Battery Beats Red Bull 1-0.
New York Red Bulls coach Mo Johnston classified his team’s uninspired 1-0 preseason loss to the USL Division One Charleston Battery in the Carolina Challenge Cup with one word: “Unacceptable.”
In the second game DC United tied 1-1 with the Houston Dynamo. The week-long Challenge Cup series began with the Battery dropping a 1-0 decision to Hoston and D.C. United edging the Red Bulls by the same score.
Battery forward Ben Hollingsworth put the home side on the scoresheet in the 14th minute after running through the Red Bulls’ three-man back line and side-footing the ball past a closing Tony Meola. Meola did manage to get a piece of the ball with his right foot, but it wasn’t enough to push the it wide.
Johnston came into the game hoping for positive results from his three-man back line experiment. Things didn’t turn out the way he had hoped.
“We got bit playing three in the back tonight,” Johnston said. “That’s all there is to it.”
But it wasn’t only the defense that let the Red Bulls down. The absence of any continuity in the New York midfield resulted with both Youri Djorkeaff and running mate Eddie Gaven having to drop deep into the midfield to collect the ball, which made the bunkering tactic the Battery employed for most of the match almost unnecessary until the final 20 minutes of the match.
“We gave up an easy goal and then we couldn’t respond,” Johnson said. “It’s a problem we are going to have to address before the season begins.”
With less than a half hour remaining, and the urgency to equalize building, New York did begin to put some pressure on the Battery. But with all 11 players behind the ball, Charleston withstood the Red Bulls half-hearted effort at equalizing.
In the 62nd minute Amado Guevara nearly equalized off a superbly taken free kick from just right of the goal, 22 yards out. He looped the ball over the outside of the Battery wall, but a diving Battery goalkeeper Kieth Wiggins made a spectacular save, diving to his left and tipping the ball to safety.
Ten minutes later Djorkeaff got on the end of a well-driven cross from Seth Stammler from just inside the right touchline, slamming the ball into the roof of the net. However, the Battery’s offside trap left the Frenchman clearly offside, negating the goal.
The loss is New York’s second in consecutive outings versus Charleston at Blackbaud. In 2004 the Battery knocked the Red Bulls out of the fourth round of the US Open Cup by the same 1-0 score.
Houston opened the scoring in the 28th minute when the ball was whipped into the box from a corner-kick which United failed to clear properly. Forward Alejandro Moreno reacted first and slotted home a low shot from six-yards out.
Three minutes later DC United leveled the score after Jaime Moreno was brought down in the box by Houston goalkeeper Zach Wells. Moreno took the ensuing penalty himself, sending Wells the wrong way to tie the game.
Sometimes, the beautiful thing about preseason games is that the rules don’t always apply. A scrap between DC United and Houston Dynamo in Wednesday’s second game in the Carolina Challenge Cup saw Houston’s Dwayne De Rosario and Ricardo Clark both sent off with a little more than 10 minutes to play in the first half.
With no players from DC having been sent off and the score level at 1-1, Houston would have been in for a long night at a two-man disadvantage. But it being preseason and all, both teams agreed to play the second half at full strength before they settled for a 1-1 draw.
“Playing 11 on 11 was the most important thing for us tonight,” said United head coach Peter Nowak of the halftime decision between the coaches. “We both know how important it is to give the guys minutes. We’re still in preseason. There was no advantage to playing two players up.”
“There was a foul and both teams came in to protect their players. Those things happen,” said John Wilson, who received a caution in the incident . “I don’t think there are any hard feelings.”
The second half saw a good number of substitutions by both sides, which detracted from the flow of the game and slowed the pace. It did, however, give both coaches a look at several players who had not yet seen any time in the tournament.
“We still need to find a rhythm,” said Nowak. “Hopefully in the game on Saturday we can find a good rhythm that we can take into the season.”
Houston faces the New York Red Bulls on Saturday to close the tournament at 6 pm, followed by DC and tournament hosts Charleston Battery. DC and Houston share the lead in the round-robin tournament with one win and one draw each, but Charleston can win the Cup with a win and a Houston loss.