Win, or go home. That is the situation the New York Red Bulls face on Saturday when they take on the New England Revolution in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Finals. New York dropped the first leg, losing 2-1 to the Revolution and must win in New England to advance to their second ever MLS Cup.
READ: Second Leg Scenarios: Scorelines that send Red Bulls to MLS Cup
This will be the fourth and final meeting between the clubs in 2014. The Red Bulls are 2-1-0 through three matches, including a 2-0 win at Gillette Stadium on June 8. New York will need a similar scoreline this weekend to win the Eastern Conference.
For the Red Bulls, Roy Miller and MLS Golden Boot winner Bradley Wright-Phillips will not be available for Saturday’s clash due to yellow card accumulation. Miller, who missed the first leg due to red card suspension, will miss his second consecutive playoff game. In the first leg, there were a total of ten yellow cards and 29 fouls awarded.
New York Red Bulls forward Thierry Henry on replacing Wright-Phillips:
“It’s going to be very difficult. But it’s time for whoever is going to come in to step up and it’s a team thing…Bradley has been more than amazing for us throughout the whole season, and hopefully we can do it for him and have him be available for the final…But right now we have to take it away from New England, they did extremely well when they came here, to win the game two one. Our mission is to go up there and score more goals than them, so we’re going to try to do that.”
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With Wright-Phillips sidelined, Mike Petke must find a replacement for the man who has scored a combined 31 goals this year. The two most likely candidates to replace Wright-Phillips seems to be Tim Cahill and Saer Sene. Cahill, last year’s team-leading scorer, has seen success as a forward with the Australian National Team including two goals at the FIFA World Cup. Sene, the physical 6-foot-3 presence and ex-New England striker is another option who would provide height in the penalty area and thrives as the point of attack. He scored 17 goals and provided 8 assists in two and a half seasons with the Revolution.
Thierry Henry will feature for the first time in his MLS career at Gillette Stadium. The forward usually avoids field turf playing on field turf due to health concerns, but is needed by his team in the decisive elimination match. Teammate Jamison Olave also generally avoids playing on turf for the same reasons, but also plans to be a part of the lineup on Saturday.
New York Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke on his feelings heading into tomorrow’s game:
“Whatever happens tomorrow is going to be decided over 90 minutes, or perhaps more. It’s out of my hands, it’s out of Jay [Heaps’] hands. All we can do is prepare our teams to the best of our ability and they have to go out and execute.”
Midfielder Eric Alexander made his 42nd appearance for the Red Bulls last Sunday, a new single season club record. He’ll aim to extend that record with a win on Saturday, but he’ll need help from his fellow midfielders Lloyd Sam and Dax McCarty. Sam, who had five shots (two on target) in last weekend’s game, must put more shots on goal and continue to whip in dangerous crosses from the right wing. McCarty and Alexander must help out the back four with a New England team that loves putting numbers forward on the counter.
The key for the Red Bulls appears to be to keep shooting. New York outshot New England 18-8 last weekend, but put seven of those shots on net. If the Red Bulls can own possession like they did on Sunday (60 percent) and put more shots on net, they will have their best chance of success in the second leg.
New York Red Bulls midfielder Tim Cahill on playing at Gillette Stadium:
“It’s a tough place to go with their team, their fans, their squad, you have to give them respect, they’ve got a good team…they’re a hardworking team with some creative players in the final third that have hurt teams. Overall for us, it’s a difficult place to go but we’re just going to there to do what we can do, because we have no choice. We have to win 2-0. We can’t go there and win 1-0 because it means nothing. There’s going to be a point in that game where tactics are going to mean nothing. It’s going to be on one of us or a few of us to stand up and take the game by the horns and really try and get that victory that the fans want.”
The New England Revolution are one win or draw away from MLS Cup for the first time since 2007. New England has not lost at home since July 26 when they were defeated 2-1 by the Columbus Crew. They have advanced to the MLS Cup Final four times in their history, but have never won a title.
The second and decisive leg of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday, November 29 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET (TV: NBC Sports).
