The New York Red Bulls traveled to face the Chicago Fire at Soldier Field, and once again this boogeyman club defeated them again. With a two goals to one loss, the Red Bulls have allowed both New York City FC and Orlando City to catch up toward them to have a three point lead for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. This was another poor loss to the worst team in the Eastern Conference as they are dead last in the table. Now the Fire have moved out of the basement and threw down the New England Revolution in their place.
This performance was brutally poor. So poor Sandro Schwarz came to the Zoom meeting with the media and he just showed how angry he was at his players. They had strong starts in both halves and then they just couldn’t piece anything together afterwards. We don’t know if their mentality was low or if they were a bit naive, but for sure Schwarz was with most of you when he saw he poor they played and allowed easy goals to get past them. Noah Eile gave an easy ball to Hugo Cuypers to attack down the pitch and even though Carlos Coronel made a good left handed save, Tom Barlow was all alone to tap home an easy rebound.
When Schwarz made the substitutions to start the second half. Dante Vanzier and Dennis Gjengaar were able to link up and convert the equalizer. There were thoughts that they were going to get a positive result and have plenty of time to score a second goal, but sadly the second half was the same as the first half. Lackluster, poor passing, and wasting so many chances and so many set pieces that they couldn’t salvage a point on the road, and now their position is being threatened by two clubs who picked up a win and a draw respectively.
“Yeah, pressure is normal, to be honest, in professional sports that is normal, especially when you lose games, like today, like the home game against Philadelphia, so that’s normal, but this is what we can influence then is to have this behavior on the field, off the field, and so we start today, I would say, the first five, ten minutes in the game was good. We had big chances to score the first goal, and then after that, we missed some passes. It was not clear enough, not clean enough in our behavior with the ball, not strong enough, especially against the strikers from Chicago and in the end, second half was the same picture to be honest. We start very well. We score directly the goal, 1-1. We had our moments, but it’s too easy, too simple how we concede the goals and this is what we have to change immediately, our behavior, immediately because it’s necessary now for the last five games, and yeah, pressure is normal. It’s also when you win the game, and you have also the pressure for the next week. So now we have lost the game today, which is not a good feeling for sure and development needs for us that we have to do everything, everything, forgetting three points, and this is what I missed today in some moments.”
This performance was not what they needed and now they are in real danger of dropping out of fourth place. For everything we have done to praise this club for having a resurgence of a season, is now starting to look like they could be out of having an advantage in the opening round of the playoffs by not having the two home games. That would be very bad and what needs to happen is for them to get back to the training pitch and fix these issues. The hope is Emil Forsberg will return to the bench and play for the Red Bulls against Atlanta United, then get into it with the Hudson River Derby when NYCFC comes over.
It’s time to strengthen those laces on their boots and make sure they get out there to finish this regular season off with a flourish. They have the talent, they have the players, they need the will to get out there and compete. Stop messing around, don’t take your opponents lightly, and find a way to get the full three points. with five matches remaining. Time to get it done and not dilly dally.