New York Red Bulls 1, New England Revolution 1
Scoring Summary:
NY - Marc Rzatkowski 2 (unassisted) 18'NE - Gustavo Bou 4 (Gil, Agudelo) 65'
Misconduct Summary:
None
New York Red Bulls:
Luis Robles ©; Tim Parker, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence (Michael Amir Murillo, 82'), Rece Buckmaster, Marc Rzatkowski, Sean Davis, Cristian Casseres, Jr. (Omir Fernandez, 68'), Kaku, Daniel Royer, Brian White (Bradley Wright-Phillips, 28')
TOTAL SHOTS: 22; SHOTS ON GOAL: 10; FOULS: 6; OFFSIDE: 2; CORNER KICKS: 11; SAVES: 3
New England Revolution:
Matt Turner; Brandon Bye, Edgar Castillo (DeJuan Jones, 88'), Jalil Anibaba, Juan Agudelo, Michal Mancienne, Carles Gil, Luis Caicedo, Scott Caldwell (Wilfried Zahibo, HT), Gustavo Bou ©, Teal Bunbury (Cristian Penilla, 72')
TOTAL SHOTS: 6; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 15; OFFSIDE: 3; CORNER KICKS: 1; SAVES: 9
Referee:
Christopher PensoAssistant Referees: Nick Uranga, Philippe Briere4th Official: Luis GuardiaVAR: Guido Gonzales Jr
Attendance: 18,177
Marc Rzatkowski's first-half strike helped the New York Red Bulls (11-10-5, 38 pts) draw with the New England Revolution (9-9-8, 35 pts), 1-1, on Saturday night at Red Bull Arena.
The Red Bulls remained unbeaten against the Revs at Red Bull Arena, owning a 9-0-2 mark and have outscored New England, 23-8.After a failed clear by a New England defender, Rzatkowski settled the ball at the top of the 18-yard box and launched his shot under the cross bar for an early 1-0 lead in the 18th minute.
The Revolution responded in the 65th minute as Carles Gil sent a through ball into the 18-yard box for Gustvao Bou, who beat Luis Robles to the far post for the equalizer.
Rzatkowski tallied his fourth career goal as a Red Bull.
The Red Bulls grabbed their 18th point out of 30 (5-2-3) following a loss this season.
Head coach Chris Armas moved to 23-13-8 all-time at the helm.New York is 43-44-23 all-time in the month of August.
New York has scored 183 goals in August and allowed 171.
New York hits the road for back-to-back matches during Rivalry Week, beginning with D.C. United on Wednesday, August 21 at Red Bull Arena.
Kickoff between New York and D.C. is slated for 8 p.m. EST with coverage on UniMas, Univision Deportes and New York Red Bulls Radio on TuneIn
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Post-Game Quote Sheet
Red Bulls 1, Revolution 1
August 17, 2019 | Red Bull Arena
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH CHRIS ARMAS
On the match:
Yeah, it we could play 34 games and take 22 shots and give up six, I think it's going to be a good year. Yeah, I'm not sure that game plan was just to sit back tonight. You know, I thought the first half we had a real grasp on the game and we could have scored a few goals.
There's a lot of positives for us to take tonight and we'll also look hard as we do and keep getting a better understanding of what it's going to take to win the LAFC game, tonight, when it's right there.
Tonight, of course, we liked some performances and the team effort and the way we worked two strikers but we are not happy we left two points on the table.
Two things. One, is there any update on Brian? And this is the longest that Brad has played since returning from injury. How do you think he did?
It was great that Brad got the extended minutes and we pushed him in the extended scrimmage we had, was solely designed for him. He held up great and recovered really well.
It's important that Brad is getting these minutes. He's the guy that we've relied on so much over the years to get us goals, and his presence is a winner, so it's pretty obvious that it's good that he's out there and his presence is needed. And listen, how he did, he worked hard as he always does and found himself in a number of good spots. Almost helped us set up the game winner.
