The New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution battled out a goalless draw Saturday night at Giants Stadium in a game that saw both sides have several opportunities to take all three points home, only for wasteful finishing to cost them dearly.
For New England, Taylor Twellman missed two golden chances to open his account for the season, while New York struck a post in the first half and did not seriously test the New England goal again until the final minute, when Amado Guevara's 25-yard effort was superbly pushed over by Matt Reis.
After a pre-match ceremony that featured a tribute to the greats of New York's soccer past, as well as the delivery of the game ball by skydivers, the Revolution began the game the quicker of the two teams. They could have gone ahead in the 10th minute when, following a foul on Steve Ralston, Joe Franchino's right-wing free kick was headed over from six yards out by Twellman.
New England continued to press, as the Red Bulls struggled to come to terms with the movement of the visitors' front three. Twellman's miss followed an early chance for Clint Dempsey, who blazed over from 10 yards after a slip by Seth Stammler. In the 13th minute, Pat Noonan slipped at the vital moment when he was played through on goal by Shalrie Joseph.
In the 29th minute, Joseph found space once again and played a neat through ball to Twellman, who sprung the offside trap. The U.S. international rounded Tony Meola, but the veteran goalkeeper did well to push Twellman wide and the consequential cross was missed by the onrushing Dempsey.
Almost immediately, the Revolution were nearly made to pay for the failure to take one of their chances when the hitherto anonymous Edson Buddle rattled a shot off the right post from 30 yards.
The opportunity seemed to inspire the home side, and Youri Djorkaeff in particular. The former French international, starved of regular service in his normal forward position, dropped deeper and deeper into midfield, where he found possession and served to offer a bigger threat to the Revolution. After he had Reis scrambling across his goal with a 25-yard effort that skidded just wide in the 41st minute, the 38-year-old began the attack that led to the best chance of the first half for either side.
From a New England corner, the Red Bulls counterattack fell to Djorkaeff, whose clever ball into the feet of Buddle was laid off expertly by the former Columbus man to another former Crew player, Chris Henderson, who had made a 40-yard run from is position on the right of midfield. However, with the net gaping and no pressure on him, Henderson pulled his shot wide of the right post.
Recording artists Wyclef Jean and Shakira warmed the crowd up at halftime and the crowd of 35,793 had further things to shout about in the early part of the second half. Taking a more direct approach in attack, with the strings once again being pulled by Djorkaeff, the Red Bulls gradually increased the pressure on Reis' goal. Four Revolution players, Daniel Hernandez, James Riley, Andy Dorman and Jay Heaps, all received yellow cards for fouls on the edge of the penalty area which, fortunately for the visitors, Djorkaeff (three times) and Guevara failed to test Reis with.
With 14 minutes left, Twellman had another golden opportunity to put his side ahead when he got on the end of a square ball from Noonan following a swift Revs counterattack. However, Twellman seemed to get his feet tangled and saw his mis-hit shot roll the wrong side of Meola's left post.
With time running out, Guevara was denied by Reis in partial darkness, as the stadium's floodlights appeared to give up and go home early, knowing there would be no goals.
Andrew Hush is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
