The New York Red Bulls had two shots on net in their home opener against the New England Revolution on Saturday night at Giants Stadium, neither coming from the five free kicks the club had in the second half.
All of those attempts -- four resulting in Revs bookings -- didn't even force New England goalkeeper Matt Reis into action. Two shots went into the wall, three went over the net -- and that's a major reason why the game ended in a scoreless tie.
The fans were there -- 35,793 on a cold and windy night, the second-largest home opening crowd in club history -- soccer legends like Pele and Franz Beckenbauer were there and halftime performers Shakira and Wyclef Jean were there.
But the Red Bulls' free kick accuracy wasn't, which is a bit hard to understand since Amado Guevara and Youri Djorkaeff spent the final 20 minutes of Friday's training session practicing dead-ball situations.
"We have to work on it more because we're not usually going to get that many chances," Guevara said through a translator. "We weren't good enough tonight."
The first attempt came in the 59th minute after New England's Daniel Hernandez was booked for chopping down Marvell Wynne. But Djorkaeff's attempt from 20 yards went off the top netting.
Two minutes later, James Riley was given a yellow card for his tackle on New York striker Edson Buddle just outside the box, but Guevara's shot from 20 yards out was into the Revolution wall.
In the 69th minute Andy Dorman was put in referee Baldomero Toledo's book for a hard tackle on Djorkaeff and Guevara's spot kick sailed well over the crossbar. In the 80th minute, Jay Heaps was carded after getting tangled up with Djorkaeff at the top of the box and again Djorkaeff put the ball over the bar.
Finally, one minute from full time, Shalrie Joseph pulled down Guevara and again his attempt from 30 yards out went off the wall. He picked up the deflection and chipped the ball towards the far post, forcing Reis on his heels and to push the ball over the crossbar.
"C'mon, if I'm scoring every free kick, where are you going?" Djorkaeff said.
There were very few chances in the run of play for the Red Bulls, winless in its opening two games. One of the few was by Chris Henderson, who pushed Buddle's lay off wide to Reis' left from 12 yards out in the 44th minute.
Buddle also hit the post with a shot from distance on the half hour.
Henderson had another chance in the second half, when he was played towards goal by Djorkaeff. But Reis made the save -- the other he had to make -- from eight yards out in the 78th minute.
"I had two chances on the wing I don't usually get," Henderson said. "We have to take advantage of that and hopefully the fans will come out again with the entertainment, but we definitely need to get some points."
For a second consecutive game, Red Bulls head coach Mo Johnston played a 4-4-2 formation but for much of the game it was more of a 4-5-1 because Djorkaeff was forced to withdraw into the midfield to cover for Guevara. On several occasions the Honduran international was caught trying to put pressure on the Revolution backs.
"I was wanting more from Amado Guevara tonight," Johnston said. "I told him at halftime there are times we have to defend with the 10 guys who are on that field and at times he doesn't do that. When you look at it, you want Amado Guevara on the ball a lot more than what he did tonight."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
