One of the founding franchises of the MLS, the Red Bulls, formerly known as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, fell short again in the playoffs this season. It was a disappointing result for fans expecting the franchise to finally follow up on some tremendous talent and regular season success.
The Red Bulls had advanced to the conference final, with a chance to finally reach the MLS Cup and give themselves a chance at a title, something that the franchise had not managed to accomplish in their 23 years of existence.
Their opponents, however, were a young and clearly inspired Atlanta United team that was determined to have a strong showing. And they did, taking the first game in Atlanta decisively, 3-0. That put the Red Bulls in a position of needing to win by at least four goals, which is a very tall order in any situation. And the Red Bulls fell far short of that, managing only one goal scored in the extra time session to earn the win, but falling short of what was required of them to advance to the MLS Cup, and allowing Atlanta to reach their first ever MLS Cup instead.
Atlanta will now face the Portland Timbers, who managed to advanced out in the Western conference by edging out Sporting Kansas City. They managed that with an impressive performance by Diego Valeri, who scored twice in the second half, including once in the extra time session, to lift the Timbers and punch their ticket to the MLS Cup.
Maddening as always. When they fell behind 1-0 in the first leg, I was thinking "There's still plenty of time left to tie the score, and even a 1-goal loss wouldn't be a bad result on the road." When they fell behind 2-0, I was thinking "OK, this isn't a good result per se, but it's not disastrous either. The Red Bulls can undo the damage at home so long as they don't allow another goal." When they fell behind 3-0 – in stoppage time, no less – I stopped following it online. But even then I still had a glimmer of hope for the return leg, thinking "If they can cut score at least one goal within the first half hour or so, who knows?" It's just a shame that after such an impressive regular season, and beating Columbus in the conference semis, they played their worst soccer at the worst possible time. Technically they didn't have to score 4 goals in the return leg, though. That would have been necessary to win the series in regulation, but a 3-0 win would have cancelled out the result in Atlanta, and sent the game to overtime, where of course anything can happen. In the Red Bulls' defense, they scored a goal in Atlanta that would have tied the score at 1-1, but it was disallowed. I didn't actually see it, so I can't comment as to the fairness or unfairness of that call. But man, between the NY teams I support – the Red Bulls, the Jets, the Knicks and the Nets – it's a subtle form of torture.
ReplyDeleteLOL - I hear ya. It always seems like the Red Bulls have a decent regular season, but fail to follow up once the playoffs roll around. But at least they regularly qualify for the postseason, which cannot be said of the Jets, the Knicks, and the Nets.
ReplyDeleteThank God for Les Bleus, at least. Although they've obviously had their share of heartbreak and bitter disappointment, they've obviously had amazing highs as well. Five major titles (two World Cups, two Euros and an olympic gold medal) and counting in my lifetime isn't bad.
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