NEW YORK RED BULLS vs KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
GIANTS STADIUM, E. Rutherford, N.J.
Sept. 12, 2009 (WEEK 26) / MLS Game #178
7:30 p.m. ET (MSG; MetroSports)
For the New York Red Bulls and Kansas City Wizards, Saturday's game at Giants Stadium comes down to a simple formula - each must win to keep any faint hopes alive of making the MLS Cup Playoffs. For the Red Bulls, winners of two in a row for the first time all season, even a victory might not stave off elimination, depending upon other results. The Wizards are finishing off a three-game road swing but have lost five of their last six; while they cannot be eliminated with a loss, they could be 12 points out of the final playoff spot with only 18 more available points by weekend's end.
REFEREE: Mark Geiger. SAR (bench): C.J. Morgante; JAR (opposite): Peter Manikowski; 4th: Lee Suckle MLS Career: 58 games; FC/gm: 28.7; Y/gm: 4.0; R: 10; pens: 21
INJURY REPORT: NEW YORK RED BULLS - QUESTIONABLE: FW Juan Pablo Angel (R ankle sprain); MF Albert Celades (L calf strain); DF Kevin Goldthwaite (sports hernia surgery); DF Mike Petke (lower back); MF Seth Stammler (groin strain); MF Sinisa Ubiparipovic (R ankle sprain) ... KANSAS CITY WIZARDS - OUT: GK Eric Kronberg (shoulder surgery); MF Kevin Souter (sports hernia surgery); FW Adam Cristman (illness); DOUBTFUL: MF Matt Marquess (knee strain)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: KC: Matt Besler (caution accumulation; through Sept. 13); Chance Myers (through Sept. 13)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: KC: Jack Jewsbury, Lance Watson
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: NY: Danleigh Borman, Dane Richards, Seth Stammler ... KC: Davy Arnaud, Roger Espinoza, Herculez Gomez, Santiago Hirsig, Claudio Lopez,
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (38 meetings): Red Bulls 14 wins (2 shootout), 49 goals ... Wizards 15 wins (2 shootout), 53 goals ... Ties 9
AT N.Y. (17 meetings): Red Bulls 8 wins (1 shootout), 27 goals ... Wizards 2 wins (0 shootout), 19 goals ... Ties 7
• The Wizards haven't won on their last 12 visits to East Rutherford. The last Kansas City win at Giants Stadium came in a 2-1 triumph on April 19, 2000; the New York club has won five meetings since, with seven draws.
• Since changing their name, the New York Red Bulls have yet to win in Kansas City. The last New York win on the road in the series came Sept. 10, 2005 - when the then-MetroStars claimed a 1-0 victory. The teams played to draws in their two 2006 meetings - the first as the New York Red Bulls - before Kansas City won the last three meetings at home, the 2007 finale at Arrowhead Stadium and the first two meetings at CAB, including the 1-0 win this year.
• Coaches record: Richie Williams vs. KC: P1 W1 L0 D0 ... Peter Vermes v KC: first game
LAST MEETING (MLS):
4/23: KC 1, NY 0 (Lopez 2 pen)
• The New York Red Bulls went down a man and a goal inside of the first three minutes and could never come all the way back, falling 1-0 to the Kansas City Wizards on April 23 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in this year's first meeting.
• The game turned upside down just two minutes in. Sent through into the area by Claudio Lopez, Herculez Gomez was tripped by Red Bulls fullback Carlos Johnson after the Wizards winger won the ball and looked to be in alone on goal. Referee Michael Kennedy immediately showed a red card, the second time in two games in MLS Johnson has been sent off.
• The ejection was the fastest in MLS history. Aidan Heaney of the New England Revolution held the previous record at three minutes in for his red card against the Colorado Rapids on May 25, 1996.
• Lopez stepped up and calmly dispatched the resulting penalty kick, rolling it inside the left post while sending New York goalkeeper Jon Conway the other way.
• Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made two saves, including a game-saving stop on Juan Pablo Angel in stoppage time.
