“I thought the guys played a hell of a game today,” Head Coach Bradley Carnell said.
Despite falling 3-1 to Orlando City SC on Saturday in a rain-soaked match, the Red Bulls’ interim boss said there was a lot of good in the game, but mental lapses cost them, especially in the first half.
“All of a sudden, there is a stretch there where we get set, we just kind of get lifeless and lose one or two duels and lost a fight,” Carnell said. “Then you feel the swing and the momentum changing and we just had a bit to do in our own minds with regards to that. The game just gets a bit loose we knew transition is their big weapon and it’s disappointing to give goals away up high on the field with the throw-in that we have. We can’t secure the ball and then they’re off to the races on a transition and on a break which was very disappointing.”
New York and Orlando battled in a physical match that saw New York control most of the second half following Orlando’s second goal, only to come within one before giving up a late almost-empty-netter for the Lions to seal it.
“We knew going into it, that we had to bring the fight before anything else we start with the ball. We fell just short but credit to the boys,” Carnell said. “They put in a good effort, second half especially, and we kept on going. We showed the weapons that we have and what we can do, especially later on in games.”
New York will be without central midfielders Kaku and Cristian Casseres Jr., who both started in the match, as they depart for national team duty.
“I’m a little bit gutted with the result and then on top of that now we lose Kaku and Cristian Casseres Jr. to the national teams,” Carnell said. “We wish them well and hope they come back strong and healthy and positive.”
Both players will need to quarantine upon arriving back with the club and will be held out of team training and matches until cleared by medical.
“We got ourselves into the right spaces, we turned over a ton of balls in the first half, and failed to hurt them in transition,” Carnell said. “Even in the second half, we actually played out some really good sequences and just failed to get in on the end of it. Just a bit disappointing that we couldn’t reward ourselves to get into some good spots because we really tried to plug away with certain things and there were some issues or some situations that we lose the sort of mindset of what to do, the coolness, the calmness in terms of how we want to cross the ball.”
New York has a quick turn to another matchup against a Florida team, with Inter Miami CF visiting Red Bull Arena for the first time in a midweek matchup on Wednesday night.
“The goal is that every game is the opportunity for three points,” Carnell said. “We’re not looking six weeks ahead nor are we looking five games ahead. We’re looking at Wednesday’s game -- that’s crucial enough. We have to get our guys back fit and healthy and assess tomorrow in training. We turn the page and the page is clean, it’s fresh on the other side. We start preparing and we push for three more points and that’s what’s most important for us right now. With one or two more victories, we can start looking in a different direction. We just want to make sure that we have it in our control and keep things sort of under our belt, and keep the controllables controlled.”
