The takeaway from a Red Bull loss in Seattle
by Anna Ferkingstad, New York editor

Prior to Sunday’s match, the New York Red Bulls and Seattle Sounders had the tightest defences in their respective conferences. The battle between these East and West sides was more than just geographical – it was a test of wits and stamina.

Both Seattle and New York find strength in their tactical mentality and formations and Sunday’s game was, as expected by many, a full 90 minute brawl.

With 13 shots in total, Seattle grabbed a late goal to secure a 2-1 win against a Red Bull side that is now winless in their last seven games. Despite the win, it’s hard to say if Seattle was the better team of the 90 minutes. New York was tighter defensively during the opening half but one thing that cannot be contested is that the Sounders are strong finishers.

What could New York have done differently to limit Seattle’s offensive push in the later minutes?

Battle in the midfield and a look at personnel

In mentality, New York and Seattle run a very similar midfield. The Red Bull’s Dax McCarty greatly resembles Seattle’s Osvaldo Alonso with each player notorious for compound fouls and an astounding aptitude to clean up the center of the park. They are defensively minded players who also have an ability and vision to get forward.

The primary distinction between these two skilled teams are their actual formations – the Sounders play a 4-4-2 and New York a 4-5-1.

Seattle relies on their width to break down the very defensive presses that the Red Bulls rely heavily on creating.

In Sunday’s game, Alonso and Andy Rose functioned as the two staggered center players for the Sounders, while the Red Bull’s looked towards McCarty, Felipe and Sacha Kljestan to fill the roll as a rotating triangle midfield.

Immediately following the opening whistle, the Red Bull high press came into play at CenturyLink. The overloaded and clogged midfield worked in New York’s advantage, as the triangle made it hard for Alonso and Rose to breath let alone connect with their own forward line.

The primary disadvantage, however, to Jesse Marsch’s 4-5-1 is the lone striker. Unlike the pairing of Obafemi Martins and Clint Dempsey seen for the Sounders, New York’s Bradley Wright-Phillips is often left to fend for himself up top.

But why so much talk of the midfield? Seattle and New York each have their own set of lethal strikers and offensively minded players. Before the game even began, it was clear the advantage would come with possession. Dempsey, Martins and Wright-Phillips can finish the ball when given the opportunity, but which team would be better at finding the feet of the players first and more often?

Red Bull’s success in first half

In the first half, the answer is New York.

The Red Bulls finished the initial 45 off with a 1-0 lead because of their ability to eliminate Martins and Dempsey from the speed of play. Seattle pressured New York hard and often, finding success on the wings with the work rate of Marco Pappa and Christian Roldan but New York recognized the shift and responded immediately.

The workrate of McCarty, Felipe and Kljestan allowed the Red Bulls to continually eliminate the Sounder’s option of a connecting centrally to Alonso or Rose. Thus, limiting Seattle’s ability to find the feet of Martins or Dempsey.

Lloyd Sam’s header on a deflected free kick from Wright-Phillips landed the Red Bull’s their 1-0 lead in the 36th minute, after a string of threatening attacking opportunities. The goal may have been an immediate result of lazy marking on the part of Seattle’s defense, but the initial free kick from Wright-Phillips would not have occurred without the work of New York’s center players.

Seattle, a team normally very apt for switching the point of attack, suddenly found their center midfielders (Rose and Alonso) delayed and sluggish on the transition. New York countered quickly and with intention up until the final moments of the half.

Seattle adapts; New York doesn’t

The primary downside to the high press defense Red Bull coach Jesse Marsch employs, is the energy it requires. For a team lacking depth in its roster like the Red Bulls, legs become only more tired as minutes pass by and this showed against the Sounders. (The limited roster is also likely to be a problem for coach Marsch as the season progresses, not just in the upcoming games.)

New York does not have high performing players like Chad Barrett and Lamar Neagle to bring off the bench in the same manner as coach Sigi Schmid and Seattle. Substitute Dan Richards in the 76th minute did not bring composure and clean passing for New York, and the Sounders increasingly capitalized on the demanding nature of the high press. The Sounders found more and more gaps as the half progressed.

As early as the 67th minute, Seattle began to consistently string together clean progressions forward and out of the defense. They expanded on something that worked well for them during the first half, use of the wings as they started to recognize the potency of even bypassing the center all-together.

The 1-1 scoreline came in the 69th minute after Rose received a ball from the defensive line and immediately played long Martins, who was waiting against the touchline. With McCarty, Felipe and Kljestan caught on their heels and sprinting back to defend, Martins dribbled easily across the field and passed to Pappa on the left.

Pappa then sent a shot soaring into the corner of the net after beating his own defender (Chris Duvall) at the top of the 18-yard box.

It could be said that the goal came at a moment where the Red Bulls were just too concentrated on the center of the pitch. Or perhaps, they were just too tired to recover immediately after Seattle’s quick transition. Regardless, Pappa’s tying goal marked the beginning of a resurgence of a Sounders team that knows how to be ruthless.

By the final ten minutes of the game, New York was left with a midfield that was delayed in offering defensive support and a hungry Seattle team itching down their throats. The gap between center backs Damien Perinelle and Carl Ouimette and the triangle midfield grew wider and wider. Seattle began to play with more urgency, while New York became the team we saw in Seattle during the first half: trying too hard to build up fancy passing sequences before actually taking a shot.

A late goal but it’s still early

Seattle’s game winning goal game in the 91st minute, after substitute Chad Barrett tapped a shot from Dempsey across the goal-line.

A result of an initial cross by Mears, the finished shot handed New York their seventh straight game without a win. An odd statistic indeed, for a team that opened the season with the longest undefeated streak in the league.

So, what’s the takeaway? Well, to begin New York cannot solely rely on their high press defense against clubs like the Seattle Sounders. In the final moments of Sunday’s game, Wright-Phillips remained the only outlet for the Red Bulls.

The scoreline stood at 1-1 and yet no one in the midfield offerred support to the lone striker of the 4-5-1. With only one outlet to look for in the attacking third, New York’s backline saw little of the relief they needed as Seattle continued to play over the top and to the feet of Martins and Dempsey.

New York has an identity, they just need to perfect it. They are yet to reach the consistency of Seattle or Eastern conference foes DC United. Coach Jesse Marsch needs to not only create a roster with more depth but the team needs to recognize when to press their opponents and when to sit back.

A squad that once held an impressive undefeated streak of the season, now has the 2-1 loss against Seattle to add to their 2-0 loss against Philadelphia Union of the previous weekend.

Marsch has been the head Red Bull team for five months as of this week. A tumultuous off season combined with large personnel changes, and it’s undeniable that this red and white side is resilient. But what is the future of this often overlooked club?

Coach Jesse Marsch continually states that he is rarely satisfied with his teams performances. It appears that him and his players are always craving more, win, lose or tie. If the Red Bulls can learn to increase flexibility against teams with talent and big names like the Seattle Sounders, they might just very well become the team to beat this year as the season progresses.