Technically Speaking: #NYvNE

Photo credit: Kari Heistad/capturedimages.biz

On Sunday, the Revs beat the Red Bulls 2-1 in one of their best-ever performances, despite being outplayed from a statistical standpoint as the Red Bulls were superior in ball possession, shots, shots on goal, all passing categories, and corner kicks, for example. The Revs’ two top-quality goals were enough to give them the victory, and they deserved it.

The ten yellow cards issued by referee Allen Chapman – six for the Red Bulls, four for the Revs – are an indication that both teams truly meant business. The result of their mutual efforts was a great game, played at a very high level of intensity and concentration.

The Red Bulls’ back four have been their Achilles’ heel for much of the season, and it could be argued that this was the case in this game as well. Ambroise Oyongo was too easily beaten by Teal Bunbury just before Bunbury’s beautiful 17th-minute goal. All Oyongo had to do was to stay between Bunbury and the goal, yet he was incapable of carrying through on this basic task. Also at fault was centerback Ibrahim Sekagya, who by basically standing still, failed to give Oyongo much-needed immediate support, one of the chief responsibilities of a center back.

The Revs’ 87th-minute goal was a case of their simply cutting through the Red Bull defense like a knife through butter thanks to lax man-marking and a faulty off-side trap.

Although these were defensive lapses, in both cases, the high level of offensive skill demonstrated by the Revs was especially noteworthy. Teal Bunbury dribbled by Oyongo, then struck an elegant banana shot to score, and not many MLS teams have the skill to execute the passing sequence (Soares to Nguyen to Bunbury to a perfectly-timed run by Jones) that led to the second goal.

Side note: Before any tournament, it is imperative for coaches at any and all levels to review the particular rules of the tournament carefully with their teams. This is especially true of variables like those involving yellow-card accumulation. If Bradley Wright-Phillips had been aware of the yellow-card accumulation rule for the playoffs (he maintained after the game that he wasn’t), I can’t imagine his having risked a card for hindering the keeper while he distributes the ball. This is always a yellow!

Coach Mike Petke told the media afterward that he did not make his players aware of the yellow card situation as he did not want it to alter their play. Clearly, it was a tactic that backfired in the worst possible way. As a result, this season’s MLS Golden-Boot award winner can’t play next weekend. What a trivial way to undermine your chances!

The US Men’s National Team committed a similar faux pas in the 1994 World Cup. The USA was playing Romania in the round robin. As the USA was forming a wall to block a shot by Gheorghe Hagi, at the time one of the world’s top players, John Harkes (a former Rev) got yellow-carded for resisting the referee’s instruction to step back further from the ball. (The wily Hagi had made sure the ref was aware of Harkes’s positioning.) Harkes thought all yellow cards were erased after the group round. They weren’t. This led to Harkes’s being suspended for yellow-card accumulation from what would have been the most important game of his life: a game against Brazil in the Round of 16.

If the Revs can match the spirit of their Sunday performance in the second leg of the series, they’ll be fine. If not, beware. Even without Wright-Phillips, the Red Bulls have shown they can still be dangerous.