The New York Red Bulls went up to BMO Field in Toronto as they make a big attempt to get a second win on the road, but after 90 minutes of a hard-nosed match, the Red Bulls will move out of Canda and head back to the States as they take a one-goal draw from Toronto FC.
After a scoreless opening half, the Red Bulls wanted to have a quick start to the start of the second half and surprise the home side. They did so in the 46th minute as Patryk Klimala found a way to convert his third of the season. After Tom Edwards was fouled in midfield, he delivered a free-kick towards the Toronto area, Fabio made a run and his chip was swatted down by Alex Bono, but Klimala came in as the trailer, took two shots, and found a way to convert the chance.
“All the time when we can foul in this area when Tom Edwards sends the ball, we know what we have to do. Fabio and I just run behind the line, and the guy who has the ball is who will decide. Fabio shot it, but the goalkeeper saved it, and I was in this moment at the right time and I shot it. The defenders blocked the first shot but the second shot was the goal and that is it, I’m happy.” said Patryk Klimala.
But Toronto who wasn’t in the match from the start of the opening whistle knew they needed some energy to get back into the match, they did so as Jozy Altidore was subbed in, you could see with the way he was playing that the rest of his side was feeding off of it, and they were able to equalize in the 62nd minute of the match.
Jefferson Soteldo was dribbling the ball down the far side and was being defended well by Kyle Duncan, but his cross was aimed at the net, while Carlos Coronel was able to swat the ball away, he left a juicy rebound to Ralph Priso who returned it and hit the back of the net to level the match at one.
All game long this was a hard-fought contest, and while the result was good, the truth is head coach Gerhart Struber felt it wasn’t the result they were looking for. He felt the game plan that the Red Bulls had was good enough to take the full three points, but sadly they dropped two and he showed his emotions talking to the New York Media.
“Yeah, I think we were not so compact. The whole team, we had not good distances with each other in the second half, and they play only long balls, and they switch the game sometimes to [Yeferson] Soteldo. Our distances with the six, with the ten, and with the eight was too long and there was always a one-on-one on the side, and this is what we know went wrong there.” Said Struber, “We create in the first half, it was very good, it was always a two versus one on the side and we can bring [Yeferson] Soteldo completely out of the game and in the second half, we were not compacted enough against Toronto and not only against [Yeferson] Soteldo, but against the other players, especially the backline makes a better job in the second half from Toronto.
“They had a better rest defense and also, we are not ready enough to leave everything on the field. In the end, what you want if you can pick up points away and we need our strikers in a better level against the ball, they have to work more and more. Today, I missed some sprints, I missed some moments that they come back and work very hard with the team and when we miss this important behavior, then I think we cannot pick up three points and this right now is a little bit frustrating.”
The Red Bulls will continue on this road trip as they travel to our nation’s capital to face DC United in the Atlantic Cup rivalry, we all know how strong and good this has been and so far since Audi Field has been built, it has been advantage Red Bulls.