RBNY v Houston: Ten Men Kick Ass

By: Martha | April 22nd, 2007

Cletus gets screwed. Watching RBNY last night was an almost surreal experience — they were in no way flawless, but they played with a tremendous toughness and commitment, both of which were totally absent from the side pretty much all last season. These are not the Red Bulls to whom we are accustomed, and thank goodness for that. Here’s hoping this newfound focus and understanding will stay around, because if we have that and can stay healthy, this team is going to be force to be reckoned with this season. (And six weeks ago, I would have laughed in your face if you’d shown me this post.)

A few observations from the game:

•Mathis was tremendous in his 35 minutes on the pitch. Every ball that went through the midfield was at his feet, and his touches were positive and creative, almost always putting someone into space and keeping the attack going. Of special note was his connection with Jozy — those two seem to really be getting each other, which is magic to see.

•I’ve been known to be totally wrong before, but Reyna really didn’t impress me. He wasn’t involved at all until Mathis went out, and even then he was unable to assert himself and get control of the game. Early in the second half he pushed forward a bit more and got himself slightly more involved, but that faded quickly and he spend most of the game playing deep and dropping passes back to the Walrus. (He also had one TERRIBLE giveaway late in the second half that gave pretty much everyone the place a heart attack.) I’m not a Reyna hater by any means, but he wasn’t must of a factor last night.

•Is Dave van den Bergh slower in person, or something? I’ve been impressed by him so far this season, but yesterday he looks slow and soft for much of the game. Until, that is, he decided to run and pressure and spent his last 15 minutes on the pitch running his legs off and causing as much chaos as he could. That effort alone won him a standing ovation when he was brought off.

•All that running van den Bergh did? He was covering for Woly who, after coming on as “fresh legs” up top proceeded to stand in the center circle for 15 minutes. And, really, that’s no exaggeration — it’s impossible to describe how offensive it was if you didn’t see it. I mean, what was going through his mind? Was he pouting about being left on the bench? Because a completely drained Jozy was roughly 300% better than a fresh Woly.

•Speaking of Jozy, he was just awesome. Yes, he got tired. And yes, he was visibly frustrated by the beating Houston were putting on him. But he found the energy to run when it was needed and was a constant menace to Houston’s defense. The goal came off a great touch, but his best run was in the first half, when he beat three guys in orange before smashing the ball over the bar. (Just in case you forgot, this kid is 17 years old.)

•The referee was awful. AWFUL. Not only did he red-card Cletus for a tackle that, as far as I could tell, merited only a caution, but he also failed to send De Rosari off for trying to CATCH THE BALL IN THE BOX. Has there ever been a more obviously intentional handball? Additionally, he spent most of the game arbitrarily carding Red Bulls while the Dynamo beat the hell out of Jozy without ever being penalized.

•Why didn’t Brian Ching start? The guy behind me suggested he’d been getting a pedicure and got caught in traffic, but this was unconfirmed. That guy scares the hell out of me, it was very nice to only have to deal with him for about 20 minutes.

•It’s been said before and I’m sure it’ll be said again, but Waterreus is awesome, particularly when you compare him to the keeper on the other end of the pitch (in this case Houston’s dreadful Pat Onstad). Though he only had a few saves to make last night, what was really impressive about Walrus was his distribution — virtually every ball he played out was inch-perfect and lead to a Red Bull possession. He handled even the dodgiest pass-backs perfectly, and delt with Houston pressure with the ball at his feel without batting an eye. Onstad, meanwhile, was spraying the ball all over the pitch, screwing it out of bounds more often that not. Conway is good, but Waterreus is great.

•Interestingly, Dema only really came into the game after Dane went off injured (He stayed on the bench and his leg wasn’t wrapped or anything after the game — hopefully it was just a minor knock.) and he pushed out wide to replace him. Until then, Dema had mostly be running around in the center alternating good tackles with bad touches. Once he got out wide, however, he was instantly a factor, winning balls, getting involved in the attack a bit, and just generally making life hard on Houston’s attackers.

•Despite the Tourette’s-style shouting of “MARVELL!” every few minutes by the people sitting around me, Freeman was really good. He defended well, played in some good crosses and set up Jozy’s goal. Nothing to complain about there.