Yeah, there's a lot of happy people in that locker room that are seeing him back out there. The sharpness will keep coming. We know that he knows when he gets in good spots, he likes seeing the ball hit the back of the net, and even look at the early on where he shakes by and gets the left foot, he was sharp on the play. This is all normal. He'll be there for us.
What was the most frustrating aspect of the game from your end? Did you get that sense that you were tired in the second half? And seeing that goal, just unable to get that second goal, despite all the chances, what was the frustrating part for you?
Well, it's frustrating to against -- even though we haven't had as much of the ball, or New England came to life a little bit more in the second half; it's frustrating to give up a goal in that manner. Just a couple of passes, they slice through. Frustrated that we see a lot of fouls against us. So why would I say that?
Just when you win -- when you win the ball in good spots, and then it's -- I'm not saying it's a tactic but it seems to break up plays, break up plays -- not one yellow card, not so concerned with the yellow cards but that's frustrating to see promising attacks just get stopped. I mean, we fouled five times tonight, six times, maybe 15 or 16 the other way. It's not like fouls not in good spots for us. So that's a little frustrating.
But not many things frustrate me, so I'm not too bothered by it much, if anything, but would have loved the three points.
On Rece, what's gone into the decision to play him, bring him up from the second team and play him and start him over Murillo, one of your key players? And Brad, to get these minutes, he got these minutes because of an injury, why haven't we seen more of Brad in the recent few weeks prior to today?
Bradley Wright-Phillips?
Q. Yeah.
Let's start with that one. Brian White, I think he's leading the league in terms of American strikers with goals scored. So I think Brian is -- that speaks for itself. The team has done fairly well in the last what, ten, 15 games in terms of results, points; there's been a lot accumulated and he's producing.
Brad has had an injury and we're methodically getting him back to where he can be a part of it. Maybe two strikers is part of that thinking, but it's not necessarily against Brad and nothing -- over what we talk about Brian, he's played great. Every game he seems to score a goal or be involved in a goal.
With Rece Buckmaster, I mean, none of you probably know who Rece Buckmaster is, but for three games now, you'd probably say, we probably should have won tonight, we beat Toronto in his MLS debut and LAFC we were pretty good, and he probably outplayed Rossi, one of the best wingers in the league.
So on another night, yeah, I'm glad we're talking about Rece because he might have been our best player tonight on the field. I'm not sure.
Why him over Murillo?
Well, they are both great players. Look at Murillo when he came in. He did a nice job. We see that Murillo is an attacking right back and he's a defensive right back, too, and he can attack and you can see that his ejection on the field at that moment, it actually helped us gain some attack. Right now Rece Buckmaster is the guy that's -- firstly, we had 22 shots to 6.
Again, that's a big plus with him on the field. We've got some big results with him on the field and we see him, Rece Buckmaster, as a lock down outside back. You just can't get by him, so why would I not play Rece, that's the question. Why wouldn't you play Rece all the time? I think that's what it should be.
Q. As you mentioned, on almost any other night it would seem you get the points that you probably deserve. When you look at the stretch, critical three-game stretch in the next like seven days, the only home game here tonight. You're a very positive person but does it feel like two points lost in a stretch where it's difficult to drop points?
Yeah, look, you take it game by game. Wanted nine points. We've won on the road. We've beaten Dallas on the road and we've had some good performances on the road. So we're looking forward to D.C. and we'll think about New York. But tonight it's over with, right. We got a point. Maybe that point's going to matter at some point in the last stretch. So we step on the field, especially at home, you want all three. Didn't get that.
So each game becomes the most important game now. So every game, it's like an Eastern Conference extravaganza to wrap it up, a West Coast trip, and they will all be difficult. Again, you can look at every game of the year. The Salt Lake game at home we run away with, there's a few games, but every game is difficult and everyone is fighting for the Playoffs and a chance at the title.
We are taking steps forward. Again, Toronto a few weeks ago in our building, 2-0, at LAFC we went toe-to-toe and tonight I think speaks for itself.
Can you talk about the two-striker formation, is that something we'll see moving forward?
