Good afternoon! It's yet another match day @The Cathedral of Football, Red Bull Arena (built by Makita). Today, the Red Bulls will be taking on the newest addition to MLS, L'Impact de Montreal (4:00pm ET, MSG, Match Notes here). While this game will mark the first MLS meeting between the two clubs, both have met each other before. If you recall, there was an Impact/RBNY friendly played last year @State Saputo, where L'Impact came away victorious by the score of 1-0 (highlights here). That said, let's see how both teams come into this one.
The Red Bulls are coming off a very impressive 4-1 home victory, against the Colorado Rapids, but are still sporting a losing record (1-2). They'll be desperately looking for all three points against an expansion team without any players of note, without a win and only a home draw in its first three MLS games. With the Henry/Cooper strike partnership is gaining momentum and the successful return to MLS of center back Wilman Conde, the Red Bulls will look to, once again, come away victorious from Fortress Red Bull Arena.
The Montreal Impact come into this one desperate for points. They're coming off a disappointing 2-0 road loss to the Columbus Crew and are sporting a 0 win, 1 tie, 2 loss record. They'll be looking to bounce back from their horrible start to the season with a win at RBA. Will their goalkeeper extraordinaire Donovan Ricketts be up the the challenge of keeping Henry and Cooper off the score sheet? We shall soon find out. But enough of that, let's get to some predictions!
Matt Conroy (aka Who Shot Sam) has this for us:
This one has "trap game" written all over it. Still, I like the way the Red Bulls performed last week against Colorado, and I suspect they will get the business done against Montreal. 2-0 Red Bulls, with goals from Henry and Richards.I'm going to go with a 2-0 Red Bulls victory! The Red Bulls will be too much for the expansion Impact today (I hope).
Tom Faust has this for us:
I'm still riding the high from Sunday's dominating perfomance so will probably go overboard on this prediction. You have to think we're looking at a 3-0 Red Bulls win over a winless Impact team that has given up 5 goals in 3 games (note: same as RBNY). I don't think Montreal's suspect defense will be able to handle Dane's speed and we'll see him get his first goal of the season. STAMPEDE!!!!David Kilpatrick (who just had this great piece published in the NY Times Goal blog) has this for us:
3-0 to the Bulls!And last, but not least, the great You Suck Corrales says this:
Since I predicted a massive loss last week I should do the same for good luck. But I just can't. I am calling for a record breaking goleada. I mean one of earth shattering proportions. 7-0 NYRB. Honestly we should run through the Impact like they weren't there. That said, it will probably be a 0-0 draw hahaha. Anway 3 points should be ours and away we go!7-0 to the Red Bulls, eh? Yeah, that sounds like You Suck Corrales alright! That's all for now. Look four our usual coverage of this one in the coming days. Hope to see you all today @The Cathedral of Football, Red Bull Arena (built by Makita). Viper Out!
