HARRISON, N.J. – Despite holding an edge in nearly every statistical category, the New York Red Bulls count themselves as fortunate to escape from Red Bull Arena with a 0-0 result against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night. A missed penalty kick by the Union and a sloppy second half by the Red Bulls led to this sense of relief for the home side.
An edge in possession, shots on goals and corner kicks was not enough for the Red Bulls to put one on the scoreboard, a dominant first half giving way to a second half where the team bogged down and struggled to move the ball. The telltale sign was the struggle of the team’s difference makers as midfielder Kaku and forward Bradley Wright-Phillips, both influential in the game’s opening 45 minutes, struggled in the second half.
New York’s calling card, their relentless pressing, also struggled to find fluidity on what was a hot and humid night in North Jersey.
“I think they did a good job. First of all, you've got to give credit to the two young center backs for Philly. They did a good job of keeping track of Brad, not letting him get too much space, a little bit of room there in the second half, maybe around the 70th minute, 75th minute,” Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch said after the match. “But overall, they did a good job and yeah, they try to keep things compressed and we try to find ways to still penetrate and play through them but we were not quite sharp enough on the day and included in there is like not feeling like we quite have our legs enough.
“So you know, now that the summer is going to roll around and it's going to start to get hot, we're going to have to acclimatize to the heat and train more in the heat and then use more guys at different times. So we'll be ready to do that but I'm not taking negatives away from this. I'm taking positives and I'm taking we are going to move forward in a good way and there's a lot of momentum in our team right now.”
On one hand, the Red Bulls had themselves to blame for the result given their poor play and wasted opportunities. On the other hand, they could count themselves fortunate to not have lost the game.
In the 52nd minute, left back Kemar Lawrence was whistled for a handball in the box but C.J. Sapong rolled the resulting penalty kick wide of the right post. The fact that goalkeeper Ryan Meara went to his right, leaving that side of the goal wide open for Sapong, only underscored just how fortunate the Red Bulls were to emerge from this match with a draw.
The sense in the New York locker room after the match was some frustration at not getting more from the match but also relief.
“I don’t want to say fortunate because…Yeah, I guess we’re a little bit fortunate just because of the penalty,” defender Aaron Long said. “We always want three points at home, very happy with shutout but we can be cleaner for sure.”
In the first half, the Red Bulls seemed almost to move the ball at will. Their high-press and counter-pressing rattled the Union into several turnovers and gaffes deep in their own end; offensively the Red Bulls had several clear scoring chances including a 32nd minute goal by Wright-Phillips that was correctly called back for offsides.
After halftime, opportunities and chances on the ball were few and far between for Wright-Phillips and the Red Bulls attack. Much of that boiled down to the play of the Union’s deep lying midfielders, especially Alejandro Bedoya and Haris Medunjanin. In the second half, both players dropped deep to bottle up Kaku, the engine of the Red Bulls who found frequent touches in the final third in the game’s opening 30 minutes, very nearly scoring midway through the first half.
Shut out of the match for much of the second half, Kaku was unable to make an impact and the Red Bulls movement and spacing suffered as the league’s leader in assists saw very little of the ball in influential moments.
“Personally I think I wasn’t able to play that final ball,” Kaku said. “I made a few mistakes, I wasn’t sharp on few yards of the field. The team feels that but we have to keep on trying to improve.”