Yeah, look, it's something we've talked about for a while. We've trained it in different stretches of the year and for the last few weeks we've worked on that. We think the two strikers putts a lot of guys in their best spots and tactically it helps us have control of the game with and without the ball. On a night we thought there would be a lot of second balls and combative and crowding in the midfield, that would be important, and it was.
We thought it was a structure that helps us manage counterattacks, and it puts Kaku in a really good spot with, let's call it three guys cradling him in many ways and gives Kaku more options, too, when we win the ball.
So I think we saw a lot of that. I think it was pretty fun to watch our guys embrace that new formation, and now it's another option for us. So it's fun to see. Yeah, we got a little bit stretched in the second half, maybe fatigue, I'm not sure. We knew we had to be disciplined to play that way, but we got a little stretched and switched to a 4-2-3-1 and we thought that was the right time to do that and we made a good push towards the end.
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER MARC RZATKOWSKI
On earning a draw after controlling most of the play…
Yeah it's frustrating like you said, because in this in the soccer game it's most important to score goals and I think the best part is that we created a lot of chances and we had opportunities to score. But overall we have to say we have to score more than one goal and this is the frustration for sure. But I think we had a good game. A complete team performance and like I said also before we deserve to win today but sometimes it did not happen this way.
On if they felt they were close to getting the second goal.…
After the 1-1 I still believe in our team then we had really good chances with Bradley Wright-Phillips with a good save from the goalkeeper. Danny with back heel. And Yeah, I felt all the time that we have the quality to score another goal and to win this game. But Yeah, for sure we deserve to win, but we didn't.
On scoring the opening goal…
Yeah, he tried to clear it. And then I was there for the second ball. And I think I had a good first touch and a second shot was a good story for sure.
On the slow start in the second half…
We expected from New England that they push the second half and that they may be create some chances but I think we did pretty well. But unlucky that we gave up this one goal. But overall like I said we created a lot of other chances Also we get good one goal in our in our own net but yeah, we had chances to win this game for sure.
On not being able to capitalize in late in the second half…
I mean, we can read the table and we really wanted to win for our own supporters in our own sta-dium. And we try to keep pushing and pushing and try to win this game. And so now is a little bit disappointment in our team why we have to keep our heads up and keep going like this because when we play like this chances after chances we will score for sure and then it's just a matter of time that we can create more winning games.
On the different formation with the two strikers…
Yeah. Let me say that after the meeting that you felt like we had a lot of fun in this position also to play as a striker, as a second striker. And for me, it was a really good performance from everyone on the field and I really like this system and the formation. But like I said the most important thing in the game is to score goals.
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD BRADLEY WRIGHT-PHILLIPS
On his extended minutes and how he felt physically…
Yeah surprisingly good. I was worried you don't get much of a warm up you know but it helped that I got, you know, a little bit the first half and then you know obviously not good circumstances with Brian going out injured, but it helped that I got that little 15 minutes or 20 minutes to get me there kind of warmed up.
On what he saw in the second half…
Yeah, we had we had chances. Normally I'm that we wouldn't get enough chances, but today we couldn't complain. I think we just got to be better. I mean me personally I had two decent looks at goal, I think. I'm not gonna lie when I came here, I was saying that the keeper was a bit lucky, but I think on another day I have two.
On what he thinks of the two-striker formation…
Yeah, I think previously it hasn't really looked good. I think tonight was really good. Brian and Danny looked good from the beginning from the off you know, we created chances all through the game. And then yeah, it just gives us another you know, another way to play the game because I think you know, even after a while we went back to one up front and we were dangerous all game. I think we created chances all game. So, I think it is another thing we can look at.
NEW YORK RED BULLS MIDFIELDER DANIEL ROYER
On whether the match was frustrating…
Yeah, frustrating like you said. Obviously disappointed, we always want to win, especially at home. But I think we left it all out on the field today. I think we looked like us, we created tons of chances. I think we were the better team, I guess it was fun to watch. So, there are many positives, but obviously you can’t be satisfied when you don’t get the three points.
