It was an ugly match and an ugly 2-1 loss for the New York Red Bulls at PPL Park on Saturday. However, a win on Thursday night against the New England Revolution would still give them the Eastern Conference title.
The player ratings:
GK – Bouna Coundoul – Individual mistakes left the 'keeper helpless to stop the Union from scoring, but Coundoul came off his line to snuff out several good chances and made a splendid save in the second half to keep it a one-goal game. Rating: 6.5
D – Chris Albright – A solid match again for Albright, who did so well in the face of some strong first-half pressure by the home side. Chose his moments well to move forward, playing in his hometown, no less. Rating: 6.5
D – Carlos Mendes – Both Union goals came centrally, right in front of goal, on broken plays. Hard to fault Mendes, though, who was overall solid on the night. Rating: 6
D – Tim Ream – See above. Not one of the more dominant performances by Ream, who seemed tentative in his distribution but did well in his battles. Rating: 6
D – Danleigh Borman – It was a rough opening 30 minutes or so for the left back, who settled in quite nicely in the second half and had a well-taken goal from outside the penalty area. Did lots of dirty work in the second half up and down the flank. Rating: 6.5
M – Dane Richards – Very quiet night for Richards — the first time this can be said of the red-hot winger for well over a month. He struggled to break out on the right. Rating: 5
M – Rafa Márquez – Overall solid defensively but lacked purposeful distribution and dominance on the ball. Rating: 5.5
M – Tony Tchani – Quiet match for Tchani, who never put his stamp on his 45 minutes of play. Needs to push forward more and provide a better outlet so that the offense does not need to resort to aimless long balls. Rating: 5
M – Joel Lindpere – The best performance in the midfield from Lindpere so far as he pushed up and down the flank well and then looked comfortable when playing centrally. Plus, we learned from Fox Soccer Channel’s Christopher Sullivan that Lindpere has a low center of gravity. Go figure. Rating: 7
F – Mehdi Ballouchy – Not sold on Ballouchy. He has spent the entirety of his MLS career — up until last month — as a central midfielder, but he's now playing as a withdrawn forward. He looked far more comfortable when he moved back to the midfield in the second half. Rating: 5.5
F – Juan Pablo Angel – Where was the service for Ángel, and wasn’t this the issue last week, too? He looked like a far better player with the halftime insertion of a true forward to play alongside him up top. Rating: 6
Substitutions
Salou Ibrahim – Had a good chance or two in a match where chances were hard to come by for the Red Bulls. Was effective for New York and logged a productive 45 minutes as a forward. Rating: 6
Jeremy Hall – Replaced Chris Albright in the second half and looked good in his first appearance with the team in nearly three months. Rating: 6
Juan Agudelo – Nearly scored in the last gasps of the game. Poised on the ball and confident in the dribble — a promising second league match for the teenager from the club’s academy. If Thierry Henry’s not ready to go on Thursday, Agudelo should get the start. Rating: 6
Kristian R. Dyer can be reached for comment at KristianRDyer@yahoo.com and followed at twitter.com/kdyer1012
