Forward and U.S. National Team member Juan Agudelo scored his first career MLS goal as the New York Red Bulls earned a 1-0 victory over Seattle Sounders FC in the team’s opening match of 2011 in front of 20,982 at Red Bull Arena. Goalkeeper Greg Sutton made seven saves to earn the clean sheet for the defending Eastern Conference Regular Season Champion. It was a tidy win for New York in its opener, as its was one-way traffic for most of the match. We caught up with Coach Backe, Agudelo, Sutton, and Red Bulls debutant Teemu Tainio after the match to get their thoughts. Share YOUR thoughts in the comments section.
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March 20, 2011 at 12:48 AM |
This was a strong performance by New York, even better than I expected. Kudos to Erik, Hans and all the players. I am really looking forward to this season now.
At the end of last year, we got a glimpse of the contributions that Juan would make and it is clear that both he as well as Teemu and Jan are really making this team click better. Passing and movement off the ball was fantastic and when you can bring a player like Tony off the bench, watch out. Teemu was my MOTM with Juan, Rafa and Tim very close behind.
If the team can improve on finishing and play in the final third, they will be hard to handle. I think fewer touches and better runs will help.
While Sutton played fine and made some key saves, I felt there were a couple of balls he did not secure that Bouna would have held onto.
Thierry was also a fine captain; he played strong and hard. It was a decent PK attempt but Keller made an even better save.
While no one played incredible tonight, I thought everyone had a solid performance.
With so many players absent for the next game, I imagine the lineup with be Henry and Rodgers up top; Ballouchy, Lindpere, Tainio and Tchani in the midfield, Jan, Carlos, Daniel and Kheel in defense; and Sutton in goal. It will be interesting to see how that team does in Columbus.
March 20, 2011 at 9:03 AM |
I meant Danleigh not Daniel…
March 20, 2011 at 9:28 AM |
the red bulls look wayyyy better anf faster without angel
March 20, 2011 at 10:42 AM |
Angel has never been a speedster during his career, so I don’t see your point. I’ll admit that Agudelo looks and plays mighty good, but he still has some big shoes to fill. Anyways, this team plays solid, and next week will be a big test to that. Let’s hope that the entire team is just as strong as the one we saw today.
March 22, 2011 at 11:24 AM
The point is that Angel’s lack of pace stimied the attack on numerous occasions, and he had a tendency to be offsides very often. Remember in the run of play he only scored one goal in the last 12 games or so. His best days are over, Agudelo is an upgrade.
March 20, 2011 at 11:02 AM |
I really enjoyed watching this guys play tonight, the ball movement was at times excellent, but overall amazing. However, I still see some holes in the line up. Roy Miller is an average player, that meaning that he does what he cans, when he can. His defensive behavior leaves only but doubts, and his pushing forward lack more consistency. Another player who is lacking in effort is Dane Richards. We all know he can make great speedy runs on that right flank, but at times he just doesn’t seem to have the speed or the ability to go by slower defenders. He is just lost from time to time, and if we are looking to get the same results we got last season, Dane needs to be there 100% of the time. Ballouchy is also taking too long of a time to distribute the ball. He has to control the tempo of the game, but at times he just seems to slow it down way too much, also his passing needs to be way more accurat. If Henry and Agudelo are expecting a ball, they have to get it before the defenders close the gap, and Medhi has to see that all the time.
All and all, I think our home opener was great, but I think that we can clearly see a Seattle team not being one of the toughest in the league this season. Let’s hope that when we play teams like the Galaxy or FC Dallas, our team plays even better than they did.
March 22, 2011 at 11:25 AM |
Roy Miller is a very good player, he contributes to the attack greatly and is solid on defense.
March 23, 2011 at 12:05 AM
We are both obviously talking about two different Roy Millers then, sorry i did not notice there was another “better” Roy Miller on the team.
March 20, 2011 at 10:05 PM |
While I miss Angel’s penalty kick precision (ouch, Henry), I don’t miss his multiple offsides calls per match. The Red Bulls looked pretty good out there yesterday. We need to work on our finishing a little more, but we completely dominated the midfield.
March 21, 2011 at 6:19 PM |
It was a good win. I would like to see balouchy pass the ball earlier though but he is a really good player, agudelo played well too he has great strength and skill on the ball and a good shot also. He an Henry should form a new partnership
March 21, 2011 at 9:27 PM |
OH SNAP!!! Hans didn’t say “in a way”.
March 22, 2011 at 11:32 AM |
hahaha glad to know i wasn’t the only one who always noticed that!