By BRIAN LEWIS
The Red Bulls’ late-season collapse isn’t quite as dramatic as the Mets’, but that’s only because fewer people are watching. An MLS Cup berth that seemed safe two weeks ago is rapidly vanishing as they lost 3-1 to league cellar-dweller Toronto FC, their third straight defeat.
“We’re panicking too much. We’re looking for somebody to make big plays, and at the moment it’s not happening,” said Juan Carlos Osorio. “The pressure at the moment is too much for a lot of the players. It’s easy when you play with no pressure. Now every game is a must-win, and it’s proved that some of us can’t handle the pressure.”
They didn’t handle it after being tied 1-1, watching Chad Barrett’s second goal of the night and then Abdus Ibrahim’s insurance tally. Ex-Red Bull Marvell Wynne set up both with his pace, and they lost to a Toronto team that came in with an MLS-low 28 points and seven-game winless streak.
And they didn’t handle it after being five points clear in the playoff race on Sept. 18, before coughing up 11 goals in a three-game skid. The Red Bulls would be in MLS Cup in the regular-season ended today; but it doesn’t, and the road ahead is ominous considering their defense is in abysmal disarray.
“We might be (pressing), but we put ourselves in this situation. We put our backs against the wall,” said center back Jeff Parke, who felt Toronto and Colorado just played with more desperation. “We had had chances to separate ourselves from the rest of the division, but we haven’t came to play. That’s all of us. It’s tough for me to go home and think about these losses. “It’s a matter of us maybe sitting down and chatting and saying this is our season. These next couple games (are) make-or-break. We could be going home packing our bags for October or keep playing.”
The Red Bulls got lucky last night, with Colorado losing and getting Conor Casey red-carded, and then Real Salt Lake blowing a two-goal lead to tie and seeing Andy Williams red-carded.
Now the Red Bulls (9-10-8, 35 points) are still clinging to the top wild-card spot by a single point over Dallas and Colorado, and the best Kansas City (32 points) can do with a win today is move into the other wild-card spot.
But the Red Bulls still have a grueling three-game gantlet to close the regular-season: Playing at Real Salt Lake Thursday _ with RSL opening its new stadium _ then facing MLS-leading Columbus and closing out at Chicago, a club that already thrashed them 5-1 earlier this season.
And knowing they have a league-low one road victory all season only heaps more pressure on their shoulders _ pressure they haven’t handled well.
“The pressure is within ourselves after we lost two consecutive games. We make pressure on ourselves,” said midfielder Jorge Rojas, who _ along with Dane Richards and defender Gabriel Cichero _ will miss Thursday’s pivotal Real Salt Lake game for international duty.
“We can’t control our own game in the last two games; that’s what has happened to us. We don’t have the clarity we had in previous games, and we make stupid, dumb mistakes.”
Like Cichero _ playing his second straight poor game _ trying to head the ball back to GK Jon Conway, handing Barrett his first goal. Richards equalized in the 49th, but they got burned by a 65th-minute counterattack when Wynne carried the ball 60 yards and crossed to a wide-open Barrett for the winner.
“The last two games were painful,” said forward Mike Magee. “We were assuming we were going to get one if not two. To lose two is heartbreaking.”
Dave van den Bergh _ who came on at halftime, his first appearance since hernia surgery _ said “We started the second half with a lot more fire in our bellies…We had them on the ropes and we didn’t give them the knockout punch. On a fluke breakaway with Marvell Wynne, who runs a 100-yard dash in five seconds and no one was able to catch up to him.”