It was Freddy Montero Day again @The Cathedral of Football. The Colombian forward, who did not wish to see his streak of always killing us end, scored a sensational equalizing goal that earned the visiting Seattle Sounders a 2-2 draw against the Red Bulls.
The Red Bulls got off to a horrible start, with Seattle having the better of play in the opening minutes. In the 11th minute, new RBNY goalkeeper Bill Gaudette was forced off his line to make an incredible save against Seattle's Brad Evans. Seattle got on the board in the 16th, as a beautiful cross from Adam Johansson found Alvaro Fernandez on the left. Fernandez put in a beautiful one-time volley and, just like that, the Sounders were up 1-0. The Red Bulls finally came to life after that and evened things up in the 24th. A long range Kenny Cooper bomb was nicely saved by the Seattle goalkeeper, but the rebound was nicely put away by new man Sebastien LeToux. Bill Gaudette then kept us in the game, making a fine save off a 32nd minute Eddie Johnson curler, that was destined for the top right corner of the RBNY goal.
In the 45th minute, there was a situation where a Brandon Barklage cross, from the left, was cleared by Osvaldo Alonso, at the right hand post, just as Thierry Henry was winding up a spectacular mid-air volley. There would have been nothing wrong with that except that Alonso blantantly cleared with his hand. He should have been issued a red card and there should have been a penalty awared to the Red Bulls. Of course, nothing of the sort happened, as both the Referee and the Linesman saw nothing. The half ended with Markus Holgersson heading a corner kicked ball off the underside of the bar. What luck, eh?
In the 61st minute, it was the Red Bulls' turn to go ahead in this one, through Joel Lindpere. The hard working Estonian midfielder took a brilliant Brandon Barklage ball from the back, beat a defender, then coolly slotted the ball past the near post of the Seattle goalkeeper. Victory for the Red Bulls, however, was not in the cards this day, as Montero would have the final word with a 67th minute goal.
Hans Backe was forced to make a force substitution in the 20th minute, as Rafa Marquez (who did his best traffic cone impression in this one) pulled something and made way for Wilman Conde. Inexplicably, Hans Backe couldn't bring himself to make another substitution in the remainder of this one. That's really baffling if you consider that the temperature on the field must have been 100degrees, there was (at least) one player looking like total crap (Roy Miller, cough, cough...) and an ill advised Wednesday 1pm game was coming up (with temperatures, once again, promising to be in the 90's).
Please see the top video for drunken pre-game comments and predictions. Please click here for half-time and post-game comments. You can click here for my photo album (slideshow here).
Fantastic support from the South Ward, as usual. The three Supporter's Sections were full and everyone was in full voice. Also, I had not been to Bello's in a long while, but I stopped by and drank a few with the good people of the Garden State Ultras. I even managed to score one on the limited edition, Iron Maiden inspired, GSU Ultras shirt (get them while they last :) Please don't miss any of my drunken video footage as the great You Suck Corrales was in fine form, ranting and raving about the lack of effort shown in this one. I'll tell you right now, I agree fully with his assessment. Let' us know what you think in the comments section below.
Alrighty then! I hope to see you all this Wednesday @The Cathedral of Football, Red Bull Arena (built by Makita). Viper Out!
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