Following arguably their worst performance of the season, in a 4-2 loss to the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium on Friday, the New York Red Bulls have seen their losing streak extended to three.
Conceding a season-high four goals, the Red Bulls relinquished their first half lead en route to another loss, having now managed just one win in their last eight.
“We didn’t catch a few breaks today but we also didn’t compete at our best today,” midfielder Sacha Kljestan said postgame. “We were second best in a lot of areas on the field. Overall, just not a good enough performance to get three points on the road.”
After Mike Grella staked the visitors to a halftime lead, the Dynamo answered back 15 minutes into the second stanza, thanks to a fortuitous bounce off a Boniek Garcia shot that left the New York defense looking skywards in dismay. A second deflected Dynamo goal coupled with a disallowed New York goal may have left some feeling the Red Bulls were unfortunate, but the slumping side admits that more needed to be done on the night.
“I feel like we’ve been a bit unlucky especially on the opposition’s box,” Bradley Wright-Phillips said. “But I’ve always been told that you make your own luck. I think we can do a lot more in both boxes. We haven’t been clinical enough in the opposition box and safe enough in our box. We’ve got to improve on it.”
In contrast to their last minute defeat to Seattle last weekend, the Red Bulls seemed outclassed for large portions of the second half in particular. Facing less-than ideal pitch conditions on a hot Texas night, the Red Bulls could not manage to overcome the numerous obstacles on the night.
“We came in second on a lot of plays,” head coach Jesse Marsch said. “The field is in horrible condition, which feeds into the way they play a little bit. Now when they put balls forwards and it comes down to competing for loose balls and second balls and aerials and everything else. That feeds into the way they want to play. We came in second too often and they put us on our heels.”
Heading into a bye week, New York will look to regroup, making no excuses for their poor performances as of late. While luck certainly played a part in their losing effort in Houston and in recent weeks, the Red Bulls are not content to sulk and feel sorry over their misfortunes.
“…They outplayed us,” goalkeeper Luis Robles said. “We can make excuses and say that it was the weather or the pitch, but at the end of the day they had to deal with those variables and were able to come out with four goals to two.
“We have the right personnel and the right coaching staff to be able to solve these problems, but nonetheless there are some very apparent problems that need to be solved.”
