HANOVER, N.J. – The New York Red Bulls prized offseason signing, Alejandro Romero Gamarra, sat on the bench for 58 minutes on Tuesday night, watching his side at home struggle to breakdown Chivas de Guadalajara.
After the game, there were plenty of fans and observers who questioned the move by head coach Jesse Marsch not only to not start Gamarra, but to sit him as long as he did with the Red Bulls needing a goal.
“Well, first of all, believe me I know what the dialogue is out there; some of it makes me chuckle,” Marsch said Thursday following training when asked by MLSSoccer.com about his decision not to include Gamarra in the starting XI.
“There is ‘Why didn’t Kaku play?’ Well, it is mostly because he is still integrating into the tactics and what we do here is tactically – the tactics are very important," Marsch said. "The understanding of roles, the ability to understand what each person’s role is on the day – that is why it was 20-1 in shots. It was not random. It was because we totally smothered a really good team and made the game our game.”
Gamarra, affectionately known as ‘Kaku’ in his homeland of Argentina, arrived with much fanfare this offseason from former club Huracan. The largest transfer in franchise history at a reported $6 million, Gamarra wears the No. 10 for the Red Bulls for a good reason: Kaku is gifted on the ball and brings pace along with a healthy splash of creativity. He has a very unique skillset on this roster.
Those attributes seemingly could have helped the Red Bulls on Tuesday night as they entered the match against Chivas needing to score following a 1-0 loss in Mexico in the first leg. However, the young Argentine failed to make an impact after being inserted midway through the second half as the Red Bulls scoreless draw meant their Concacaf Champions League dreams were dashed in the semifinals.
It was a difficult and maddening night for the Red Bulls. They controlled the match to the point that Chivas didn’t have a single shot on goal while the home side had a clear edge in possession, shots, shots on goal, crosses and corner kicks.
But in the latter parts of the second half, the Red Bulls started to play more long balls, lobbing efforts from their own end in front of Chivas’ backline. The Mexican side handled these efforts well and the New York strategy bogged down.
The Red Bulls' increasingly direct, aerial style of play often bypassed Gamarra, but Marsch defended the approach against a Chivas team that is unique in their marking system and style of play, and one which Marsch called "the most disciplined team I've ever seen" after the game.
“Guess who plays the fewest amount of long balls in the league? [The] New York Red Bulls but when you play a team that is strict man-to-man, they are waiting for you to play anything underneath, anything through the midfield and jump on it and score. The only real chance they had to score the whole series was their goal that we tried to play underneath. They stepped in front and punished us,” Marsch said.
“So you have to understand the way that you want to play and you have to adjust what you do on the day to make sure you’re addressing what the other team is trying to accomplish and for the most part we did that at a really, really high level. We just were a little bit unlucky to come away with not being able to get the goal.”
