New York Red Bulls vs Houston Fr-August 10, 2012 at 8PM/Red Bull Arena [R]

Its almost painful to watch, I don't know what is going on, but it looks like a lack of motivation overall. Can't tell if its coaching or what, but I would imagine things are not too cheery in Red Bull land, this team lacks drive. Also watching Lade against Kanji is pretty funny if not circus appeal.

We should have two goals right now. Le Toux's shot from the penalty spot was an absolute sitter, he had so much goal to aim for and he blew it. Cahill, one of the world's supposed best aerial players, botches a wide open header from just outside the 6 yard box...

Defense has had some scary moments but overall all four have done well, especially Pearce. Anyone else love Lade getting in Kandji's face? Or chest I guess we should say?

Don't forgot the east 1-1 chance Henry had but he just sat there and missed horribly..

What's his deal the last two games? He should be fully fit by now but he's looked pretty lackluster lately. Inaccurate passes, no real eye for goal... the guy needs something to kick him in the ass and wake him up.

Crotch?


Lol.

Yeah RB had some chances just lacking intensity and focus. Something tells me if that stadium were full every other night this team would be far more focused. As it is the stadium looks 2/5ths full and that has to be bothering Henry in the back of his mind.

Again on paper with a fully healthy and motivated squad RBNY should be contenders. As they are playing now it is hard for me to see them handling the teams that are really playing well in MLS in a playoff game which will be sooner rather than later.

Tell you what NY needs in this game, someone crashing the back post on crosses.

Nice header for the assist to Holgersun from Cahill. 1-0 RB

No further updates?

He's playing well tonight, dunno what to say, Holger is holding it down. Even scored the goal for NY with a Cahill assist.

Another defender playing very well is... not playing for NY, Boswell all over the place and in command for the most part for Houston. Getting the better of Henry for the most part is the Boz.

I've always liked Boswell, very underrated player in MLS.

In the first half I was going to criticize Cahill for dropping too deep and not getting involved in any positive build up, but then he comes into the second half with two secondary assists. Great win from the team all around.

The prospect of ending the season with 7 out of 11 home games is pretty damn sweet. If we can win the eastern conference and head into the playoffs with home field advantage we have a great shot at a playoff run.

Both goals were scored by Scandinavians. metz is probably shitting bricks right now.

Geez I just pray more people show up to these home games...

Both NFL teams and both MLB teams had games tonight. I feel as if people often overlook these factors when looking at Red Bulls's attendance.

MOTM= Kanji

Hulk, Lindpere, Dax, Cahill and Pearce played great games.

Factor in shitty weather earlier in the day and a weekday kickoff, not surprising the turnout wasn't great. Maybe next year we won't get totally ********ed by national broadcast schedules and can fit in a few Saturday games over the summer instead of squeezing them all in at the end September/October.

Pearce was a beast! Dunseth talked during the game about how much more comfortable he is centrally and it showed, that through ball he played to Cooper in the first half was a thing of beauty and he was sound defensively all night.

Pearce, Lade, and Statue were solid as can be defensively. Love Cahill already. Joel is playing solid but Mini Cooper, Cooper and Henry did not impress me tonight.

I think the problem with Le Toux is that no one really has the vision to find him on his runs. He makes good runs but he always gets overlooked. I didn't think he was bad at all today but his first touch is pretty bad.

Just came back from the game tonight and good result though offensively we are really lacking some guy to add some pace and trickery to the lineup. Defensively we were a different team today (even Miller looked good for the most part). I am hoping we are able to get some defensive continuity these coming weeks to keep the clean sheets coming

Holgersson was decent tonight. Probably one of his best games so far. Now I am probably going to have a stroke after posting this.

I was happy to see Marquez on the bench. Going to the dvr to see if you could hear the boos when he came onto the field.

Even in his limited minutes I found myself yelling at him, we already had guys packed in the box and he was leaving Houston's CM's wide open 10 yards behind him without ever even looking over his shoulder. Luckily they were panicked at that point and were desperately crossing the ball in instead of playing it square for a free shot from 25 yards out.

I think the problem so far with Le Toux is he is simply off. He has trouble simply controlling the ball and the same with Solli. Plus how many easy goals has Le Toux missed so far over the last few games. I hope he breaks out of it as I know he can play much better.

I thought Lindpere, Holgerrson, Pearce and Lade were especially good today. Glad seeing Cahill starting to show more of what we are hoping to see. He missed two great chances today. Where is Metz? He disappears when we win Holgerrson had a nice game even without the goal today. He has slowly been improving his play and had some very nice passing today as well. This is for Metz who is always looking for something. Backe starts Lade again when he has options. Solli was on the bench today and was a clear option at RB and glad Backe made the right decision always looking to find ways get Lade on the field.

I did not like our last 2o to 25 minutes. I don't know why we just couldn't hold the ball for even a couple of minutes. This one could've slipped from us. We played very good for 65 to 70 minutes where we could have easily have been up 4 or 5 to zero, but then got lucky at the end just not controlling the ball.

Considering we had 3 defensive midfielders on the field for the last 10-15 minutes, I think Backe's intent was pretty clear: "I don't care if we keep the ball in our half, throw yourself at everything that moves and don't give them any clear chances"

And hey, it worked!