Midfield adjustments key in 2-2 draw between United, Red Bulls

By Steve Long – A few weeks ago in another venue, the New York Red Bulls controlled the game in midfield and cruised to an easy 2-0 win over DC United. It appeared from the style of play on this past Saturday that United Coach Ben Olsen’s squad sought to counter that dominance by compressing the middle and forcing the game into quick tika-taka sequences.

After interviewing Davy Arnaud and Chris Rolfe about whether the unusually narrow play by both was an Olsen tactic, I discovered that they had merely gone with the flow of the game that the Red Bulls presented them.

Whether the narrow play was deliberate on New York’s part is an open question, but the change that occurred with the insertion of the swift Dane Richards late in the game showed that Coach Jesse Marsch had noticed the narrow play and opted for width and speed to open up the play for two much needed late goals.

Arnaud felt that the lack of width was a Red Bulls characteristic, “Defensively especially, they play very narrow, they compress the field.” On reflection he felt about the lack of width that, “It was area that we could have exploited a little more.”

The word from Rolfe was similar as his creative play did not seem to suffer from the more crowded conditions. It was encouraging that both he and Chris Pontius seemed very comfortable in the crowd and Pontius continues to play increasingly aggressively.

New York’s first goal came about when the NY players held back at about the penalty spot and then charged as a wall. DC United’s defenders tracked with them and as a result there was a mass of bodies all pushing toward goal.

Asked about the possibility of hanging back on defense and taking a sort of basketball charge, Arnaud noted that there was a low probability of success, “There are not a lot of fouls going to be called in the box on corners and set pieces. That’s just the way it is. You have to defend it, and we didn’t.”

Also on the list of pleasant improvements was the brace of goals by Perry Kitchen. Despite averring that he would not bulk up over the past few years’ winter breaks, he seems a bit bigger up top and correspondingly tougher to dislodge. His exceptional leap to head home United’s first goal was only one of many very high leaps in the game, showing that slight added bulk hasn’t hurt his vertical.

That header was reminiscent of a tactic frequently employed by Mike Petke, the coach recently fired by the Red Bulls. He scored many times against United and later for them by slipping into the back door to put away uncontested headers. In a sense, Kitchen’s goal was a bit of Petke’s revenge as it came in a similar fashion.

United has weathered five of the six games that Fabian Espindola has to sit out and emerged with ten points so far. His absence has allowed increasingly effective chemistry to develop across DC’s attack and has seen Pontius slowly adapt to a forward’s role.

With the creative Espindola’s return, Olsen will have some interesting decisions to make. Perhaps Saturday’s game against Houston at RFK will make them even tougher.