CCL: More frustration for New York Red Bulls

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Feb 22, 2017

Playing their first game ever in the knockout stage of the Concacaf Champions League against the shorthanded Vancouver Whitecaps, the New York Red Bulls fell behind in the first half and could only manage a 1-1 draw.

Red Bulls head coach Jesse Marsch admitted there was a lot of frustration with the result.

"It reminds me a little of our first game against Toronto last year at home here," he said, "where we had a lot of the possession, we were creating a lot of half-chances, but we weren't sharp enough on the day and at the end of the game we let two plays slip and we end up walking away from that game losing 2-0 going, 'How the heck did that happen?'"

Kekuta Manneh put the 'Caps ahead late in the first half when he re-directed Kendall Waston's header into the goal. Sacha Kljestan had a chance to even in the score early in the second half but he put his soft shot right at keeper David Ousted. But the equalizer finally came when Bradley Wright-Phillips scored in the 62nd minute.

Marsch admitted he thought the first leg would be a dangerous game for the Red Bulls "because Vancouver likes to sit back, they like to defend, it's easier to do those things earlier in the season because teams aren't quite sharp, because we're not quite sharp enough, we're not able to capitalize and take advantage of certain situations."

Vancouver, which was missing Yordy Reyna, Nicolas Mezquida and Christian Bolanos all injured and Fredy Montero, who just signed with the 'Caps, was reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute after Cristian Techera was shown a straight red card for a kung-fu kick at Red Bulls defender Sal Zizzo.

"The effort, the application, the determination that we put in, especially when we went down to 10 men for the last half an hour, was phenomenal," said Vancouver coach Carl Robinson. "If you put the work in, you get the rewards. Today we got a little reward, we know there's a lot of work to do in the game, but we're fairly happy."

Feb. 22 in Harrison, N.J.
NY Red Bulls 1 Vancouver Whitecaps 1. Goals: Wright-Phillips 62; Manneh 39.
NY Red Bulls -- Robles; Zizzo, Collin, Long, Bilyeu; Davis, Felipe, Kljestan; Royer (Etienne 73), Veron, Wright-Phillips (Grella 87).
Vancouver -- Ousted; Nerwinski (Williams 76), Waston, Parker, Harvey; Teibert, Laba; Manneh (Greig 80), Davies, Techera; Hurtado (Barnes 63).
Red Card: Vancouver -- Techera 71.

CCL Quarterfinals:
First Leg, Results
TUESDAY, FEB. 21
Saprissa 0 Pachuca 0
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22
NY Red Bulls 1 Vancouver Whitecaps 1
Tigres 1 UNAM 1
First Leg, Schedule
THURSDAY, FEB. 23
FC Dallas vs. Arabe Unido, 8 pm ET