we've chased the game in the last five, six, eight, I don't know how many weeks -- but today, we were patient and also kept playing." ... The closest the Red Bulls came was a Jeff Parke in second-half stoppage time that hit the top of the bar. "It feels good because we haven't had [a shutout] in a long time. More importantly, the guys in front of me all the way to Jaime, we defended as a full team today and really had the determination not to get beat," said goalkeeper Troy Perkins. ... During the middle part of their campaign, United gritted out a number of results -- getting five wins and three draws where they scored just a single goal in a stretch from June 3-July 22. "It was ugly, but it's the playoffs. Teams are fighting and it's not that easy, especially on turf and a windy atmosphere, to play beautiful soccer." said Ben Olsen. "And we came together as a team again for the first time in a while. We competed for each other and we played smart and we concentrated for 90 minutes. It's hopefully the first step in getting back our form." ... Much like the Aug. 16 meeting, the Red Bulls denied United much space. But the next time they met, Sept. 23 at RFK, United won a seven-goal thriller. "It was a tight game, not much space to create but we were able to play through the middle with Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno and fortunately for us, we were able to stretch them a little bit and I got open to score the goal," said goal-scorer Christian Gomez. ... United must also lay to rest memories of last year's second-leg disaster against Chicago. "I don't think if you are married and you got divorced you are going to bring the divorce all the way back," Nowak said to The Washington Post. "You cannot live with the bad memories. We have to look forward and not look over our shoulders and see only the bad things that happened."
RED BULLS UPDATE: Red Bulls coach Bruce Arena has identified the key to a victory on Sunday afternoon. "We didn't get much out of Guevara and Djorkaeff," Arena said to the Newark Star-Ledger. "Those guys have to be important players for the team. It wasn't their day Saturday. ... We had a couple of players, it seemed to me, a bit confused as to their responsibilities. We've got to get that straightened out." ... Arena said the relationship between and Djorkaeff needed attention. "For whatever reason, Amado was playing his own game," Arena said. "That happens with players. Maybe he thought tactically that was the way to play in the early going. ... We told him to play ahead of (midfielder Seth) Stammler. ... Sometimes he's all forward or he's all back," he said to the Star-Ledger. "He's never in between, which is the way the games have to be played, so sometimes he has a difficult time making those adjustments, and maybe he tended to play, obviously, on the conservative side in the first half. I think sometimes he's confused (and) not sure how he wants to go about doing things. But the game's about the players making decisions on the field, figuring things out." ... Arena has his attacking options limited with lingering injuries to Mike Magee and Edson Buddle. Arena said Magee "hasn't gotten over his (right knee ligament) injury on the physical side or the psychological side," while Buddle said: "It's real frustrating. ... (A hamstring) is slow to heal. The thing with a hamstring is the first three steps when you burst after a ball." ... A bright spot for the Red Bulls was left back Todd Dunivant's ability to get forward and cause United some problems. They would like to see Marvell Wynne do the same on the right. "Not only are they good players, but they're good getting forward, they're both fast and good crossers of the ball," Jeff Parke said. "It helps us and it puts them on their heels a bit. It makes them have to make some decisions and have their defenders running at their own goal, and it takes some pressure off our back line."
