Red Bulls Draw Closer to Playoffs

Last night the Red Bulls visited Real Salt Lake to open their brand new soccer stadium.  The Red Bulls dominated in the first half, earning nearly 10 corner kicks.  Dave Van den Bergh in his first start since surgery for a sports hernia, ripped a rebound from outside the box that must’ve sped by atleast 5 players.

 Unfortunately it only took Salt Lake one corner kick to tie it up as Jamison Olave snuck past defenders and redirected the ball to the far corner.  The match was extremely heated (over 20 fouls called and 5 bookings) and physical.  The 2nd half was much more even, until Juan Pietravallo was called for a red card in the 83rd minute as he threw his leg up at a ball Clint Mathis was attempting to head and gave him a nice gash in the top of the head.  I personally thought it was a crap call.  Pietrevallo didn’t kick his leg up much higher past his waiste, and Mathis was bent over in attempt to head a ball that was a little lower than his chest.  Several minutes of a referee on the brink of getting jumped by 5 or 6 angry Red Bulls followed suit.  And then a good 10 minutes of the Red Bulls fighting off hard attacks by the Salt Lake offense.

 The match ended with a 1-1 draw, giving the Red Bulls one more point to their total, now 36.  The point puts the team 3 ahead of Kansas City and DC United.  The Red Bulls sure could’ve used the 3 points from a win, but they’ll have to make due with what they have.  With two more matches against the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire, the Red Bulls need to be on top of their game.  The only extra hope they have is both teams may be resting their stars as the Crew has already clinched a playoff spot and the Fire are merely a point away from clinching.

This entry was posted on 10. October 2008 at 17:26 and is filed under Soccer, MLS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.