HARRISON, N.J. – Last Thursday’s 1-1 draw on the road against Olimpia puts the New York Red Bulls in a competitive position to move on in the CONCACAF Champions League, even if it was a disappointing result for the MLS side on some levels.
A scoreless draw or a win in the second leg of the Round of 16 series on Thursday (8 pm ET; Univision Deportes Network) will push the Red Bulls through into the quarterfinals and would give the club positive momentum heading into the MLS regular season.
That the Red Bulls played a very strong opening 45 minutes in the first leg, controlling possession and opportunities created against a club side very much in-form is a positive for New York, and a stark contrast to their quarterfinal defeat last year to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
“Tactically, you can see, [we are] so much more prepared than last year," defender Aurelien Collin told MLSSoccer.com on Tuesday. "Now we’re going back home, we’re even more prepared. CONCACAF is very important for us, we need to do whatever we can to advance.
“They have to score to get to the next level. That’s the difference. In the second half, our lines got stretched and that’s important. We have to be very compact.”
Adding intrigue to the second leg, reports have suggested Olimpia might be without two starters who were unable to get their visas. Marsch called it “tricky” when dealing with these situations, but notes that Olimpia must turn in their travel roster by Tuesday night ahead of Thursday’s match which would give the Red Bulls an indication of what their lineup might look like.
“I’m still trying to figure out how accurate that is. It seems like it is accurate. You never know in these situations,” Marsch said on Tuesday.
“We’ve been through with the group in a big way what is expected of Olimpia," he continued. "Now that they’ve got a game under the belt, we’ve talked about the guys not just who featured but also the potential subs who can come in. I don’t think there’s too much adjusting that needs to be made, we’ll try to create clarity on a few different things. At the end, we’ll stick to doing the things we want to accomplish on the day.”
The Red Bulls also still have their experience a year ago in the back of their minds, when they failed to advance against Vancouver despite coming in as substantial favorites. In his fourth preseason with the team, Marsch said that the team came in better shape and more prepared, drawing upon that disappointment as motivation.
“I think we took those lessons and this year we really were much more experienced in how to play those games," midfielder Alex Muyl told MLSSoccer.com. "The team we’re playing is 10, 11 games in their season and we showed up really well when we went down there. It was physical, very, very physical. A lot of fouls were committed. Seeing that game, I think we are months ahead of where were at this time last year. I think we’re much more able to handle the challenges of that game and Thursday in general. We want to go out there, play it our way and hopefully put it out of reach.”
