4-0 defeats by the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
REFEREE: Kevin Stott. SAR (bench): Jeff Muschik; JAR (opposite): Rob Fereday; 4th: Lee Suckle MLS Career: 177 games; FC/gm: 26.1; Y/gm: 3.4; R: 49; pens: 36
INJURY REPORT: NEW YORK RED BULLS - OUT: DF Carlos Mendes (L hip surgery); MF Mac Kandji (R hamstring); QUESTIONABLE: FW Juan Pablo Angel (concussion); MF Jorge Rojas (R calf strain) ... CHIVAS USA - OUT: FW Justin Braun (concussion); DF Jim Curtin (R ankle sprain); GK Dan Kennedy (R knee surgery); FW Ante Razov (R ankle surgery); DF Claudio Suárez (R calf strain); DF Lawson Vaughn (L ankle surgery); MF Cesar Zamora (L hamstring strain); QUESTIONABLE: MF Kevin Harmse (R knee tendonitis); PROBABLE: MF Paulo Nagamura (R hamstring strain); GK Zach Thornton (R quad strain)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: NY: Sinisa Ubiparipovic (through Aug. 16) ... CHV: Shavar Thomas (through Aug. 16)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: NY: Mike Petke ... CHV: Eduardo Lillingston, Jesse Marsch
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: NY: Dane Richards
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (8 meetings): Red Bulls 3 wins, 12 goals ... Chivas USA 2 wins, 13 goals ... Ties 3
AT GIANTS STADIUM (4 meetings): Red Bulls 2 wins, 9 goals ... Chivas USA 1 win, 9 goals ... Ties 1
RETURN MATCH: 9/26: New York Red Bulls at Chivas USA, 7:30 p.m. PT
LAST SEASON (MLS):
6/5: NY 1, CHV 0 (Angel 75)
6/28: CHV 1, NY 1 (Razov 49+ - van den Bergh 26)
• The Red Bulls won the season series for the third time in four years last year, winning at Giants Stadium then playing to a draw at The Home Depot Center.
• In 2008, Chivas USA won both meetings between the teams - their first-ever victories against New York. They did not concede a goal in either match, scoring five goals.
• In the first two seasons, New York won two of the four meetings with two draws. Both wins were memorable: a 2-0 win by the MetroStars on the final day of the 2005 season in Carson to secure the final place in the MLS Cup Playoffs, then a wild 5-4 win at the Meadowlands in 2006.
• Coaches record: Juan Carlos Osorio vs. CHV: P3 W1 L0 D2 ... Preki v NY: P4 W2 L1 D1
NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls return to league play after two weeks off, having seen their losing streak reach five games in a 4-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids on July 25. The Red Bulls have 10 points from 21 matches on the season, sitting in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, 26 points behind the first-place Columbus Crew
LAST MATCH
• The Rapids were back home after losing for the third time in four games at D.C. United the week before, while the Red Bulls had lost four in a row and were winless in 11 consecutive league games.
• It took Colorado just five minutes to open the scoring. Omar Cummings drove in a low ball from the right flank that Jacob Peterson turned home past Red Bulls goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul; for Cummings, it put him into a tie for the league lead with seven assists.
• Sinisa Ubiparipovic was sent off with a straight red card just before the break, and it took the Rapids just two minutes after the interval to take advantage. Pat Noonan carried a through ball toward goal and lashed it past an advancing Coundoul from the edge of the area for his first goal with the Rapids.
• The Rapids put the game away with two goals in a six-minute span. In the 61st minute, Coundoul got down well to save a shot from Mehdi Ballouchy but couldn't hold it, and Nick LaBrocca raced in to sweep home the rebound. Then Ballouchy got his goal, whipping a freekick around the wall from the left corner of the box and high inside the far upper corner.
• The loss extended the Red Bulls' winless streak to 12 games, their fifth loss in a row. The 12 games matches the club record winless run, set July 4-Sept. 5, 1999.
• Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio made three changes to the team that lost 3-1 to the Los Angeles Galaxy at home nine days earlier. Albert Celades, Nick Zimmerman and Seth Stammler all went to the substitutes' bench, as Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Dane Richards and Leo Krupnik came into the team.
• Here's Osorio's team (4-4-1-1): Bouna Coundoul - Jeremy Hall, Leo Krupnik, Mike Petke, Alfredo Pacheco - Macoumba Kandji (John Wolyniec 66), Luke Sassano, Sinisa Ubiparipovic, Dane Richards - Jorge Rojas (Seth Stammler 72) - Juan Pablo Angel (Nick Zimmerman 59). Substitutes Not Used: Andrew Boyens, Albert Celades, Danny Cepero, Khano Smith
TEAM NEWS
• For Coundoul, his Red Bulls debut came against his former club, with which he made 52 league appearances from 2006-2008. "We came here expecting to get a 'W' but we have to get it right for the next game now," he said. "I know I made a couple of mistakes and we paid for it. I know I need to be more ready."
• The loss was New York's ninth in a row away from home, and they have taken just one point from their 12 games this season away from Giants Stadium. Fortunately, the club's next five games are all at home, not traveling again until the return match against Chivas USA on Sept. 26, which starts a three-game road stretch.
• "I was very upset for the game," Angel said. "The mood is pretty bad and the confidence is low because of the number of games we have lost and things have to change. ... There are so many things that we are not doing right. The early goals do make our lives so much more difficult."
• In the meantime, the Red Bulls have also seen their initial foray into the CONCACAF Champions League come to a crashing halt. In the first leg at Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella, Trinidad on July 30, the Red Bulls fell behind 1-0 in the first half, but got a pair of second-half goals, one the first goal from Ernst Öbster since joining the club (48), the second an own goal, to eventually play to a 2-2 draw with W Connection FC.
• But in the return leg at Giants Stadium on Aug. 5, John Wolyniec put the Red Bulls ahead early - but an Andre Toussaint brace late in the first half gave W Connection a stunning 2-1 win and the series victory 4-3 on aggregate. The Red Bulls are now winless in their last 15 games in all competitions.
• "Unfortunately the game today just sums up our season," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "Thirty-nine minutes into the game, we control the game, we are 1-0 up and we started taking some liberties and we allowed a very soft goal, the first one. We went into desperation and then make another big mistake and we were punished for that."
• Of the 37 goals in MLS play the Red Bulls have given up, 11 have come in the final five minutes of a half. The same was true for three of the four goals given up in the Champions League series. "Every game. It's frustrating," Jeremy Hall said. "I don't know what to say anymore. It's constant. I've never been on a team like this. We have a good group of guys, but every game it's the same thing."
• The Red Bulls were without Angel, who suffered a concussion early in the first-leg match in Trinidad and was held out of the return match. He is listed as questionable for this weekend's league match.
• Here's Osorio's team: Danny Cepero, Alfredo Pacheco (Danleigh Borman 46'), Kevin Goldthwaite (Matthew Mbuta 80'), Mike Petke, Jeremy Hall, Seth Stammler, Albert Celades, Jorge Rojas (Sinisa Ubiparipovic 55'), Ernst Öbster, Dane Richards, John Wolyniec
CHIVAS USA
Chivas USA returned to action for the first time in three weeks and saw their losing streak hit five games, falling 4-0 to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Chivas have 27 points from 18 matches, now sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference, 11 points behind the Houston Dynamo.
LAST MATCH
• Chivas USA were returning to action for the first time since July 19, riding a four-game league losing streak and with just one win in their last 12 games in all competitions, while the Rapids had alternated losses and wins for five consecutive matches.
• The game was over quickly. Just 26 seconds into the match, Pablo Mastroeni took a pass from Omar Cummings after his path was stopped down the right, and the U.S. international ripped a drive from well outside the area that sailed past Chivas goalkeeper Lance Parker, making his MLS debut. The goal was the sixth-fastest in MLS history and the second-fastest this season -- the first scored by Rapids teammate Conor Casey after just 16 seconds on April 4.
