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September 22, 2012
SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR
With a rare Gillette win in their grasp on a late goal, Red Bulls allow goal deep into stoppage time for 1-1 tie
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Joel Lindpere thought he had given the Red Bulls a dramatic win with his stoppage-time goal.
Linda Cuttone/Sports Vue Images |
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- So close, yet so far.
Only 13 seconds into stoppage time, midfielder Joel Lindpere put in a goal to lift the Red Bulls to a 1-0 advantage over the New England Revolution and being on the verge of breaking a long winless streak at Gillette Stadium that has lasted more than a decade.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the three points -- Darius Barnes headed in a right-wing cross from eight yards to equalize in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give the New England Revolution a remarkable 1-1 draw.
The Red Bulls are 0-13-6 since they last won here in June, 2002.
The result left the Red Bulls with a 14-8-8 record and 50 points and tied with the Chicago Fire for second place. The Fire's game with the Columbus Crew kicked off during the New York match. The Revs, who have been eliminated from playoff contention, moved to 7-15-8 and 29 points.
"Trust me, everyone's upset," Red Bulls goalkeeper Bill Gaudette said.
And for good reason.
"Any time you're up at the end like that, especially on the road, you really have to close it out," Gaudette said. "I don't know if it was one of those games that we were the better team for 90 minutes and deserved three points."
Red Bulls coach Hans Backe admitted he was disappointed, although he did not exactly share Gaudette's sentiments.
"I could say lot, but I probably should not do it," he said. "You cannot come closer to picking up three points here. We scored late, played one down. We did very well going forward. But that stuff happens in football.
"Of course, it's so disappointing. You're so closer with 10 men to get three points. It's a huge difference if you would have 52 instead of 50 [points]. . . . The way we played, we deserved to win the game."
New York played the final 16 minutes with 10 men after right back Connor Lade received his second yellow card for taking down Revs second-half substitute Benny Feilhaber in the 74th minute.
"It's OK to get the double yellow to stop the game," Backe said.
Lindpere scored during a scramble in the first minute of stoppage time, knocking home a left-wing cross from left back Wilman Conde. But the game officials ruled there was four minutes of stoppage time -- game went into the sixth minute -- and that could seem like hours, not minutes to the team with the lead.
With time running out, the Revs went to three defenders in the back and threw players up into the attack Barnes was one of them. A cross from Ryan Guy was sent in from the right side and Barnes worked himself within eight yards of the goal and headed it past Gaudette for the stunning equalizer and his first goal of the season.
"It's desperation for our team," Barnes said. "I pushed up forward. In that situation we're just trying to get balls in the box. It was lucky I was able to get a head on it and put it in the back of the net."
And unfortunate for the Red Bulls, who were not completely organized in the back.
"It's a scramble," Gaudette said. "Anytime you're up at the end of of the game like that, they're throwing tons of numbers forward. We were a little disorganized. We didn't do a great job on defense to make a play at the end. We needed one more player and we would have walked out with three points."
Instead, it was one.
The Red Bulls played without captain and striker Thierry Henry, who was suspended for the match for his head butt on Kansas City's Kei Kamara late in the 2-0 loss on Wednesday night. Henry wasn't going to play anyway because he avoids as many artificial turf fields as possible.
In his place in the starting XI was Sebastien Le Toux. Kenny Cooper, who leads the team with 14 goals, has been struggling of late and started the match on the bench.
Marquez was forced out of the match with a tight hamstring in the 35th minute for Lindpere. Marquez, who recently had returned from a calf injury, needed team trainers to wrap his right leg in the 11th minute. But he tried to kick the ball a little after the half hour and was taken out.
The tie spoiled a superb performance by Gaudette, who made several vital saves.
Scoring Summary:
NY: Joel Lindpere 5 (Tim Cahill 3) 91+
NE: Darrius Barnes 1 (Ryan Guy 2, Kelyn Rowe 4) 95+
Disciplinary Summary:
NY: Connor Lade (caution) 54
NE: Kelyn Rowe (caution) 57
NY: Teemu Tainio (caution) 62
NE: Darrius Barnes (caution) 63
NY: Wilman Conde (caution) 68
NY: Connor Lade (second caution, ejection) 74
NY: Bill Gaudette (caution) 88
New York Red Bulls (14-8-8, 50 points) Bill Gaudette (GK), Connor Lade, Markus Holgersson, Heath Pearce, Wilman Conde, Teemu Tainio (Brandon Barklage 79), Dax McCarty, Rafa Marquez (Joel Lindpere 35), Jan Gunnar Solli, Tim Cahill, Sebastien Le Toux (Lloyd Sam 93+)
Substitutes Not Used: Luis Robles (GK), Stephen Keel, Kenny Cooper, Corey Hertzog
New England Revolution (7-15-8, 29 points) Bobby Shuttleworth (GK), Florian Lechner (Stephen McCarthy 35), Darrius Barnes, A.J. Soares, Kevin Alston, Kelyn Rowe, Ryan Guy, Clyde Simms (Juan Toja 58), Lee Nguyen, Jerry Bengston, Diego Fagundez (Benny Feilhaber 73)
Substitutes Not Used: Matt Reis (GK), Fernando Cardenas, Blair Gavin, Dimitry Imbongo,
Referee: Sorin Stoica
Referees Assistants: Kermit Quisenberry, Bill Dittmar
4th Referee: Mathieu Bourdeau
Attendance: 24,364
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