An Ugly Start to the Season

By: Dave Martinez | April 7th, 2009

Take yourself back in time for just a few minutes here. Back to a time where life made sense. Where the world had no worries, and the earth enveloped us all in candy cane and gum drop dreams.

That’s right; I am talking about 4 weeks ago.

You see, four weeks ago, the Red Bull Universe seemed perfectly aligned with the Cosmos. The Bulls were coming off their most successful (arguably) season in its young lifetime. The off season not only saw the team mesh and meld into a fast paced, attacking side, but was only further highlighted by the impressive performances put up against some of Argentina’s best sides.

Sprinkle on top of that the signings of Khano Smith, Alfredo Pacheco, Albert Celades, Carlos Johnson, Mike Petke and Dominic Oduro, and the return of a game fit Jorge Rojas, Mac Kandji and Juan Pietravallo, and Bulls fans were certain that this track team would out run, out last, out hustle and out fight its competition week in and week out.

Well, here I am ready to pinch your arm back to reality. Because all of that dreaming is truly over. Why? Well, these are the facts as the season heads into game 4:

- The Bulls have yet to win a game.

- They have yet to score a goal. As a matter of fact, Jay Heaps of the Revolution is currently this teams leading goal scorer.

- Of the a fore mentioned signings, only Carlos Johnson, Oduro, Petke and Khano Smith have taken the pitch for the Bulls (Johnson and Oduro as late subs).

- They were given over 3/4’s of a game playing up a man on the road against a formidable side in Chicago, and instead of nailing the coffin shut on the Fire for good, they played like they were down two men.

- They have 9 official shots on goal and 6 yellow cards in 3 games. I don’t know what that means, but seeing that shots on and yellows are that close together in number . . . . yikes.

- As a matter of fact, they have more infractions (41) than they do any kind of general shots (37). Ouch.

- The players look flat. Even the teams fearless leader, Juan Pablo Angel, looks to be off a touch. Some are pointing their fingers to the offseason, as Angel did not train with the team for the most part. But how would that explain the play of other teammates who have come up even flatter? Personally, I was waiting for Khano Smith to break out in Chicago, but saw nothing. Even Jorge Rojas, who was the image of good fitness this offseason, looks confounded and out of place on the ball. And Dane Richards has become an unfortunate afterthought. The bottom line is, barring Kandji and Jeremy Hall, many of the players have either looked lifeless, unready or just plain disinterested out there.

What happened?

Finger pointing can be shared up and down the lineup, from Juan Pablo Angel to Danny Cepero, through management and the coaching staff. Do you blame the lifeless showing by the players on the players themselves? Or has Coach Osorio’s defensive minded style of coaching been the teams true culprit?

The fact is, there has been a deficiency on all levels to “achieve” this type of a dismal start to the season. And it is a sad state of affairs (and a sad excuse) when the team is this far from having a complete roster so late into the season. Many still hold out hope that Alfredo Pacheco (who is in RB training this week) and friends will be the revelation this teams needs to mobilize the offense, but the product that is on the field is speaking another language all together. And to think; when a team holds out hope for offense on a defensive winger and a former defensive midfielder turned CAM (Albert Celades), things are not looking up.

I spoke on this last week; are you a half glass full or half glass empty type of fan? Are the Red Bulls struggles related to a delay in reinforcements or does this dismal start fall on Osorios shoulders? Will they be able to pick up the pieces and move forward?