• Casey doubled the Rapids lead in the fourth minute with another stunning goal. Cummings flicked on a header over the Chivas backline and Casey raced onto it, hitting a sublime volley lob over Parker into the goal. The four-minute span for two goals at the start of a game was one minute shy of the MLS record set three times previously.
• Casey doubled his haul and made it 3-0 in the 23rd minute. Kosuke Kimura sent Cummings free down the right with a wonderful backheel, and the Jamaican drove a low ball to the back post where Casey tapped in from the doorstep. For Cummings, it was his third assist of the night and 10th on the season, giving him the league lead.
• Then in first-half stoppage time, Cummings seemed to be clear in on goal, only to be hauled down from behind by Chivas defender Shavar Thomas. His fellow Jamaican international was sent off by referee Alex Prus and Casey completely his hat trick by converting from the spot, the penalty giving him 11 goals on the season and the lead in the MLS Golden Boot standings, one ahead of Columbus forward Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
• Chivas USA coach Preki made six changes to the team that lost 2-0 to the New England Revolution in their previous game, three weeks earlier. Only Jonathan Bornstein, Ante Jazic, Sasha Victorine, Maykel Galindo and Eduardo Lillingston kept their spots.
• Here's Preki's team (4-4-2): Lance Parker - Gerson Mayen, Jonathan Bornstein, Shavar Thomas, Ante Jazic - Sacha Kljestan (Michael Lahoud 46), Jesse Marsch, Marcelo Saragosa, Sasha Victorine (Bojan Stepanovic 46) - Maykel Galindo, Eduardo Lillingston (Bobby Burling 46). Substitutes Not Used: Chukwudi Chijindu, Jorge Flores, Chris Sharpe, Mariano Trujillo
• "We started poorly, and the game was over in the first 15 minutes," Preki said. "From the kickoff, we had the possession. We turned the ball over in our half and Pablo is by himself and gets a good wind-kick at his back. Then we give up another one, and that was it. You can call it sluggish because we hadn't played in a while, and maybe there might be a little bit of truth. It's been a nightmare schedule from us. I don't want to make that a big issue, but it was a long layoff for us and hopefully now we can get a little rhythm."
TEAM NEWS
• Chivas has lost five consecutive games, scoring only one goal during that span. The Red-and-White have scored just two goals in its past six games and has not scored more than two goals in any match this season.
• "You give up goals as a team and you score goals as a team," said Preki. "We're finding a way to give up goals as a team but we're not scoring goals as a team. We just have to be more aggressive as a team. The goals will come."
• Chivas has produced only 19 goals this season, the second-fewest in MLS, and has recorded just five goals in nine road matches.
• "This is just one game. We're way better. We know our time will come. We still have 12 games to go. We're not panicking. I know we're in some type of slump, but we still have two games in hand against most teams, and some three. So our destiny is still in our hands," Preki said.
• The 320-minute scoreless streak for Chivas is now a club record, surpassing the 275-minute mark set from May 31-June 19 last year. Because of the long layoff, the last goal Chivas scored in a game came more than a month ago, in the 3-1 third-round U.S. Open Cup loss to the USL1 Charleston Battery.
• "We went down 2-0 so quick, it was shocking," midfielder Jesse Marsch said. "I guess you have to say we weren't ready to play. I don't know. I felt coming into the game that we were ready to go, but apparently we weren't. We were very easy to play against and we were giving up chances by the bunches. We've got to put it behind us and move forward here and find a way to get out of this funk."
• Lance Parker had three professional appearances before the Rapids game. He was the starting goalkeeper in Chivas USA's 2-0 loss to the USL1 Seattle Sounders in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal last year, played in the U.S. Open Cup loss this year, and also came on at halftime in Chivas USA's SuperLiga group stage finale, a 2-1 loss to Mexico's Real San Luis. Parker was pressed into service when Zach Thornton - who had played every minute of every league game - suffered a quadriceps injury in the MLS All-Star Game. "We're all in this together and we're going to figure out a way to get it right," said Shavar Thomas.
