Lack of effort leads to N.Y. loss
And a win against the Colorado Rapids would have sent the Red Bulls into a first-place tie with New England with a game in hand.
While there was no lack of inspiration, the Red Bulls lacked plenty of effort, falling 1-0 to the Rapids at Giants Stadium.
After going undefeated in the team's first five games, the Red Bulls are now winless in their last three, including a 3-1 defeat by the Los Angeles Galaxy in a U.S. Open Cup play-in match.
Red Bulls boss Bruce Arena shrugged off blowing a late two-goal lead in a 3-3 draw with Real Salt Lake Saturday and the loss to the Galaxy. As for the lackluster performance against the Rapids? That, he said, there is no excuse for.
"We were very poor," Arena said. "I think we got outplayed in the first half in terms of the effort aspect of the game. In the second half, I thought our performance on the technical side was horrible. Poor crossing, poor passing which was the case for 90 minutes."
Yes, the Red Bulls were without the calming influence in the middle of the park of Claudio Reyna, as the captain suffered a right groin strain in training Saturday.
"It won't be a long time," said Reyna, who also missed the home game against FC Dallas on April 15 because of a leg contusion. "We got our hands on what we think it is, it's nothing major."
Dema Kovalenko, who suffered a broken nose as a result of an inadvertent swing by Nicolas Hernandez in the second half, and Seth Stammler couldn't pick up the slack.
"It's our home field and we didn't play from the beginning," Kovalenko said. "They scored and we didn't move the ball well, we didn't pass. It actually looked like we didn't want to play."
But they were far from the only players who put forth a sub-par performance.
"Center midfield was not good for us today," Arena said. "But I don't think there was one aspect of our game that was impressive today."
Added Clint Mathis: "It was almost like we were brain-dead out there. We weren't giving the extra effort like we normally do. I don't know what to attribute that to, but I'm glad we just got that out of the way."
Even Angel, the Red Bulls highly-touted second designated player, struggled.
"I think it was an average performance," Angel said. "As the season goes on, I think I'm going to get better. The players will get to know me, I will get to know them and we will get to know the system."
"I don't think it was real good," Arena said of Angel's performance. "He didn't get the service he wanted. He had a couple of chances in the game he'd like to have back, I'm sure ... There's not a player that we can single out today that was real good."
Angel's best chance came three minutes into the second half, when his shot towards an open net was cleared off the line by Colorado defender Dan Gargan.
"We didn't look comfortable at all, we didn't create chances and we were off our pace," Angel said. "I think there wasn't a big difference between the two sides apart from the goal, which I think was a bit of a fortunate goal for them."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
