The New York Red Bulls jumped out to a two-goal lead after 18 minutes Sunday and held on for a 2-2 tie with rival D.C. United in front of an opening day crowd of 23,038 at RFK Stadium.
Youri Djorkaeff put the Red Bulls in front in the 15th minute with a spectacular free kick from 35 yards out. The play started with D.C.'s Freddy Adu fouling the former World Cup champion. And then Djorkaeff displayed his World Cup brilliance by putting the ball over United goalkeeper Troy Perkins' right shoulder.
Three minutes later the Red Bulls doubled their lead on a Perkins blunder. The goalkeeper, starting in place of the injured Nick Rimando, bobbled a Seth Stammler cross and newly acquired Edson Buddle fired home the sitter.
In the 28th minute Djorkaeff nearly added a third on another free kick. But this time the set piece from the left of the penalty area sailed just over the crossbar.
D.C. United had two quality chances in the final two minutes of the first half, but Tony Meola stopped Adu from close range and Lucio Filomeno's low shot from 20 yards out bounced wide to Meola's left.
D.C. made one change at the half, bringing on Alecko Eskandarian for the first time since suffering a concussion from a collision with New England goalkeeper Matt Reis on June 18, 2005.
Eskandarian replaced midfielder Clyde Simms and immediately infused new energy into the D.C. attack. It took just 10 minutes after the restart for him to cut the Red Bulls lead in half, as he scored his first goal since MLS Cup 2004 with a first-time volley of a John Gros cross from the top left of the six-yard box.
United tied the game at 2-2 in the 65th minute on a goal by defender Facundo Erpen, a low shot from 20 yards out that took a deflection off Jeff Parke. Adu served the ball from the right to Ben Olsen, who narrowly avoided being offside. Olsen laid the ball off to Erpen, who scored his second career MLS goal.
The Red Bulls had an excellent chance to take the lead in the 79th minute when Olsen pushed down Amado Guevara by the endline. Djorkaeff's free kick found a wide open Parke at the back post as Perkins failed to cut out the cross, but the defender's shot was wide of the net.
Two minutes later Meola was forced to punch out a blistering long distance free kick by Santino Quaranta, who came on for Filomeno in the 75th minute.
The Red Bulls, featuring just three players who started in the 2005 opener (Carlos Mendes, Guevara and Parke), went with a 4-4-2 formation to start the first game under the new ownership.
Mo Johnston made just two late changes to his starting XI, bringing Peter Canero on for Stammler in the 82nd minute and Mark Lisi replaced Djorkaeff in the 90th minute.
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
