Red Bulls vs. Columbus Crew: My Running Commentary

Hello folks. I'm not in Columbus for tonight's match but I'll be watching and offering up some observations. If you want to follow along and add your own thoughts on the match then follow along on this thread.

Let's have some fun.

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FINAL- Crew 1, Red Bulls 0. It is one thing to lose to a superior team that pressures you into mistakes and creates some quality soccer, but the Red Bulls sleepwalked for 90 minutes and the Crew got enough chances to make one count. An ugly game and deserved result for both teams.

Nice commercial with Todd Dunivant is shown: "I'm Todd Dunivant, what do you believe in?" I believe trading you and cash to Toronto for Kevin Goldthwaite was stupid.

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93rd minute- The Red Bulls finally show some urgency and put some passes together but the desperation didn't produce a real chance as the Crew take the counter and this game is all but over. The five thousand fans in Crew Stadium should be happy.

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90th minute- Three minutes of torture, I mean stoppage time.

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89th minute- Wolyniec battles to win a loose ball in the box but sends his shot wide right. That was probably the best chance the Red Bulls will see.

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88th minute- Claudio Reyna with another attempt at a defense-splitting long pass. Aside from a great ball to Mathis in the first half Reyna has been a non-factor.

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87th minute- Sinisa Ubiparipovic comes in for Hunter Freeman.

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85th minute- Something interesting about this match. Dane Richards absolutely toasted Rusty Pierce the first two times these teams met this year. Tonight, Richards has been invisible. To be fair to him, nobody is really looking to him. It hasn't been Pierce, who is still an awful defender, but it's tough to look bad when the guy you're on isn't getting the ball.

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83rd minute- It's still only 1-0 and the Red Bulls could still steal a point here but the attack is flatlining and the new subs don't look like they're going to be the difference.

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80th minute- Angel with a frustration foul. What is he thinking? Doesn't he know a yellow card would cost my fantasy team 10 points?

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79th minute- Arena with a double sub: Quaranta and Wolyniec for Mathis and Van Den Bergh.

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78th minute- Someone woke Arena up from his nap. He's putting Wolyniec in.

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77th minute- So your Bruce Arena and your attack has looked like mud from the first minute, you have a bench full of attacking players. Do you make a sub? Apparently not.

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74th minute- Andy Herron nearly gets behind the Red Bulls defense but Carlos "Mr. Reliable" Mendes stops him. The Red Bulls attack is on a milk carton right now.

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72nd minute- It's tough to believe that the Red Bulls destroyed the Crew a month ago, 4-0. They look lost and the Crew look lively. This would make a third straight win for them if they hold on. Let's see if the Red Bulls can respond.

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68th minute- GOAL Crew. Kei Kamara. Heads home a cross from Andy Herron, who just came in as a sub. Kamara skied over Hunter Freeman, who's had a rough first match back from injury.

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63rd minute- Chad Marshall comes close on a header off a corner kick. The Red Bulls are VERY lucky that Schelotto hasn't played in this match.

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61st minute- The Red Bulls doing a little better with possession but there's not much energy in the final third. Also, not a great first match for Goldthwaite. Freeman is getting torched more but Goldthwaite has had some bad touches/passes.

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57th minute- When did the Crew sign John Leguizamo? I'm kidding, it's Alejandro Moreno.

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56th minute- Where did everybody go? Is anyone still following along? I'm sure some of you fell asleep. I would have too but I drank a can of Rock Star.

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53rd minute- Finally, some good attacking soccer from the Red Bulls. Claudio Reyna floats a perfect ball to Clint Mathis in the penalty area and Mathis tries to chip Wil Hesmer, who does well to close the space and block the shot.

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52nd minute- Stefani Miglioranzi takes a nice shot on goal and Waterreus makes a quality save, diving to his left.

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50th minute- For those of you wondering, Santino Quaranta IS in uniform. Actually, the Red Bulls bench is made up entirely of attacking players. Look for Stammler to slide into the back if the team needs to make a defensive change.

No action really to speak of, the Crew is still gaining more of the possession, even if they're not doing much with it now.

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48th minute- MSG cuts back into the match about two minutes late. Aren't you glad the Red Bulls spared no expense on this TV deal?

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HALFTIME- It's a final in Canada, where Argentina settle for a scoreless tie against the Czechs. I wouldn't get too alarmed about if you're an Argentina fan. Their U-20 team did lose to the USA in its first match of the last Under-20 World Cup and went on to win it.

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HALFTIME- Shep reveals that yes, there is an owner lining up to buy the Chicago Fire and no it isn't Mexican club Club America.

Shep also bashes Landon Donovan for his Nomar Garciaparra/Doug Christie-like pre-penalty kick ritual. Nice.

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HALFTIME- WOW, Argentina pressing hard for a winner when the Czechs break out on a counter. The ARgentine goalkeeper inexplicably runs out of the area to close down the Czech attacker, who slots a shot past him only to have the masked Argentine player track back to clear the would-be goal. More action in that 20 seconds than the entire Red Bulls-Crew match.

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HALFTIME- Not really Red Bulls related but Argentina just subbed in a guy with a make-shift face mask to match the Czech defender with a black face mask. This is looking like a high school production of Gladiator.

Seriously though, here's a good fact for you. The transfer value of Argentine Under-20 forward Sergio Aguero is more than every play on the Red Bulls and Crew rosters combined (though the numbers might be equal if you threw in Bruce Arena's salary.).

It's still 0-0 in the Argentina-Czech match. Argentina is the heavy favorite but the Czechs are a very physical and disciplined team. Argentina has most of the possession but can't find a quality chance.

