After a first half that saw the New England Revolution fall into the same trap of letting the opposition pack the midfield and stifle their possession-oriented attack, they knew a tactical shift was in store for the second half.
"We were trying to change it," Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph said. "In the first half, we were pushing and we were working hard, but we were getting beat to second balls. We weren't getting into good spots."
But how the Revolution would change those tactics would jolt them into an equalizer and surprise one of the team's most versatile players.
It started when Adam Cristman limped off the field with 18 minutes to play. With only little-used striker Argenis Fernandez in reserve, Revs head coach Steve Nicol opted to throw on defensive midfielder Pat Phelan in Cristman's place, shifting Steve Ralston into Cristman's spot and moving Joseph into Ralston's attacking midfield role.
"We were hoping that maybe we could make them think differently," Nicol said. "One of Rally's big attributes is his passing and holding the ball. We were trying to pull them in tighter and get some more room wide. We were hoping to get the ball wider more often."
No one was more surprised than Ralston, who has played fullback and across the midfield for the Revolution but could not recall a time when he was asked to play striker.
"I haven't played forward since my sophomore year in college," Ralston said. "In practice every once in a while, I'll step up and play there. The ball just found my foot and I was lucky enough to get it in."
Ralston scored in the 79th minute after Kheli Dube cushioned a Jay Heaps crossfield ball, setting up the veteran for his fourth goal of his season. Ralston could have doubled his haul but Red Bulls 'keeper Jon Conway denied his diving header with two minutes to play.
"I got on the end of one [goal]," Ralston said. "I could have had another one. If I was a real forward, I could have had two. Obviously, Conway made a great save on the followup. We could have snuck out of here with three points. To be fair, it's probably what we deserved."
Nicol thought the shift helped his team spread out New York and earned his team the point he felt it deserved.
"Over the last 10 minutes and injury time, we got the ball wide more in that period than we did in the rest of the game," Nicol said. "We caused them problems. We could have gotten another one. We would have stolen the points if we'd gotten the second one."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
