Kansas City applied all the pressure at Sporting Park, but Mike Petke’s Red Bulls were perfect on the counter attack, manufacturing an important Eastern Conference upset.
Two goals in the Red Bulls’ 3-2 win were classic examples of counter attacking soccer. The third, in fact, gave us the rare goalkeeper assist as Red Bulls’ keeper Luis Robles found Jonathan Steele with a throw that covered half the length of the field.
Steele quickly found Loyd Sam with a perfectly weighted ball as the Red Bulls took a 3-1 lead after 69 minutes. At the time, Sporting Kansas City held a 17-3 lead in shots. The home team finished with a 27-5 edge as New York had tons of trouble breaking the home team early pressure.
Solid work in goal by Robles (six saves) and the usual brawny stuff from center back Jamison Olave (although he did lose his mark on SKC’s first goal) helped prevent more of those shots from turning into goals. And when the visitors did break the pressure, infrequent as it was, good things happened.
The Red Bulls took possession of first place, vaulting over Kansas City (and with help from D.C. United, which upset Montreal.)
Here are the match highlights:
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