October 6, 2012
OUT OF SYNC
Red Bulls' high-powered attack does very little

By Kristian R. Dyer
BigAppleSoccer.com Contributing

HARRISON, N.J. – Listless and flat, it wasn’t the Red Bulls defense that was as much at fault in their 2-0 home loss to Chicago rather it was an attack that looked nothing like a playoff team.

They looked nothing like last week’s attack that scored four goals in a defeat of Toronto FC and played an inspiring brand of the beautiful game. Coming into the match the Red Bulls had scored 54 goals, third best in the league, but this was a team that generated just one shot on Sean Johnson’s goal in Saturday’s loss.

“I don’t think it’s a lack of energy. I think we started a bit slow with the first 10 or 15 [minutes] but after that, I had a great feeling that we were controlling possessions and also creating two, three really good chances before they scored,” Red Bulls head coach Hans Backe said. “So it’s small margins; they took their chances.”

It was anemic at best as New York lacked cohesion or any semblance of a game plan. The possession was often pointless and for the sake of keeping the ball and not doing anything productive. When the Red Bulls did get tired of their 56.6 percent of possession and decided to try and create chances, the attack lacked spark and degenerated into hopeless long balls. It is a style that works against the personnel they have on the field.

Compounding the matter, designated player and team captain Thierry Henry kept dropping back deep into the midfield, marooning Kenny Cooper up top. It was a day where New York seemed out of sync.

“We tried to go high and pressure to get a more fresh start then we’ve had the past couple of games, everyone was into trying to pressure them high. Kind of feels like we don’t have the energy it takes today and we know it’s going to be a tough game. I feel bad right now because I know we’re not performing as we know we can, especially at home,” Jan Gunnar Solli told BigAppleSoccer.com.

“It’s frustrating – it feels like we’re creating chances in the first half but in the second half it’s a battle out there and both teams are not creating any big chances until they score the first goal. Then you can totally tell that we didn’t have any energy to deal with it and chase that goal.”