A series of injuries had limited Claudio Reyna to just six games in the first half the season before he announced his retirement on Wednesday and a replacement couldn't be found on the New York Red Bulls roster.
So Juan Carlos Osorio looked outside the team, the league and the country, going to Venezuela in search of the answer. And the Red Bulls coach thinks he's found that in Jorge Rojas.
The former Venezuelan national team captain made his MLS debut in the cauldron that was Giants Stadium Saturday night. While many in the crowd of 46,754 went to catch a glimpse of David Beckham, Rojas was impressive in his first game with the Red Bulls, one of the positives Osorio could draw from the 2-2 tie. And Rojas wasn't one player who watched Beckham with wide eyes.
"I don't feel that Beckham is anything to get nervous about," he said through a translator. "He is just a common player like anybody else on the field."
Rojas, 31, played the entire 90 minutes, was charged with taking most of the team's free kicks and corners and set up both Red Bulls goals.
"I think at times we played very good football and Jorge shows some signs of a player that has that extra quality," Osorio said. "He slows the game down, he has a lot of patience, he plays quick when he has to, he can take people on, he can play people through. I think some good signs, but we need to keep improving and keep doing better."
Wearing No. 13, Rojas wasted little time to make an impact on the game, setting up Dave van den Bergh's right-footed first-half equalizer with a flashy pass between his legs in the 35th minute, six minutes after Carlos Ruiz put the visitors in front with his first goal of the season.
In fact, van den Bergh, who played on the left side of midfield, and Rojas formed a partnership almost immediately.
"I like playing with him," van den Bergh said. "He sees the game really well and on top of that he can actually execute what he sees so it's a lot easier and a lot of fun to play with him. He had a good game, although I think he could have had a goal as well to top it off."
Indeed, while Rojas set up van den Bergh's team-leading fifth goal of the year, the Dutch midfielder tried to return the favor, chipping a perfect ball to the top of the six-yard box. But Rojas was unable to convert the sitter, tapping the ball over the bar in the 58th minute. He also had a downward header 11 minutes later saved by Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin.
"The class he brings to this team was evident today," defender Andrew Boyens said of Rojas. "He comes out and plays very well and he does some very good things for us. It's going to be exciting to get him to continue to play and he'll be putting those chances away I bet."
While the Red Bulls were disappointed with not finishing more of their scoring chances and giving up an equalizer in the waning moments of second-half stoppage time, the play of Rojas, who is one of what is expected to be a handful of new signings, gives hope for future of a team currently winless in four games and in the Eastern Conference basement.
"We're disappointed. We should've won. We gave ourselves the chance to, but just gave up (two) points," Angel said. "But there were positives in what Jorge showed; he's going to be a massive player for us. The table is still pretty tied. There's not much (three points) between us and third place. After we change things around we're going to be in good shape."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
