Hello Fans,
Sorry for the long lay off, but last week was a bit crazy. Game in DC Saturday, followed by a game in New England midweek, and another game at home on Saturday. On top of that my parents paid me a visit from Texas on Thursday, so needless to say I haven’t had much spare time! Speaking of time, it doesn’t get much better this week as we head to Phoenix, Arizona for a friendly game against Chivas (of Mexico). Then we head straight from there to Los Angeles for our game Saturday night against Chivas USA. A nice, nine-day road trip. Oh but wait, the story gets even better! Our flight was supposed to leave from Newark around 6:30pm tonight, but we were delayed and didn’t depart until 9:30pm. Have to love being in the hands of the commercial airlines!
I am writing this blog from the plane. I guess you could call it my office for the next week (and the hotel). I am looking forward to Phoenix, as it is one of the few places that I have yet to visit. Thank goodness the stadium we are playing in has a retractable roof, since it has been a balmy 100+ degrees for about eight days in a row in Phoenix! Oh, don’t worry though, the forecast while we are there for 3 days, highs around 110 and lows around 80.
We are currently in the middle of hectic time of the year for us. As I mentioned before, we just played three games in eight days. Over the next two weeks we will play another four games in various competitions:
6/25- Friendly vs Chivas (Mexico) Phoenix, AZ
6/28- MLS vs Chivas USA Carson, CA
7/1- US Open Cup vs Harrisburg City Islanders TBD
7/4- MLS vs Colorado Denver, CO
That makes for 4 games, in 10 days! I am getting tired just thinking about it. What can you do, the schedule is what it is and you have to play the cards you are dealt. Hopefully we can get results in all of our games and along the way some young guys who have not played that much gain some playing time and experience. These next four games will be a great opportunity for many guys to prove to coach that they deserve a spot on field or as a sub.
About those past two games….
Clearly in DC, we were quite poor. Every team is going to have a game here and there where things might not go their way, but that was not the case for us that game. We simply just didn’t want it as bad as the other team. We were out worked and the result showed.
In New England, there were some changes made; mentality, formation, and personnel. I thought the team did a great job of letting New England know from the beginning that what happened in DC was not going to happen again. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was effective. There was some good soccer played, along with some scrappy soccer. At the end of the day we had put ourselves in a wonderful position to grab three points on the road against the best team in the league. Unfortunately we gave up a goal late (one that none of us were pleased with, because we knew it was way too easy). At the end of the day we still had earned a point, but more importantly we could look ourselves in the mirror and know that we had given an honest effort and gone toe to toe with the best team in the league at their place. We had something to build on!
On Saturday against Dallas, we fielded the same lineup as we did midweek against New England. I thought the team did an even better job of letting it be known to Dallas that it was not going to be an easy day on the job. From the beginning we sustained high pressure and gave them little room to play. Eventually that paid off for as, after Sinisia delivered a great ball off a corner kick and Gold was there to nock it home for just a few yards out. It was another great start for the second game in a row, and one that we fully deserved. If it were not for their keeper to make some quality saves throughout the match we could have found ourselves up at least two goals, if not three. Dallas’ chances were few and far between. Their best chance coming towards the end of the game, but Conway was there to make a terrific save and preserve the clean sheet. It was a great stepping-stone from our performance in New England, and we were able to gain another notch in the win column.
Looking forward to this weekends match against Chivas USA, I think we have to bring the same heart and desire to the game that we did last week. If we continue to build on our past two games and get a bit lucky, then we have a great chance of coming back with some points.
Your Questions Answered:
1. Hey Hunter, after the departure of Jozy, looks like you guys might
be in the market for a striker, if you could pick a striker to join
the Red Bulls, no matter how unlikely, who would be in your top 5?
-Stanley E
Stanley,
Fernando Torres, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Toni, Miroslav Klose
2. Hello Hunter, after the D.C United result, it was rumored that JCO
really gave you guys a talking to, do you think this helped the team
turn in a stronger performance against New England?
-George M
George,
I would have to say that based on our past 2 results against New England and Dallas that it definitely didn’t hurt! We all realized that the DC game was a poor effort and performance, and one we do not want to re-create. There was only room for improvement after that game. I think in both the New England and Dallas games you saw a much more inspired and passionate team on the field, yet a team that still played some good soccer as well.
3 Hiya Hunter, I’ve read that there are many professional players that
play lots of footy video games, are there any guys on the Red Bulls
that are particularly big on video games? Any card players? Thanks!
-Jessy F
Jessy,
To be honest I am not sure who is good at FIFA on our team. I never have been one for playing footy video games. As far as card players, there are plenty of those on the team. The usual suspects playing cards are usually myself, Magee, Boyens, DVB, Leitch, Goldy, and Conway.
4.Hi Mr. Freeman, if you had to mark Cristiano Ronaldo, how would you
go about it?
-Michael W
Michael,
Kick him as hard as I could and hopefully he would have to come out of the game. Haha, no in all seriousness though I am not sure that there is a good/right way to mark him. If you try to get close to him and deny him the ball he still has the speed to get in behind you. But if you respect his speed and give him just a few yards of space to get the ball and run at you, you are in trouble too. He has such great quality in so many categories (speed, skill, passing, shooting, heading). He is one of those guys that you have to mark by committee, because I don’t think that there is any ONE defender in the world that likes their chances of stopping him 1v1 over 90 minutes.
5. Hey Hunta! (i’m from the bronx) If you could bring one player from
another MLS team to RBNY, who would it be and why?
-Johnny G
Johnny,
Hunta huh? I thought that was Boston talk. I had a coach from Boston, and he used to always call me Hunta. Guess the Bronx and Boston have something in common other than baseball!
To answer your question, that’s a tough one. I will go what player I would take for each position:
Forward- Dwayne De Rosario (plays there sometimes, and had to list him here so I could fit in Gomez)
Mid- Christian Gomez (very creative)/ Shalrie Joseph (dependable, hard working)
Defender- Eddie Robinson (no one likes to play against him)
GK- Brad Guzan (very good and young)
According to SBI, our very own Hunter Freeman has been traded to Toronto FC in exchange for two supplemental draft picks and future considerations. Freeman has fallen out of favor with head coach Juan Carlos Osorio after signing a pre-contract with Norwegian side IK Start. Freeman’s MLS contract expires December 31st, and should provide Toronto FC with some needed depth for the rest of the season. What do you make of the Freeman trade? Good for TFC? Good for New York? Will this give Juan Carlos Osorio the needed salary cap and roster space to go out and get the forward New York needs? 
