In the silence of the New York Red Bulls locker room, Tony Meola sat on a chair with his hands folded behind his head, dejection draped over his exhausted body.
The 37-year-old goalkeeper had again been forced to make far too many saves, his team had lost yet another game and they remained solidly entrenched in last place in the Eastern Conference following a 3-2 loss to the New England Revolution.
"We're in last place, the truth of the matter is we deserve to be in last place and if something doesn't change we're going to continue to be in last place," Meola said. "We can fool ourselves all we want, but we're a last-place team. After two or three games if you're in last place, the record might be lying, 14 games is not lying. This is a reality."
Another cruel reality for the Red Bulls is that it's not getting easier. They will fly across the country Tuesday to face the Los Angeles Galaxy and then take on FC Dallas next Saturday.
And they'll do so without Youri Djorkaeff, who started the season wearing the captain's armband and scoring a brilliant goal against D.C. United. Now Djorkaeff is in Europe, saying he needed to return home to tend to a family illness. Instead he was in the stands in Frankfurt, Germany with his wife, cheering for France in a World Cup quarterfinal.
"I don't want to make any comments on Youri Djorkaeff," Amado Guevara said through a translator. "Ask me about the next game in Los Angeles, but don't ask me about Youri. That's all I want to talk about."
Added Meola: "I don't have any thoughts on it, I don't really care. I didn't expect to play with him this week. He said he was going to go and take care of his business and that's what I think he did."
Desperate to secure points in the opener of this stretch of three games in seven days, the Red Bulls came out lax in the opening 20 minutes and paid for it as Clint Dempsey scored the first of his two goals in the sixth minute as Jeff Parke's attempted clearance bounced off his leg and into the net.
"We talked before the game about coming out with a lot of energy, working hard, playing in their end of the field and coming out for a good start," Red Bulls interim coach Richie Williams said. "And it didn't even come close to that. We had guys jogging around half speed, couldn't pass from A to B. it was just a really bad effort the first 20 minutes."
The Red Bulls were fortunate to level the game in the 24th minute on a spectacular solo effort by Edson Buddle. Receiving the ball near the corner, Buddle first dribbled around Andy Dorman along the end line, then took on Michael Parkhurst before beating Matt Reis near post from an acute angle for his third goal of the year.
"I think from that angle he thought I was going to cross it but I just took my chances and this time the odds went in my favor," Buddle said of Reis.
It's a goal that came completely against the run of play and a goal that should have revitalized the Red Bulls. Instead, they fell asleep in the final five minutes of the first half and Taylor Twellman buried his second open header in the box in a two-minute span to give the Revs a 2-1 lead at the break.
"The first 20 minutes and the last five minutes of the first half we couldn't pass the ball, we gave Taylor Twellman two free headers in the span of three minutes," Meola said. "We can talk all we want about it, but we just have to do it. We didn't do it."
The Red Bulls had a second life when Mike Magee scored in the 66th minute, tucking the ball neatly inside the near post. But again, the Red Bulls fell asleep defensively, allowing Dempsey room to make a diagonal run across the top of the box before he sent the ball back across the goal for what proved to be the game-winner in the 72nd minute.
"The guy is a talented player, but for him to be able to run past three guys and score a goal shouldn't happen," Williams said of Dempsey.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