On whether the formation change/mindset led to good play…
Probably. I think playing with two strikers gave us more options going forward. When we win the ball, we have more options, but also when we built up I thought we did a good job in keeping the ball, finding options, and creating good situations and chances. I think it worked pretty well, especially in the first half. But I think we also had a really good mindset, we were going after it. Even during the week, we talked that uh… yeah, we’ve got to step up, every single player, and we want to collect as many points as possible obviously. But just to talk about it one more time and to get everybody on the same page. Despite the result, which is the most important thing, I think we did a good job.
On how his role changes in a two-striker formation…
I’m obviously more central compared to when I play winger. I think I can support the other striker, whether it’s Whitey or Brad. I think it gave us more options when we win the ball to play forward. We can go forward more aggressively I think because we are more central in the field. We can have deep runs, we can have one player checking in, one player running deep, and I think that worked really well. Obviously it also depends on the opponent, I guess we can’t play that every time, but it’s good to know that we have another option now.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
Q. Your thoughts on the group, figuring out a way to get out of here with a point tonight?
I think probably a tale of two halves. The first half was an absolute miracle we walked off the field down one goal because we were thoroughly beat in the first half.
Second half, we competed better. Made it a game. Certainly a big goal by Bou and we hung on. But they -- you know, they put so much into the first half, and in all honesty, they ran out of gas a little bit in the second half.
Q. What kind of tactical adjustments were you able to make?
Compete. For whatever reason, our guys didn't step on the field and they weren't prepared to compete. Who else do you blame? You just blame the coach, right? Yeah.
Q. What did Zahibo add when he came on in the second half?
A guy that's comfortable on the ball. Could deal with the pressure and the physicality that they were throwing into the game, and especially in the middle third of the field. He did well there. Our back line played a little bit better for sure. Our goalkeeper made a couple good saves as he usually does.
Q. How important is it to get a night like that from Matt Turner tonight?
It's important. Any time this time of year you've got a point on the road against a conference open, it's big and probably a good lesson for us to get us prepared for these last eight games. We have no chance of making the playoffs if we played like we played in the first half. Perhaps it's a good lesson for us.
Q. I saw you jotting down some notes in the first half?
Yeah, I wrote a book a year ago and I just started a new one (laughter).
Q. Was it tactical? Just your observations of what you needed to change?
No, we were trying to figure out how to put a couple players on the field and that's all I was doing.
Q. The last couple of games, you've been able to rescue a point from a trailing position on the road. Does that say something about your team?
Yeah, that's big. I think, you know, all teams, even on -- if you want to be a good team, even on a day when things aren't going well for you, if you can compete and get a point out of the game, that's invaluable. This was a big point for us today.
Q. Are you learning as much from these types of results to be able to come back and draw from the earlier results?
Yeah, we're learning more about our team. We are still relatively new to these players. We don't know them fully. We haven't been put in these situations before. I don't think the franchise in the last couple years have been in games that now have become very meaningful towards the end of the season. It's a lesson for everyone, and hopefully we can learn from today and be better the next time out.
Q. What have you seen in Juan Agudelo? What did you see when you came in that maybe led to that decision?
BRUCE ARENA: Well, you know, looking at our roster and where we have players positioned on the field and how to utilize all our players best. You know, there's other spots that obviously Juan can play, but I think Juan is among our best ten field players. We try to get him on the field.
Q. What did you see on the goal?
BRUCE ARENA: I don't know, who pushed Bou through? -- as usual. I don't know, I couldn't -- obviously from the level I'm at, couldn't see the position of the center backs, but I think it was Aaron Long trying to chase him down, or was it Parker? I don't know. But he got through. The timing must have been perfect, and to finish that play off obviously is big for us.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION GOALKEEPER MATT TURNER
On soaking in the win in front of the supporters post game…
Just a special night, you know, we were really disappointed with how we went out in the first half and to be able to play the way we did in the second half, get a couple chances to even go up 2-1 but for me to be able to have a couple of saves and impact on this game. It's just a really special night, we hope that the supporters that traveled are proud of what we put out there on the field tonight and, and also par of my family's up there. So just that all coming full circle tonight was just a really special night for me.
