The Red Bulls dormant attack came alive. They were dangerous in the final third, precise with their passes and dominant in possession.
It was the Red Bulls best outing of the young season and yet they fell to the shorthanded Columbus Crew, 3-1, in front of 11,940 at Red Bull Arena Thursday night. The reeling Red Bulls have lost three straight games, including back-to-back matches at their new $200 million home.
“It’s a defeat that hurts, for sure,” Red Bulls coach Hans Backe said. “Probably our best performance in this league when you look at possession, look at creating chances, putting a team like Columbus under pressure like this, it hurts. I feel a bit sorry for the players, because they deserved more in this game. Two-and-a-half individual mistakes killed the game for us.”
While the Red Bulls hit the woodwork three times, the Crew capitalized on a few defensive miscues to put three past Bouna Coundoul. Former MetroStars midfielder Eddie Gaven slipped past Red Bulls rookie defender Tim Ream and headed Frankie Hejduk’s cross into the net to put the Crew in front in the 35th minute.
The Red Bulls nearly equalized one minute later, but Sinisa Ubiparipovic put the ball off the far post. Seth Stammler pounced on the rebound near the top of the 18-yard box, but he hammered it high over the net.
Three minutes later Andy Iro powerfully headed Gaven’s corner kick past Coundoul and the Crew, despite being outplayed, took a 2-0 lead into halftime.
“They got two chances in the first half and scored them, two crosses,” said Dane Richards, who partnered with Angel up front. “We know they’re a set piece team, and we should have defended better.”
Five minutes into the second half, Richards had Will Hesmer beat, but put his low shot from eight yards off the far post.
On the hour mark, Juan Pablo Angel curled a free kick from 24 yards over the Columbus wall, but his shot deflected off the crossbar.
“One inch lower and I think it would have been in,” Angel said. “The goalkeeper didn’t really have any chance, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t meant to be today.”
Rookie midfielder Tony Tchani, who came on for Ubiparipovic in the 65th minute, scored his first MLS goal nine minutes from full time, flicking Carlos Mendes’ cross past Hesmer to bring the Red Bulls to within a goal.
“I thought when it was 2-1 we had a very decent chance to equalize the game,” Angel said. “It was only one way, but then I think the third goal killed off the game for us.”
Indeed. Two minutes later a mix-up between central defenders Ream and Mike Petke allowed Emilio Renteria to race in on goal. The second half substitute rounded Coundoul and easily put the ball into the net, sealing the win for the undefeated Crew (5-0-2, 17 pts.), who moved ahead of the Red Bulls (5-4-0, 15 pts.) into first place in the Eastern Conference.
“I was so happy because I was thinking we could come back because we had [nine] minutes left, but after giving up that goal, I was just like there’s no hope for now,” said Tchani, who was impressive off the bench.
Ream called the gaffe a matter of “over-communication.”
“I was calling for it to be my ball to head back to Bouna and Mike was calling it for him to clear it out and I think we were both in good positions to do both of those things,” Ream said. “We both hesitated, thinking the other guy was going to go. There it’s just one guy has to take charge. It doesn’t matter who it is, it has to happen and it cost us.”
Petke, who became the 12th player in MLS history to make 300 appearances, took responsibility for the decisive goal.
“I’ll hold my hand up for that one,” Petke said. “No matter what was said, no matter who called what, I should be running through everybody on that play.”
The Red Bulls host Italian powerhouse Juventus in a friendly Sunday afternoon and, after hosting the Colorado Rapids in a U.S. Open Cup qualifier Wednesday, return to MLS action next Saturday against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.