-hour to go. And in the 90th minute, Conway dived to his left to parry away Johnson's shot from distance.
"I thought we did a great job of taking away their strengths," Mendes said. "I thought we did well as a unit dropping off when we had to and keeping everything in front of us. That was the key in the game and we spoke about it all week."
On the offensive side of the ball, the hero again was Juan Pablo Angel. The Colombian scored a pair of goals in the opening half-hour to now give him 19 goals on the campaign. With Jozy Altidore and Francis Doe both in the lineup, Angel took it upon himself to drop back further in the midfield.
"One of us had to drop to the middle to get the ball, otherwise it was going to be a big gap between the midfielders and the strikers," Angel said. "It's not my strength, it's not what I like to do, but for the circumstances, you have to do it."
His first goal was a 19th-minute penalty kick after Jose Burciaga handled a van den Bergh cross. He beat Kevin Hartman low to the keeper's right to make it a perfect 5-for-5 from the penalty spot this season.
After K.C. tied the game, Angel struck again, once again capitalizing on another Burciaga miscue. This time, Burciaga fell on the ball, allowing Dane Richards to break free down the right flank and cross to a wide open Angel in front. The former Aston Villa striker easily tapped the ball past Hartman to put the Red Bulls in front for good in the 24th minute.
"We let ourselves down against Toronto, and it was an unacceptable performance," Angel said. "Today was about building up for the playoffs and getting the team in good shape and getting confidence in what is to come. Overall, I thought it was a very good performance from everyone today."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
