The New York Red Bull Reserves remained undefeated after taking a 2-1 victory from the Columbus Crew Reserves at Sprague Field on the campus of Montclair State University on Sunday. The game capped a weekend in which the Red Bulls outscored their Eastern Conference opponents a total of 6-1 after the first team beat the Crew 4-0 on Saturday.
The fans were treated to an up and down first half with both teams attacking and creating chances. Columbus had the first chance of the game in the 7th minute when Kei Kamara was able to collect a ball on the right wing and go at Red Bulls defender Tim Regan. As Regan committed, Kamara slid a square ball across to New Jersey Native and former MetroStar Eddie Gaven whose flick just missed the far post. In the 23rd minute, New York had it's best opportunity of the half when a ball was floated from the midfield toward the Columbus penalty box. Chris Karcz was able to slip between Crew defender Brandon Moss and goalkeeper Bill Gaudette. Gaudette recovered quickly and blocked Karcz's attempt at goal and the rebound fell to New York midfielder Markus Schopp whose one time shot was saved off the line by Brandon Moss. The persuing counter attack saw a long ball find the feet of Kamara who once again found Gaven atop the Red Bulls penalty box but Gaven's shot sailed high.
Columbus came out quick in the second half but the game remained scoreless as Red Bulls Goalkeeper Danny Cepero was able to stop one time shots from both Kamara and midfielder Ricardo Virtuoso.
The Red Bulls began taking control of the game about the 60th minute and started applying pressure on the Crew's defense. In the 67th minute, the Red Bulls were able to gain the lead on a great individual effort by Jerrod Laventure. The play started with a long ball from Taylor Graham into Laventure who took control of the ball inside the Crew penalty area, after attracting three Crew defenders with a series of five cutbacks, Laventure was able to create just enough space to get a right footed shot off which beat the diving Gaudette to the right post giving the Bulls a 1-0 lead.
The goal was Laventure's fourth of the 2007 Reserve Division, which places him first in the league.
Two minutes later, the Red Bulls doubled their lead with a controversial goal. Laventure was able to flick a ball onto Karcz whose seemed to dribble the ball over the baseline before crossing the ball to a wide open Sinisa Ubiparipovic who slotted the ball home while the referee's flag stayed down, giving the Red Bulls a 2-0 lead in the 70th minute.
Columbus made it interesting as they cut the lead to 2-1 as the dangerous Kamara headed in a beautiful Virtuoso cross past Danny Cepero. The Red Bulls were able to keep possession for the majority of the last ten minutes as they improved their record in the Reserve League to 3-0 and leapfrogged Colorado into first place.
SCORING:
NY - Laventure, 67 (unassisted)
NY - Ubiparipovic, 70 (Karcz, Laventure)
CLB - Kamara, 78 (Virtuoso)
LINE UPS:
CLB: Gaudette, Moss, Zayner, Junge (Hunter 3), Ward, Oughton (Krause, 77), Szetela, Gaven (Chandler, 79), Virtuoso, Rodgers, Kamara
NY: Cepero, Vide, Graham, Regan, Zarzecki (MacDonald, 46), Ikangu, Ubiparipovic (Kotnyski, 77), Caccavale, Schopp (Patterson, 61), Laventure, Karcz (Raus, 77)
CAUTIONS:
NY - Karcz 33, Ikangu 54
CLB - NONE
EJECTIONS: NONE
