Photo credit: Daily Harrison
Good afternoon! It's another beautiful day here in Red Bulls Land and it's do-or-die time for our favorite team. Yes - today RBNY finds itself tied for 5th place in the Eastern Conference, with non other than DC United. Also, a couple of teams that were way behind the Red Bulls (Houston & KC), are now ahead in the Eastern Conference standings. Not only that, all of the three Eastern Conference rivals I've just referrenced have GAMES IN HAND. I'm going to assume that RBNY has not a chance in hell against the LA Galaxy, next weekend, even if the match is @The Cathedral of Football. This is why 3 points, against a crap New England side, tomorrow are an absolute must (mate). But nevermind all that right now! Let's get to some news from the past week.
Has Rafael Marquez failed as a Designated Player? Even if he isn't drawing large number of Mexican fans to RBNY games, Rafa has looked way better in his National Team performances, than in those with RBNY (especially this season). It's getting really hard to argue on the contrary, IMHO.
That RBNY is in real danger of missing the playoffs is, at this point, not a secret to it's fans. The ever optomistic Hans Backe believes, however, that just five wins, in the remaining nine games, are needed to secure a playoff spot. Easier said than done. One pundit, however, believes all is not lost and that a playoff berth can be achieved, if Mr. Backe makes just a few changes.
Are you having trouble with your travel to RBA or even planning to attend a match for the first time? If so, check out the new Transportation Hub page on the Official Red Bulls website.
Some other stuff:
Some very exciting stuff this week, for MLS fans, as the League changed the DP Rule to allow signing young DPs at a lower hit to the always important Salary Cap number. Unfortunately, this rule change doesn't do any favors to young home-based talent but it will, almost certainly, mean a monetary windfall to the league when young DP signings are sold off elsewhere.
Red Bull Arena will play host to another International, as the National Teams of Colombia and Honduras will square off in a friendly there on Saturday, September 3rd (8:00pm).
Could Garbernomics jeopardize the MLS future of the NY Cosmos? I, for one, certainly hope so.
The Curse of Groupon? According to this BNET article, attendance at several MLS stadia are skewed because of lots of Groupon ticket buyer no-shows. Give it a read, as the writer is a RBNY fan, who stands in our section (133). He even links a to a couple of past TVN articles.
That's all for now. Viper Out!
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