• Here's Curt Onalfo's team (4-1-3-2): Kevin Hartman - Lance Watson, Jimmy Conrad, Aaron Hohlbein, Matt Besler (Roger Espinoza 67) - Jack Jewsbury (Michael Harrington 32) - Santiago Hirsig, Davy Arnaud, Herculez Gomez (Michael Kraus 77) - Josh Wolff, Claudio Lopez. Substitutes Not Used: Rauwshan McKenzie, Kurt Morsink, Boris Pardo, Abe Thompson
• Here's Juan Carlos Osorio's team (4-3-1-2): Jon Conway - Carlos Johnson, Carlos Mendes (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 77), Kevin Goldthwaite, Alfredo Pacheco - Matthew Mbuta, Seth Stammler, Danleigh Borman - Jorge Rojas (Luke Sassano 46) - Juan Pablo Angel, Macoumba Kandji (Dane Richards 59). Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Boyens, Danny Cepero, Khano Smith, John Wolyniec
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls won back-to-back games for the first time this season, defeating the Columbus Crew 1-0 on Aug. 30 at Giants Stadium. The Red Bulls have 16 points from 24 matches on the season, sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, 23 points off the pace of Eastern Conference leaders Columbus Crew.
LAST MATCH
• The Crew came into the game riding a five-game league winning streak and eight-game unbeaten run, while the Red Bulls were coming off their first victory since May 8, a win that snapped a 13-game MLS winless skein.
• The only goal of the contest came in the 63rd minute. A second try at a Crew corner kick was deflected away and sent Dane Richards off to the races. He sprinted some 50 yards with the ball, cutting inside a retreating Brian Carroll at the edge of the area and firing a low shot past Andy Gruenebaum for his second goal in as many weeks, giving New York back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
• Red Bulls interim head coach Richie Williams made three changes to the team that defeated FC Dallas 3-2 the Sunday before. Bouna Coundoul came into goal in place of Danny Cepero; Carlos Johnson returned from injury in place of Jeremy Hall; and Jorge Rojas returned to the XI instead of Albert Celades.
• Here's Williams' team (4-3-1-2): Bouna Coundoul - Carlos Johnson, Andrew Boyens, Mike Petke, Danleigh Borman - Dane Richards, Seth Stammler, Sinisa Ubiparipovic (Luke Sassano 80) - Jorge Rojas (Macoumba Kandji 59) - Juan Pablo Angel, John Wolyniec. Substitutes Not Used: Danny Cepero, Jeremy Hall, Leo Krupnik, Ernst Oebster, Nick Zimmerman
• "Very happy to get another win, we haven't had a whole lot this year so I'm proud of the guys," Williams said. "Great job to work hard for the second straight time, it is a great feeling for all of us and we are going to continue to work hard and try to continue to win games."
TEAM NEWS
• Despite the initial back-to-back wins of the season - the first since the Red Bulls' magical ride in the MLS Cup Playoffs a season ago - they can be officially eliminated from this year's postseason even with a win against Kansas City and the right combination of other results around the league.
• "To be honest I haven't really thought about after the season," Williams said. "I'm just thinking I don't want to let our guys down and I want to try to get the most out of them I can and help them in any way I can help them to do better and perform better on the field."
• For the Red Bulls, it was their first clean sheet since a 2-0 April 18 victory against Real Salt Lake at Giants Stadium. Bouna Coundoul made one save to earn the shutout.
• "It's a team effort, it's not only the goalie, it's from the fans, from the guys on the bench, the coach and the 11 guys on the field," Coundoul said. "Everybody works hard and to end up coming up with the shutout is always good. Winning with the shutout makes everybody feel good and everybody proud of what they did on the field."
• The victory also ensured the Red Bulls avoided having the worst record in league history with their fourth win of the season. New York now has 16 points out of 24 games, surpassing the 2001 Tampa Bay Mutiny (14) and 1999 MetroStars (15).
• "That was my biggest concern," Red Bulls captain Juan Pablo Angel said. "I didn't want to be remembered in history for being part of the worst team in MLS. I can handle a bad year, but not being the worst, that's for sure."
