HOUSTON ā The consensus from the New York Red Bulls after Saturdayās 4-1 loss to the Houston Dynamo was that individual battles werenāt won.
Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch acknowledged that his teamās defensive matchups left something to be desired, particularly his back four.
āOur game plan was to try and control the game, but also to manage their dangerous attacking players, and when it comes down to it we didnāt do well enough with some of our defensive matchups,ā Marsch said.
āAgainst a team that can be explosive in the counterattack, it was costly because we couldnāt take care of business on the defensive end.ā
Itās the second time in five games that the Red Bulls have given up three or more goals in a match.
Red Bulls midfielder Felipe says the onus is on the players to play better defensively.
āCollectively, we need to defend as a group. Itās not one, two or three; itās everyone running back and trying to protect our goal as much as we can,ā he said. āItās a change in their mentality in each player. To know that we can get beat. That the guy next to me can beat me. We need to win our battles.ā
It was those individual battles that led to the Red Bull defense being dismantled in Houston. That said, Marsch believes three of the goals shouldnāt have even been allowed.
āIf you really want to look at it. I donāt think itās a penalty. Itās offside on the third goal ā he [Andrew Wenger] is in the way. And the fourth goal is not a foul,ā Marsch said. āThatās something different. I donāt think the referee was any good tonight, but whatās more important is for us to focus on ways we can get better.ā
Marsch said his team is still discovering its identity this season.
āThis team is still figuring itself out a little bit. So thereās work to be done. Everything from trying to figure out who are most reliable guys are, who we can count on, what the combinations are,ā he noted. āWeāve played a lot with two strikers, and we donāt seem to be rewarding ourselves and getting ourselves enough leads with that.ā
Marsch added that his team has been flat and stagnant and could revert back to the 4-2-3-1 lineup that work so well for them last year. For his part however, Felipe doesnāt think itās just a change in formation.
āItās tough. You can sit here and talk about formation and everything, but it comes down to our performance,ā Felipe said. āI think individually and collectively we can do better.ā