Columbus Crew's first-half lead erased in 2-1 loss to New York Red Bulls
Playing the New York Red Bulls is often a question of survival.
Their style is all about applying pressure and creating chaos, and for the Crew, the Red Bulls' system is a philosophical opposite from coach Wilfried Nancy's possession-focused model. New York's way of playing is designed to challenge everything the Crew want to do with the ball, and though the Crew scored first, the Red Bulls controlled the second half and came back to beat the Crew 2-1.
"We did good things in the first half to avoid the transition of New York," Nancy said. "In the second half, after we conceded the first goal, we did what we didn’t do in the first half. What does this mean? It means that we lost a few balls and we gave them the opportunity in transition to score goals.
"In the first half, we moved the ball quicker side to side. In the second half, after the goal, we didn’t do that. It was good for their game."
The Red Bulls' pressure was relentless for the majority of the first half. The Crew had 63% of the first-half possession, but nearly all of it came in their own defensive third as the Red Bulls pressed over and over again. For the first 20 minutes, the Crew just tried to hang on and wait for New York to eventually tire.
Midway through the first half, the Crew had their first extended possession in the attacking half of the field, but the referee stopped play for New York striker Cory Burke to receive attention from the trainers, and the few minutes' break was all the Red Bulls needed to regain their energy and exert their press again.
In the 33rd minute, as the Red Bulls started to take control, center back Steven Moreira sent a long ball over the top to midfielder Alex Matan. With New York center back Andres Reyes hovering over him and goalkeeper Carlos Coronel quickly approaching, Matan collected the ball and tapped it under Coronel's right arm as he dove to stop the shot. It was a weak ball that skipped off the ground and slowly trickled toward the goal, but Matan put just enough weight on it for it to land in the back of the net.
After missing a potentially game-winning goal in Toronto last week, when he fired a rebound wide in second-half stoppage time, Matan put the Crew ahead 1-0 with the first goal of his MLS career.
The Crew defended the Red Bulls' counterattacks well for the first half and early in the second half, but in the 58th minute, New York quickly worked through the Crew's defense to score the tying goal.
Center back Philip Quinton was knocked off the ball and fell to the ground, forcing wingback Will Sands to race back to cover Quinton's position. Goalkeeper Eloy Room made the initial save on Burke, but the rebound bounced directly to midfielder Luquinhas, who fired it past Room.
An already free-flowing game became increasingly chaotic after the Red Bulls' first goal, and though it took nearly 30 more minutes, New York eventually got the go-ahead goal they'd been threatening to score since Luquinhas tied things up.
"Their adjustment was to just keep going with that they’d been doing in terms of their intensity," Nancy said. "And what we did, we didn’t take care of the ball in a good way."
In the 86th minute, left back John Tolkin flew down the left wing and crossed a ball into the penalty area, right to an unmarked Dante Vanzeir on the edge of the six-yard box. Vanzeir's strike with his right foot sailed into the back of the net, and the home side maintained their advantage over the final few minutes of the game.
Playing without striker Cucho Hernandez, who developed knee pain on Friday and was held out of the lineup as a result, the Crew generated just one dangerous look at tying the game — a hard shot from Zelarayan in the 93rd minute that was saved by Coronel.
"We scored only one goal. This is the difference," Nancy said. "We had opportunities to score and we didn’t do it. After that, we got punished by the transition of Red Bulls."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew give up lead in 2-1 loss to New York Red Bulls