• "Of course you don't want to be remembered as the worst team in MLS history, so that was something we obviously talked about. That's past us now and we are going to continue," Williams said. "The other thing was, we talk about streaks or even in New York history, you don't want to be known as having the least amount of points, the main thing was we wanted to go out there and play. Play for pride, play for each other, play for the team and show everyone that our record is not indicative of how well we play. We are just happy to keep getting wins and continue on the same stuff."
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
The Kansas City Wizards were able to build on their first league victory in three months, falling 1-0 to D.C. United on Wednesday night at RFK Stadium. The Wizards have 24 points from 23 matches, sitting in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, 15 points behind first-place Columbus.
LAST MATCH
• United were coming off a 2-2 draw with FC Dallas the week before where they twice came back from a goal down, while the Wizards began a three-game road swing with a 4-2 win at New England that ended a four-game losing streak, stopping their goalless streak a minute shy of a club record and giving Peter Vermes his first win as head coach.
• The Wizards bossed all the early exchanges, but United scored the game's only goal in the 39th minute. A short corner was flicked on by Bryan Namoff and Chris Pontius came diving in at the far post. His diving header beat Kevin Hartman, but not the goalpost - yet Luciano Emilio was stationed perfectly in the 6-yard box to slam the rebound into the goal for his ninth goal on the season.
• The Wizards were left a man down for the final four minutes when substitute Chance Myers was sent off by referee Terry Vaughn for a second bookable offense.
• Wizards interim head coach Peter Vermes made one change to the team that defeated the New England Revolution 4-2 at Gillette Stadium to start the road swing. Jonathan Leathers got the nod ahead of Lance Watson at right back.
• Here's Vermes' team (4-4-2): Kevin Hartman - Jonathan Leathers, Matt Besler, Jimmy Conrad, Michael Harrington - Herculez Gomez (Chance Myers 46), Santiago Hirsig (Graham Zusi 78), Jack Jewsbury, Claudio Lopez - Davy Arnaud (Zoltan Hercegfalvi 69), Josh Wolff. Substitutes Not Used: Aaron Hohlbein, Kurt Morsink, Boris Pardo, Lance Watson
• "Definitely in the first half we drove the game being away from home, which is a really good thing. That was a real positive for us," said Vermes. And then the amount of chances we created, not just the amount but the quality of chances we created were excellent so from that perspective, very positive. The negative is the fact that we should have put one of those away and that would have taken some pressure of us and maybe that would have opened them up a little more. But they did a good job sort of locking down and in the second half especially."
TEAM NEWS
• After exploding for four goals against New England and hitting the back of the net in league play for the first time since July 25, the Wizards couldn't find a goal - despite numerous chances - and were shut out for the fifth time in six matches.
• "I think the guys got a little impatient. I think they got a little impatient at the fact that we didn't score early enough with all those chances in the first half so it wound up being that you start getting a little antsy and you want to go get that goal and I think we still created a couple of chances in the second half but not of the quality that we did in the first half," Vermes said.
• Much of the Wizards thrust came from Herculez Gomez and Claudio Lopez on the flanks.
• "He was excellent. His passing and his distribution and of the five quality chances we had in the first half, he was involved in all (of them) and he was the last pass directly on three of them," Vermes said of Lopez. "Claudio stayed a little higher which wound up giving him more space and room and they had a tough time dealing with it and he knows how to find the seams in the game."
• The Wizards could have come away with six points from the opening two matches of a three-game road swing over eight days. Instead, they now face a must-win game against New York if they are to maintain any hope of staying alive in the race for the MLS Cup Playoffs (currently nine points out with seven games to play); a win would also officially eliminate New York.
• "Overall, I thought we played well. We came in and played with a lot of heart. We created a ton of chances. On another night, I think the way we played, I think we walk out of here, not just with a tie, but a win," said Davy Arnaud. "But I think the way we played and the chances we created, I don't think we deserved to lose. It's frustrating."
• The frustration of the evening was culminated in the final minutes when Chance Myers was sent off. After making his first three appearances of the season - all as a substitute - he will miss the New York game through suspension.
• "There might have been a little frustration but we created one or two good chances again in the second half and if one of those goes in maybe the body language and posture changes a bit," said forward Josh Wolff. "I think all along we were going for it but they killed off the game extremely well the last 15 minutes. There were goals out there for us and we just didn't convert them."
