April 18, 2009 WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? Red Bulls get 1st goal, 1st win
Macoumba Kandji had the honor of scoring the Red Bulls first goal of the season. Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images
By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor
East Rutherford, N.J. -- For one night, at least, everything seemed to be all right in Red Bull-land.
Not only did they score their first goal of the MLS season Saturday night, they even recorded their first win, a 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake. They even survived the final 24 minutes while playing a man down.
"It's big man, especially with the amount of games we have coming up," central defender Kevin Goldthwaite said about the Red Bulls playing five games in 14 days, including a U.S. Open Cup qualifier at the San Jose Earthquakes on April 28. "This is a great way to start that run of games. It's huge for us.
Indeed, it was.
"It was a great performance," said captain and striker Juan Pablo Angel, who scored the Red Bulls' second goal, an insurance tally in the 57th minute. "It was difficult to single anyone out."
Well, there were a bunch of heroes in the match played before a crowd of 8,508 at Giants Stadium.
Start with Macoumba Kandji, who scored 95 seconds into the game to take some pressure off the Bulls (1-2-2, five points), who move dout of the Eastern Conference basement and into a tie for fifth place with Toronto.
Continue with Jon Conway, who was back in the net for the first time since Oct. 9 after serving his 10-game drug suspensuion.
And certainly don't forget central defender Kevin Goldthwaite, who made all the plays, including the save of the game in the 50th minute.
Entering the match, the Red Bulls had not kicked or headed the ball into the net as their lone score was an gift -- an own goal from New England defender Jay Heaps three weeks ago.
So when Kandji found the back of the net in the second minute, the Red Bulls gave a collective sigh of relief.
"It was huge," coach Juan Carlos Osorio said.
Rookie right fullback Jeremy Hall started the scoring sequence with a long throw-in that Dane Richards caught up to. Richards then sent a right-wing cross that goalkeeper Nick Rimando barely got a hand on. The ball bounded to Kandji, who slotted it home from 10 yards.
"Just like we talked about in practice with Juan Pablo going near post and I sit and wait," Kandji said. "That's what I did and it paid off today.
"Once we start scoring, it's going to start raining."
Conway was sharp for someone having not played a competitive match in such a long time -- a 1-1 draw at Real Salt Lake on Oct. 9.
He made four saves, including a diving stop to his right on Yura Movsisyan in the 78th minute. He was just happy to get an opportunity to play again. Prior to the match, he said he "was real happy just being in the tunnel and hearing the crowd, walking onto the field i had a big smile on my face. i was just happy to be out playing."
And he was happy to have Goldthwaite on the backline. Forward Yura Movsisyan fired a shot that hit Conway. The ball deflected and bounced toward the goal. Red Bulls central defender Kevin Goldthwaite managed to beat the ball to the goal line, slid and cleared it out of harm's way.
"I thought I had a chance," Goldthwaite said. "To be honest, if I wasn't going to get a chance, I was going to kick it into my own goal. Luckily I was able to put a good enough foot on it to put it back out of the goal."
Added Conway: "Goldy was unbelieveable."
Real coach Jason Kreis said he could not tell whether the ball was over the line.
"I know one of my assistant coaches at home said he saw it on the video and it was a goal," he said.
But it was too late to do anything.
Five minutes after converting a Kandji feed to score his first goal of the season, Angel was taken out of the match a as a precaution for a sore hamstring for Luke Sassano. With a trip to Kansas City Thursday, Osorio wanted to make sure Angel would be ready.
"I wanted to carry on," Angel said. "It was pretty much a precaution."
Hall was red-carded by referee Ricardo Salazar for a late tackle on Will Johnson in the 66th minute, forcing the Bulls to play the rest of the game a man down (Hall was in the lineup, replacing Carlos Johnson, serving a red card ban from last week's scoreless draw in Houston). The Red Bulls weathered the storm.
