The New York Red Bulls (2-4-2) remain home to face the New England Revolution (1-2-2) after a midweek loss to Sporting KC. New York looks to bounce back after a frustrating and physical 1-0 loss on Wednesday. New York will hope to turn their three game week into six of nine points gained against the Revolution out at Red Bull Arena.
New York will likely be dealing with two key losses in the lineup come tonight. Midfielder Juninho will be missing the match after receiving a red card in the 90th minute in the 1-0 loss to KC. Who knows if Juninho would have seen much time on the field after playing 180 minutes over two matches in the past week. A third game in eight days may have been too much for the 38 year old Brazilian. NY will also likely be without the services of Jamison Olave, the teams leading goal scorer. Olave suffered a knee injury early in Wednesday’s match. Petke told reporters it is not as bad as initially thought but I doubt Petke will play Olave this soon, especially since the Red Bulls still have a long stretch of games against eastern conference competition ahead the next two months.
Petke has two options when replacing Juninho in the midfield. He can go with last years pairing of Cahill and McCarty, giving NY that much more bite in the midfiled and the ability to posses the ball more. Of course, Cahill and McCarty cannot move the ball as well as Juninho could. Petke can also play Eric Alexander next to McCarty something that has not happened since their days in Dallas together. Who plays out wide for NY in that case? Maybe Marius Obekop who showed admirably in his MLS debut.
The Revs are winless in their last four games, with their only win coming against the Chicago fire. New England was held to 0 shots against Seattle last weekend while only allowing three shots on goal. While they may not have scored in 388 minutes, they have also only given up two goals total on the season.
Seemingly like every team in MLS, the Revs have their players who can always play well against the Red Bulls. Lee Nguyen and Jerry Bengston had great matches against NY last season. This season, however, Nguyen and Bengston have been rather quiet, specifically Bengston who only has seven shots all season long. He seems to fit the stereotype of a striker in a 4-5-1 who is “on an island”. Markus Holgersson and Heath Pearce will look to keep that scoreless streak for New England going.
The big factor for the Red Bulls will be their fitness level. Three games in eight days can take a toll on anyone’s body. We’ll see if Petke stays with the basic starting eleven he had against DC and Sporting KC (minus Olave and Juniho) or if he really shuffles the deck in the midfield and forwards. For the Revolution, they have emotion and a city to play for following the tragic events earlier this week at the Boston Marathon and the manhunt in Watertown, Massachusetts. Before the match, supporters from New York and New England will march onto the field holding the banner they displayed Wednesday night in support of the city of Boston and its people. Similar to sporting events following September 11th, no matter what happens between the first and last whistle, no matter whom we support, it’s important we all stand together in the face of darkness.
