New York fans refer to this matchup as the “1% derby” and even though the two teams are on opposite sides of the country, NY and LA is a rivalry. It’s MLS’s two big name clubs internationally, boasting some of the biggest names in worldwide soccer and highest paid players in the league. That all means a lot less this season as MLS instituted its unbalanced schedule, meaning these two teams only meet once in regular season play.
The Red Bulls come into this matchup off the amazing defensive effort of an inexperienced backline and a 1-0 win over New England last weekend. While Hans Backe refers to this stretch as games without Thierry Henry as “disaster mode”, NY will be getting some reinforcements for this game. Defender Jan Gunnar Solli returns to the starting XI, hoping to boost a still inexperienced backline of Holgersson, Ruthven, and Lade.
As of Thursday, Hans Backe still did not know if he was going to play with one or two strikers. Following the loss at DC two weeks ago, Backe had said he would probably be playing with one striker for away games. That was before Thierry Henry went out injured though. The burden of the offense now falls on the husk shoulders of Kenny Cooper. If he does have a partner up top, Hans Backe has ruled out Dane Richards. Juan Agudelo did travel with the team and could see about 20-25 minutes the coach said. Johnny Arteaga has featured as a late game sub a couple of times and it would be interesting to see how he can play and partner up with Cooper. Jose Angulo is one of the injured Red Bulls and Corey Hertzog, for whatever reason, has fallen out of favor and out of the 18 man team. I suspect Bakce is going to go with a 4-5-1 in this case. Dax McCarty and Brandon Barklage will play the role of defensive mids, while Richards, Ballouhy, and Lindpere will play behind Kenny Cooper. No matter the lineup, Backe has now come out and said he needs to team to attack and not get into a defensive holding pattern. He pointed out that the transition play will be key and that NY needs to take advantage of their breaks.
The Galaxy comes into this matchup off a 2-0 loss midweek in Seattle. However, David Beckham and Robbie Keane did not travel or play. The Galaxy have taken a lot of heat for their early season play but this is their third game in eight days and coach Bruce Arena felt he needed to rest some players. Edson Buddle and Robbie Keane have both failed to impress in the offensive third. Everyone thought that when LA took back Buddle, that h and Keane would be the best striking pair in MLS. Keane recently missed a penalty and Buddle only has a goal so far this season. L’s backline has also been in disarray since the offseason injury to Omar Gonzalez. David Junior Lopes has not been the plug in the backline that LA had hoped he would be. AJ DeLaGarza has also been exposed on multiple occasions not playing alongside Gonzalez.
The key matchup is going to be Dane Richards against LA’s left back Todd Dunivant. Can Richards utilize his speed to burn past Dunivant and get in on goal? Flipside, LA’s Mike Magee, the former NY player, always shows up for games against the Red Bulls and killed them in the Western Conference Semifinals last season. On both sides, the strikers have to be favoring their chances against the center backs they are facing up against. This is a touch stretch of games coming up for NY and LA is coming off a tough run. I don’t see this game as being as high octane as past encounters between these teams (mostly due to the absence of Henry and Marquez). At best for NY, they will escape with a point but the defense will need to be a lot sharper and Kenny Cooper needs to find his confidence he had in earlier games.
(image courtesy of newyorkedbulls.com)
