Don't expect the Red Bulls of New York and the Red Bull Salzburg reserve team to exchange Christmas cards any time soon. Especially not after Monday afternoon's 1-0 victory by the Salzburg side at the Red Bulls training center.
In fact, you never would have thought that the game was played by two teams from the same organization, it was so physical and chippy.
Afterwards, the Red Bulls claimed that the Red Bull Salzburg reserves entered the match with the intent of trying to injure them.
"It got kind of chippy," said goalkeeper Jon Conway, who played the first half. "It was kind of crap in my opinion. Their intention, in my opinion, was come out to try and hurt one of our guys. It was crap.
"From the get-go, there were some cheeky, chippy fouls. I think they wanted to hit somebody and they did. They got Dane. Now Dane's injured.
"I guess coming in we're guys from the States and they want to prove something."
Conway was referring to midfielder Dane Richards, who suffered a slightly sprained MCL in his right knee and was forced to leave the game in the 14th minute, three minutes after Harald Pichler took him down at midfield. Pichler was awarded a yellow card in the match, which turned into a chippy affair.
"It is really aggravating the referee allowed that to happen," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said.
"I am quite disappointed. We had even our captain (Claudio Reyna). He is well-known by keeping his temper in. He was losing it. That tells me that the referee was being unfair. Too many fouls and too many stoppings and back fouls."
The Red Bulls could find out as early as Tuesday about Richards' condition. "The severity I am not sure," Red Bulls trainer Rick Guter said.
There was swelling around the knee as Richards was in some pain, Guter said. Richards used a knee brace to walk to the team bus after the match.
"We'll treat him, make sure the swelling comes down," Guter said. "Obviously, if he blows up overnight, we'll run him probably to see the orthopedist for the Salzburg team."
What transpired did not surprise Reyna, who played in Germany for several seasons.
"I played in Germany and this is how it is always ... diving and cheats," he said.
Reyna continued: "The referee had no control. It turned into an exercise of just trying not to get injured. It got heated. It was unfortunate. We were just trying to get a game out of it and they were trying to play it was like a World Cup game."
About five minutes into the match Reyna said he asked the referee to "try to control this game. It's going to get out of hand, in German and in English. He said, 'yes, yes.' And it didn't. And that let to a game with no rhythm, especially in the first half. They came out first 15-20 minutes. It was like a league game.
"It was unfortunate because we wanted to get a little more out of this game. When you play 45 minutes ... we could never get into a rhythm because it was constantly, just stop, start. A lot of guys were disappointed. Dave (van den Bergh, midfielder) got a bad knock. It was a bit unfortunate, especially with a club that you share with. It's a bit strange."
After Reyna fouled Christoph Mattes, the Salzburg midfielder had some words for him in the 28th minute.
"Little punks, that's what they were," Reyna said with a laugh. The small media contingent also laughed.
Reyna, however, wasn't finished.
"It's a scrimmage game," he said. "Thinking it was going to be in-house against Red Bull, it was going to be little more relaxed. I don't mean that we wouldn't get into tackles and do the normal stuff. It was dirty and chippy from the beginning.
"You have young guys trying to prove a point, probably trying to get to the first team. We're just getting going a little bit. It's our preseason. We're at different stages of the season than they are. You just thought it would be played under a more friendly atmosphere than what it was.
"That was the last thing I was expecting."
For the record, Salzburg's Stanislav Vasilj, a second-half substitution, scored the lone goal in the 70th minute. Richard Kitzbichler swung a free kick into the box that was flicked on by Vasilj and bounced inside the far post and past goalkeeper Zach Thornton and into the back of the net.
The Red Bulls used their first team in the opening half and their second team in the second half.
"If I put my best 11, I will fancy my chances playing against this team and probably the first team," Osorio said.
The Red Bulls' best chance came on Seth Stammler's 20-yard attempt that sailed just wide left of the net.
"We connected on 10 passes," Osorio said. "That was very encouraging. I thought we were playing good football."
The Red Bulls hope to play the Red Bull Salzburg full team in a scrimmage before they leave for the U.S. later this week.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
