Enter your email to read this month's free article.
By entering your email address, you agree to receive Soccer America Today newsletter and other email messages from Soccer America.
You've reached your free article limit.
Become a Soccer America Pro member today to get complete website access to all articles and all discussions and receive all of Soccer America’s newsletters for just 50¢.
This premium subscription level includes Soccer America Daily, Soccer on TV, Soccer Talk, the Game Report and Soccer America Confidential. Soccer America Pro members may read, share and comment on all articles from these paid premium newsletters.
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