I am old school when it comes to these derby matches between the Red Bulls and DC United. Any match that ends in a loss or a poor draw is a big negative. The negatives are looming large when the Red Bulls had a poor start and a man advantage that led toward a two goal draw against their most hated rivals. While it was nice to see the return of former head coach Troy Lesesne return to the building, what should’ve happened was a complete thrashing of a weakened DC United squad that was missing two players due to red card suspension and a ton of injuries.
But that never happened, you saw the backline look frazzled and slow trying to get into position, and easily being beaten. The first warning shot came from Ted Ku-DiPietro who was all alone and camped out at the near post, where he just missed curling in his shot inside the far post. But Jared Stroud found a way several minutes later to get the lead for the struggling side. While Cristian Dajome did get double yellowed and then red fouling Cameron Harper, the Red Bulls were able to level the score ith a penalty converted by Elias Manoel.
More problems came for the Red Bulls. They attacked, but couldn’t convert. Later in the first half a poor decision by Ronald Donkor to give a foul just a few yards away from his area, and the veteran Pedro Santos bent and smashed the back of the net with a lovely free kick to regain the lead for DC t 2-1 while a man down. Even though Harper did score the second equalizer of the match in the second half, to save a point, this entire match was not the type of performance we expected from this Red Bulls side. They destroyed DC United in our nation’s capital, but somehow failed to equal that type of performance in the return leg at Red Bull Arena.
While I do understand Daniel Edelman was suspended for yellow card accumulation, Frankie Amaya transferred to Toluca in Liga MX and Lewis Morgan returned from the Euros with Scotland, this squad had enough to go out there and take down D United without a problem. They were getting outpressed by ten men DC United. You have the man advantage, and not only are you down a goal, you are up a man and that was not what was supposed to happen. While their unbeaten home streak is still intact for ten straight games, it doesn’t feel like a positive result, it feels like they just barely survived. The only hope is that the Red Bulls don’t face DC United in the playoffs, because Troy Lesesne will take advantage of that type of play, over and over again.
I can’t blame Sandro Schwarz for how this match got started, the players needed to be better at the opening whistle and go full out against a weaker side. They are the club’s biggest rivals no matter how good or bad they are playing, you must be ready to go and show the rest of the league why you are in the top five of the Eastern Conference Standings. Now they have four matches left going on the road at Philadelphia, Colorado, then back home to Montreal and Cincinnati before their Leagues Cup Campaign begins. It’s time to acquire the full three points in these next four games and have a comfortable position in the east so they can head off into a playoff run for the MLS Cup Championship.