The New York Red Bulls (7-4-4) play host to the Vancouver Whitecaps (3-4-4) and look to stay unbeaten and extend that record streak to eight games. Last season, New York went into Vancouver and remained level until 75th minute when the Whitecaps went ahead 1-0. A dropped three points seemed certain for New York until Heath Pearce brought the Red Bulls back level minutes from stoppage time. Now the Whitecaps come into Red Bull Arena with their only win since week two, being a 3-1 win over the LA Galaxy. Vancouver was just ousted of a CCL berth by the Montreal Impact on Wednesday. NY comes into this match, winning their Open Cup tilt against Reading United on Wednesday but dropping two points in a draw with Columbus this past Sunday.
The Red Bulls will have to adjust to life without Tim Cahill. The Aussie international had been criticized in the early goings of the season, with many pundits citing his lack of production and the team not getting out of him what his salary is. Since Cahill originally left for World Cup Qualifiers in March, the Club is 7-1-2 and is currently on a seven game unbeaten streak. Through those seven games, Cahill has been involved in six goals, scoring four and assisting on two. Three of Cahill’s goals have been game winners against Columbus, Toronto, and LA. Petke’s midfield, without Cahill, basically picks itself in Steele, Juninho, McCarty, and Alexander. When it came to picking his central midfield pairing over the last few weeks, Petke hasn’t had to purposely bench one of the likes of Juninho, McCarty, and Cahill. Between suspensions and players returning from injury, the central midfield pairing picked itself. As far as play on the field goes, the central midfielders when pressured have done well to not give up the ball by pushing it to the flanks of Steele and Alexander and allowing them to run in space. Even if Vancouver can pressure the deepest lying midfielder, New York shouldn’t have to worry much as the Whitecaps have not done well scoring off of turnovers.
Vancouver will be without English midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who is out due to suspension. Like Cahill and making the Red Bulls midfield tick, the same goes with Reo-Coker. The real big question when it comes to Vancouver is where the goals are going to come from. Nine of the Caps fourteen goals have come from forwards but their leading scorer is Camilo with three.
With the Red Bulls heading into a 22 day break, NY needs to maximize on the Caps playing midweek and then traveling across the country. When the Red Bulls come out of that 22 day break, US Open Cup not withstanding, the rest of the East will mostly have caught up in games played and the Red Bulls will likely not find themselves sitting atop its conference foes. The Red Bulls host the Whitecaps at 7pm this Saturday and it is this weeks MLS Stream of the Week on MLS Live.
