BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD Red Bulls play to another tie, lose another lead
Chris Henderson scored his first goal in a Red Bulls uniform, but the lead was squandered again. Photo by Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images
The Red Bulls haven't lost away from home in four games, but they also haven't won. For a second straight game, the Red Bulls squandered a chance to get out of the Eastern Conference basement by playing the Kansas City Wizards to a 1-1 tie at Arrowhead Stadium Saturday night.
It was the same forumla of mediocrity for the Red Bulls against struggling and depleted Kansas City, which played without Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad. But the Red Bulls squandered a lead and another chance at three points.
They did it in a season-opening draw at D.C. United, they did it at Real Salt Lake, they did it at home in a 1-1 draw with Chicago and they did it in a 2-1 loss to FC Dallas.
And they did it again at Kansas City.
"The positive is that we have lost two games of nine, I would have taken that at the beginning of the season," Red Bulls goalkeeper Tony Meola said. "The negative here is we have given points away in the end and hopefully we can fix that."
Youri Djorkaeff should have put the Red Bulls in front in the 19th minute, beating former St. John's standout Matt Groenwald to Tony Meola's flicked on goal kick. But the French World Cup champion put the ball wide to KC goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi's left.
Chris Henderson scored his first goal of the year in the 30th minute. Steve Jolley's diving header of a Mark Lisi free kick went across the box and Henderson pounced on the ball, although Poughkeepsie, N.Y. native Oshoniyi nearly made a spectacular save.
Kansas City, which came into the game winless in four straight games after taking maximum points in five of their first six games, would level the game on a controversial penalty kick.
Scott Sealy and Jeff Parke chased after a deep Oshoniyi kick in the left corner of the box. In an attempt to get on the inside of Sealy, the two got tangled up and Sealy went down. Television replays afterwards appeared to show the contact was just outside the box, but referee Tim Weyland pointed to the spot. Jose Burciaga put the ball to Meola's left to tie the game in the 57th minute.
"It had gone away from the goal. It was no point; it looks as though it was running through [Parke's] legs," Red Bulls coach Mo Johnston said. "I am a little bit angry that he didn't go and challenge it initially, but again, he lost it in the lights."
Said Meola: "I did think it was outside the box, but it's hard to tell from my position. The one thing I can tell you is that where the ball went in the corner, there is a lot of work to be done to score a goal from that position. I think they will take a serious look at that."