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HALFTIME- It's 0-0 at the half. I wish I could get that 45 minutes of my life back.

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45th minute- Sorry for the delay but don't worry, you didn't miss much. The Crew just came close on a dangerous cross in. The loos ball falls to Grabavoy but he sends a shot wide left from close range. Columbus should be up 1-0.

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38th minute- Van Den Bergh comes CLOSE but  his chance was on his right foot, which is apparently Dane Richards weak.

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37th minute- Still no score in the ARgentina-Czech match for those of you wondering (Seriously, what did we do before Tivo and DirecTV?)

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34th minute- A decent build-up by the Red Bulls (finally) but nothing comes of it in the end. Mathis, Reyna and STammler can break the Crew down if they show some patience.

The Crew come close on a give-and-go but Kei Kamara misses high. Hunter Freeman looks rusty tonight.

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32nd minute- So the Red Bulls are struggling to maintain possession even though the Crew aren't really applying much pressure. Not sure what the problem is but they look bad right now.

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27th minute- If you're watching the match on MSG and are wondering what Shep is going to talk about regarding the Chicago Fire, the team is up for sale and at least two groups are positioning themselves for bids. No word on whether RockStar energy drink is one of the potential owners.

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26th minute- A screen shot of Chris Leitch on the Red Bulls bench. He's still not a Red Bull because it turns out that the Crew somehow still have his rights. You know what that means. Last I heard Columbus wanted Altidore, Conway and a million in Red Bull stock for Leitch.

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25th minute- The Argentina-Czech match is much more fun to watch, if only because a Czech center back is wearing a Zorro-like mask.

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23rd minute- You would think it was 110 degrees in Columbus given the lack of movement in this match.

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22nd minute- I switched over to the Argentina-Czech Republic Under-20 game. I needed something to keep me awake.

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18th minute- Any day now guys. These Red Bulls seem to be sleepwalking through this match. Luckily for them the Crew don't have many players who can make them pay.

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13th minute- The Red Bulls have come out flat and are being outplayed by a short-handed Crew squad. Way to take advantage of the bye week guys.

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9th minute- Alas, I don't think anyone is around for this except you Sprool. I could just text you my comments and save some time. LOL. I'll give it another 10 minutes and I'm giving up. I'm sure most RB fans are watching the game at soccer bars or away from computers tonight.

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7th minute- "This portion of the match is brought to you by Red Bulls" (Because they still don't have any corporate sponsors. D'oh.

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5th minute- The Crew are pretty shorthanded tonight. No Gaven, Szetela, Rogers or Ward. Oh wait, those guys barely play anyway. My bad.

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2nd minute- Anyone else think the MSG feed is blurry? I feel like I'm watching a 3-D movie without the glasses.

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Here's the Red Bulls lineup:

--------------Angel---------------

-------------Mathis---------------

VDB----------------------Richards

---------Reyna--Stammler-------

Goldthwaite-------------Freeman

---------Parke---Mendes---------

------------Waterreus------------

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PRE-GAME: Surprising news from the Crew camp. Guillermo Barros-Schelotto is out with an injury and will start the match on the bench. That's a huge loss for the streaking Crew.

Comments

[sprool11]

4-5-1, why?

hopefully mathis moves up top to support JPA

[sprool11]

Ivy, no woly...mathis is playing under JPA

[Dan]

I would've thought that with two weeks off from that dissapointing game the would have gotten off to a good start.

[krelmatrix]

sprool isn't alone....I'm also stuck in front of my computer watching tonight....

Columbus is pushing a bit too much early on, but I think the back line will settle them down soon enough.

[istvan]

Columbus are already spending too much time in our end of the field. I'm about to change channels, I'm scared.

[sprool11]

ivy, you know i only have internet way out here...haha

[Dan]

Reyna needs to make runs like that more often if we are going to play a second d-mid in the center of the park.

[istvan]

We are in trouble for sure, who's next? The midfield to get cleaned out by Bruce.

[Nath]

good or bad day for Alti?

[Dan]

part of me is wondering whether it's going to take a columbus goal to wake this team up.

[Nath]

Argentina U-20 is playing like their older National team. Very impressive.

[istvan]

mathis looking @ ball while stammler is tackled, wake up and get the ball duh!

[Dan]

they're playing like it's the 3rd of 3 games in 9 days rather than the 1st.

[Dan]

can't we get these guys some red bull?

[Istvan]

what dutch curse did he just yell?

[Dan]

has Angel had even 3 touches so far?

also, jp commenting about shep's halftime spot being sponsored was funny considering the state of the broadcast.

[Dan]

just abysmal finishing by the crew. there is no way Schelotto doesn't come in and score at this rate.

[krelmatrix]

The game temporarily put me into a coma for a bit.

Time for a sub? If anything, to change things up a bit and hopefully inject some life into things.

[Dan]

you knew the goal was coming eventually, though considering how many chances they blew, i don't think they should be celebrating as much as being relieved they finally got one.

[Patrick]

Sounds like its real snore job ives. I am feeling for you.

[krelmatrix]

Thank you Mendes - could have easily been 2-0.

[Dan]

Bruce needed to make a sub about 10 minutes ago.

[Dan]

what does he expect these subs to do in 13 minutes, especially Quaranta, who has no familiarity with his teammates?

That's one of the things I loved about Bob Bradley when he coached here: he gave his substitutes enough time to get settled in and make an impact on the game.

[krelmatrix]

It's Woly time! Not sure about sticking Quaranta in so soon since he's had no chance to train with the team, but the way this game is going anything is worth a shot.

[Tim Crawford]

Don't worry Ives; if he loses 10 points, everyone loses 10 points, lol.