Key offseason acquisition Sacha Kljestan is starting to find his rhythm with the New York Red Bulls. Encouraged by head coach Jesse Marsch to shoot more, Kljestan broke through tonight with his first goal since Week 9.
The central midfielder has the ability to bend one past a sleeping goalkeeper from distance, and with all three of his shots tonight coming from outside the penalty area, it's clear that was his plan from the opening whistle. Marsch was pleased with his efforts.
"We've been encouraging Sacha to be more aggressive around the goal because he is a great finisher, and he can put the ball in the corner. Even after the game I told him maybe there's another chance later in the first half where he could have managed to do that again."
On a humid night in Orlando, that 21st-minute goal changed the nature of the game. Even though they wound up with a man advantage for more than half of the match, New York had to put five men at the back at times to keep the Lions from exposing them on the wings. Those white Red Bull jerseys were practically transparent when Mike Grella put away the game for good in stoppage time.
It wasn't just the offense that came through, as goalkeeper Luis Robles also picked up his fifth shutout of the year. Anthony Wallace, making his second start on an injury-plagued back line continued to impress after scoring in last week's four-goal rout of New England. And Matt Miazga continues to step up as a key piece in New York's defense this season.
"Good to get a shutout," Marsch said. "We're still emphasizing now not giving away as much. [Robles] bailed us out a few times and had a really good game."
The win is the Red Bulls' fourth in their last five as they start to make a run at the Eastern Conference lead. Key to this run, but sometimes overlooked, is Dax McCarty, who registered two assists for the second straight game. He's focusing solely on distribution, and it's allowing him to find teammates for scoring opportunities.
"I didn't think it was our best game," McCarty said after the game. "I thought we played pretty poorly. The tone in the locker room is that we tried to take our mentality to sometimes having to win ugly. We've been a little bit soft, a little bit naive on the road, and I think that's lost us some points.
"We got two world-class goals tonight, we got our shutout, but we've got to play better."
