Whether its causing turnovers by pressing high or vacuuming up space in the middle of the field or defensive third, the New York Red Bulls won a pair of Supporters’ Shields and have been among the most successful teams of the past decade by forging an identity as a stout defensive team.
That collective defending, though, wasn’t on display in a 3-2 loss to the LA Galaxy Sunday in Carson, much to the dismay of midfielder Sean Davis.
“I think that we’re disappointed that we conceded three goals that, in my opinion, were preventable,” Davis said after the match. “You’re not going to win on the road, you’re not going to pick up points on the road when you concede three goals. That’s not just on our backline, that’s on the entire team, that’s how we play, we defend as a group, and everyone has to be completely locked in.
"If we want to get a shutout on the road, what’s the point of running and pressing as much as we do if we’re going to concede soft goals. It’s not good enough and we recognize that and it’s just the truth and we have to face the music. We have to get back to training and be better.”
Davis said the improvement the Red Bulls need to show is in both boxes — being more clinical in the attacking third and tougher defending in the other.
“We can talk all we want about the positives of the performance, but it’s about winning, and we wanted to,” Davis said. “We want to be a team that wins, we expect to win, that’s the standards of this club. The players have to take a hard look, be honest and understand that we need to be better if we want to make our mark in this league.”
After consecutive losses to start the season, the onus is on quickly picking up points, which starts Saturday afternoon against Chicago Fire FC back in the first of back-to-back games at Red Bull Arena.
“The big topic in the next two games at home, we have to create points, produce points,” Red Bulls coach Gerhard Struber said. “This is right now very important, that we make the right steps in the process, but in the end we have to produce points and this is the responsibility for every single player and also for me and my coaching team, that we create very good performances, but also in the end we need points. I cannot live always with good performances and no points in our bag.”