On having Park Ridge High School in the stands as well as family.…
Yeah, my dad, my dad's been volunteering with the girls team there for a couple years now. And so during the offseasons, I've kind of gone and I've done work with the girls and the boys teams. Just volunteer work, I'd go I play with them, I coach them a little bit. Not nothing too crazy but I just have fun with the kids. And I love giving back to my community that I was raised in. It was a nice night that they got to see and hopefully they were excited and had a good time as well.
On being able to take a point from tonight’s game…
Oh, yeah, I mean, that's what we've been saying over the last couple of months. This is one of those, it was a draw that felt a little more like a win. And it's funny how those how those happen. But we gotta we know that you know that first half is unacceptable and we need to start putting together full 90 minute performances if we want to make a run in the playoffs because it's simply not good enough.
On making key saves and getting into a rhythm…
Yeah, I think, you know, when you're on the road, you always expect to get a little flurry at any point when the home teams get energy from the crowd so it's just about being locked in and ready for those moments. I think I had a glance up at the clock in the 87th minute and, and I said to myself that there's going to be at least one more moment that I'm going to have to come up big here. Just because they had some dangerous opportunities that it wasn't quite connecting so I was lucky I was up to the task in stoppage time and we're just you know, Manti and Jalil and Edgar, DeJean when he came in Brandon at right back, those guys really put a shift in tonight because they were just playing lots of balls over the top so they're making a lot of runs and and they did a really good job after we settled down in the game. In the second half, they did a really good job of seeing those attacks off.
On building off of the slow start…
It's kind of funny, I did cross my mind. It definitely is something clicks, right. And, and we just look at each other. I always say that we're pretty tight knit in this locker room so somebody has a go at somebody else. No one really takes it to heart they take it as fuel and how are you going to be better in the second half? I know I didn't play my best soccer in the first half made a couple of saves, but also a couple of little errors and, and so things that would have helped my defenders deal with balls a little more easily and, I felt like I needed to go out in the second half and prove myself to my team again. And I think a lot of guys did for themselves. And we came away with a point I'm really pleased.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION DEFENDER JALIL ANIBABA
On tonight’s game...
Definitely a tale of two halves. I think these last two weeks have shown that we can get results when our backs are up against the wall and in difficult conditions but it also shows that there there's still some work we need to do and we can sharpen up in the finer details will start turning these results on the road into [wins].
On adjustments in the second half…
We were on our heels pretty much the whole second half. It was pretty apparent. You know, when we went down 1-0, are our one objective was to keep it at 1-0. Thankfully, we were able to do that coming into halftime, regroup, and then we're able to put them on their heels in the second half. We had to be more aggressive, keeping the ball going at them, initiating the play and dictating the game. That's what ended up keeping them on their heels in the whole second half and us getting the ball
On Matt Turner’s performance…
It’s every week with Turner. When we need him to come up big, it comes up big. When we need him to make the small plays, he makes the small plays. He never let us down. Having that confidence with him back there behind us, allows us to play with that much more confidence, allows us to sell our bodies a little bit more in front of him and dare to make the challenging plays because we know if they get if they get on end of it now, Matt will come up with the save.
On trailing in the standings…
[New England Revolution forward] Carles [Gil] said before this game, ‘we have nine finals left’. Now it's eight. For us, the playoffs have already started. We see it that way, we understand that what's at stake every weekend, especially when we're playing in the conference teams. We know that the six-point swings are huge.
On winning mentality…
I think we're in that mentality. You know, I think it's just a matter of figuring out ways to get results. Sometimes they come in the way that you want them to come, sometimes they come ugly, and sometimes you have to grind them out. Today, we had to really dig deep and grind this one out. Of course, you want to win the draw, and you want to at least a tie every time we lose, but you know, we're well aware where we are in the standings