On another night in which they had the lion’s share of scoring chances, the New York Red Bulls forgot their finishing boots, yet again, in a goalless draw to the Columbus Crew on Saturday night at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Sandro Schwarz’s men attempted eight shots compared to Columbus’s three, and had four on target while the visitors mustered just one.
But a clear lack of polish that one more big signing up front might have provided remains glaringly obvious — a concept that has become redundant since the end of the MLS transfer window on Aug. 21, but something that continues to be stressed considering where the Red Bulls stand.
The defending Eastern Conference champions have scored a single goal across their last three matches. They have just five games left in the regular season, and are on the shakiest of grounds with 40 points; they sit ahead of the Chicago Fire for the East’s ninth and final playoff spot by a single point. The problem is that the Fire has two games in hand.
So mistakes by Mohammed Sofo, the 20-year-old Ghanaian forward who has filled in so admirably this season after Lewis Morgan’s ceaseless injury worries, are magnified when the stakes are ramping up. He was just a fraction of a second late on what could have been two match-shifting plays that could have delivered New York the three points in the standings rather than just one.
He waited until forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was offside before playing him behind the Columbus defense. The linesman allowed the play to continue, where the veteran striker deked Crew goalkeeper Patrick Schulte and had a left-footed shot deflected off the post by a defender.
Two minutes before halftime, he took an extra touch before playing Emil Forsberg into the box. The star Swede finished with his left foot into the bottom-right corner of the goal, but the offside flag went up once again.
“We are frustrated we didn’t win this game,” Schwarz said. “When we are looking at this performance against a really good team, we played on the ball really well, so dominant. We were intense to find the right moment to press… this was really good. We had a lot of good chances, but I’m pretty sure we have the quality to score… I’m really satisfied with the performance. We’re disappointed about the result.”
The linesman’s offside flag was not the most controversial flag waved at Sports Illustrated Arena on Saturday night. Fans in the south stand hung a banner behind the goal reading, “Poor management breeds complacency,” a clear shot at management for an uneventful transfer window that did little to improve the Red Bulls’ biggest issue up front.
Considering this is an original MLS franchise in the shadow of New York City, owned by a company that brings in billions each year, this philosophy of sneaking into the playoffs and hoping to get hot at the right time — further fueled by last year’s anomaly — is one of the more bizarre approaches in North American sports. The Red Bulls have the financial backing and status to be a contender every season, yet here they are approaching their 30th season without a championship, and nothing indicates that drought will be broken this season.
“We are fighting for our goals,” Schwarz said. “We have 40 points… It’s not a big difference compared to what we had last season (they had 43 points with five matches remaining last season). We have to stay together. Now is not the moment to think about last year, only to keep the focus. We have five games to go in this season, and we’ll try everything.”
