Leagues Lowest Scoring Teams Face Off; RBNY v. Chivas

By: Dave Martinez | August 15th, 2009

The Red Bulls are on a losing streak. Seriously. But Chivas USA, who started the season off rather dominantly, with a squad of relative unknowns, has fallen back down to Earth. The Goats have lost their last five games in a row, recording no goals in a franchise worst 320 minutes. Meanwhile, the Red Bulls scoring woes will only continue, with Juan Pablo Angel and Macoumba Kandji out for this game. It is a match up of playoff possibilities v. pride in a game that can make or break Chivas season.

The Red Bulls are facing a club that practically mirrors their inefficiencies. Chivas has only scored 5 times in their last 9 road matches, and a loss to the lowly New York side will greatly damage any hope of a postseason they may be grasping on to. To make matters worse for the California side? They are missing Metro Killer Ante Razov, Shavar Thomas, Zach Thornton, Kevin Harmse, and Paolo Nagamura, among others. Can this actually spell out a possible win for the Bulls?

Slow down.

The depleted Red Bull squad will be looking for new avenues of scoring success, with the absence of their two biggest forward threats. Expect Wolyniec up top, possibly with Dane Richards playing slightly behind him. Sassano will most likely see some playing time as one half of the central d-mid pairing with Seth Stammler. Ernst Oebster will make his first league appearance in the swamp, and who knows? Maybe we will see a little bit of long forgotten defender Carlos Johnson in limited minutes.

Though the injuries for the Goats clearly favors the Bulls, one has to keep in mind this teams panicky persona in the waning minutes of a half. Surely, you can count on at least one goal mysteriously finding its way to the back of the net for the visitors. How Red Bull will respond will tell the story of this match. And hopefully, the response won’t be as ominously silent as their Austrian Overlords.

Game time is 7pm, in the Swamp. See ya there.