The New York Red Bulls dominated their regular season series against their Interstate 95 archrival New England Revolution but it was the Revolution that was lucky enough to win the series over the Red Bulls with 2 wins and a 1 tie. The Red Bulls were clearly the better team against their New England rivals but the Revolution was still able to come out with wins.
This past Saturday the Red Bulls had their chance for revenge as they hosted New England in the first leg of the two game eastern conference semifinals series with 14,165 fans in attendance. However, those in attendance, including myself, left extremely dissapointed.
Again, the Red Bulls dominated in both posession and a 10-2 advantage in shots the entire first half, but they were unable to find the back of the net in an extremely frustrating game for the Red Bulls. New England, on the other hand, had very few chances at goal. Red Bull Juan Pablo Angel, alone, had three chances in a span of only nine minutes.
Despite their great performance, the Red Bulls were unable to find a way to beat the Revolution in a scoreless draw and now relies on the second leg to be played in Foxboro next weekend for any chance to qualify for the Eastern Conference Final. However, this will be extrememly tough for the Red Bulls to pull off in an away match against a team that matches them so well in playoffs.
The second half was even worse for the Red Bulls as the New England Revolution stepped their game up and created some major chances as well.
The Red Bulls were also the victims of some bad calls from the ref as the score could have easily become 1-0 with the Red Bulls up after a possible penalty in the second half. One bad call took place in the 61st minute after Michael Parkhurst of the New England Revolution took down Angel in the penalty area, but the ref waved away New York's protests.
The second leg of the series will take place this Saturday November 3rd in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The match will be televized live on Fox Soccer Channel at 7:30 pm. I am going to have to miss this match since my friend as tickets to the Islanders hockey game that takes place at the same time, but I predict another close and fierce played match between these two archrivals. Basically, whoever wins this match will qualify for the conference championship in which they will play against either the Chicago Fire or DC United. However, if this match ends with another scoreless tie, their will be two 30 minute extra periods and possible penalty kicks if no goals are scored during extra time.
If the Red Bulls manage to defeat New England on the road and Chicago uses their one goal advantage to eliminate DC United, the Red Bulls (being the higher seed) will host the Chicago Fire at Giants Stadium in the Eastern Conference Championship game, a game that I will defintely attend.
For the complete match report, click here.
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