HARRISON, N.J. – Jesse Marsch had his cake and ate it too.
Facing a stretch of three games in six days, Marsch rotated his defense against Seattle on Sunday, inserting Chris Duvall at center back for Aurelien Collin. Although Collin has been key in the Red Bulls’ furious ascent up the Eastern Conference table, the back line was able to keep a clean sheet for a fourth straight game in a 2-0 win.
“We said at the beginning of the year that we believed in our roster,” Marsch said. “We wanted it to be the type of thing where we could rotate; we could rotate tactics at times, and rotate players at times. And a lot of it was due to match-ups and who we would be playing against.”
Duvall learned center back under emergency circumstances after injuries simultaneously sidelined Ronald Zubar, Gideon Baah and Damien Perrinelle earlier this year. After a shaky start, Duvall now features at center back as Marsch’s best option for matching speedy forwards like the Sounders’ Jordan Morris. Duvall said Marsch’s confidence in him made the transition more comfortable.
“My very first game playing at center back, he was confident in me,” Duvall said. “That helps me push forward and having guys like Aurelien, Zubar and Damien helps me grow so quickly. They’ve got so much experience and they’re big, strong presences in the back. They’re leaders and it’s easy to learn from them.”
As soon as the Red Bulls went two goals up, Marsch brought Collin on for Sacha Kljestan. The ensuing flat 5-4-1 formation limited the Sounders to three shots in the game’s final 30 minutes. Marsch said he wanted to save Kljestan for the rest of the week, which features road matches at Real Salt Lake and Columbus.
“Sasha pushed hard in Rochester, played 90 minutes [in last week's US Open Cup win],” Marsch said. “It made sense to get him off and see if we can get him recovered and regenerated and throw him back out there on Wednesday.”
The Red Bulls’ hectic month continues with a match at RSL Wednesday (10 pm ET; MLS LIVE) and a visit to Columbus Crew SC on Saturday. Then it's a midweek trip to Philadelphia Union in the US Open Cup, followed by a rivalry rematch with New York City FC at Yankee Stadium. Marsch said his team will have to remain focused, even though he believes they have been dealt a bad hand.
“It's a really hard week. I don't know how the league can arrange a week like this for us,” Marsch said. “I put a lot on them in the scheduling that this was really poor, especially now with travel between Salt Lake and Columbus.
“It's the worst combination of Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday you could possibly have. I’m not happy about it, but whatever. We have to suck it up and figure out a way to put a team out on Wednesday to go after the game.”
