MONTCLAIR, NJ — An overcast sky set the mood for what would be Red Bull New York II’s second straight home game at MSU Soccer Park.
The hosts did their best to brighten the mood but, in the end, fell by a score of 3-1 to Connecticut United FC (CT United).
Red Bulls II, who came into this matchup winners of four out of six home games this season, started showing the vulnerability in their backline that would plague them in this game as early as the 11th minute.
At that juncture, CT United’s Caua Paixao saw Barnabas Tanyi making a run up the middle of the field and sent a long ball into the center of the field which was caught up to by Tanyi. The Hungarian found himself 1-on-1 with RBNY II goalkeeper Aidan Stokes, who did well to cut off Tanyi’s angle and stopped Tanyi’s effort to keep the game scoreless.
Ten minutes later, Red Bulls II got its first scoring chance of the game when Mijahir Jiménez attempted a one-touch pass into the box for Dennis Nelich. Nelich was impeded by two CTU players and the ball rolled over to captain Nate Worth who found himself with space on the edge of the box and took a left-footed shot just wide of the right post.
Being let off the hook, the visitors would take advantage in the 30th minute. A Red Bulls II player turned the ball over in CT United’s half of the field and the visitors came right back at them on a counter attack.
Again it was Paixao picking out a perfect through ball to Tanyi who sped ahead of Joyeux Masanka-Bungi and Aimar Sanchez into the box and 1-0n-1 with Stokes. Stokes came way off his line to try and cut off the angle but Tanyi dribbled around him and kicked the ball into the net off-balance to give the visitors a surprising early lead over the second-place team in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference.
Five minutes later, Red Bulls II had a golden opportunity to tie the game when they caused a CT United player to turn the ball over deep in their own half. Jiménez stole the ball, dribbled down the right wing and passed across the 18-yard box to Red Bull New York academy product Benjamin Rodriguez, who one-timed the ball with his right-foot straight at CTU goalkeeper Gunther Rankenberg.
Despite all this offense from the home side in the first half, it would be the visitors who would capitalize with their second goal in the 43rd minute. Red Bull New York academy product who was playing left wing today, Dennis Nelich turned the ball over near midfield and Robbie Mora chipped the ball over to Tanyi. Tanyi adeptly took the ball and flicked it over Sanchez and was off to the races. He came in on Stokes who stayed on his line and slotted the ball into the bottom right corner.
When the second half commenced, Red Bull came out strong, earning two corners and two free kicks in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
However, Red Bull nearly conceded again when a pass from Bungi up the middle of the field was intercepted. The visiting player then sent a long ball into Red Bull’s half for Tanyi. Stokes read the play and was able to come out and attempted to clear the ball but his clearance was blocked. The ball fell to Ibrahim Kasule, RBNY II’s all-time leading goal scorer, but he mishit his longshot attempt and the ball bounced over the end-line for a goal-kick.
In the 52nd minute, Red Bull New York II were imposing their will on the game through possession in the attacking third, when Nelich slipped a pass to Dennis Gjengaar who made an overlapping run down the right side of the 18-yard box. Gjengaar took his chance quickly firing a right-footed shot over a diving Rankenberg, into the upper right corner of the net to cut the Baby Bulls’ deficit to one.
CT United would put the game out of reach in the 88th minute when substitute Alex Monis was taken down by Aimar Modelo’s slide tackle right as he entered the 18-yard box. Monis scored the ensuing penalty shot into the bottom right corner to give the visitors a 3-1 lead they would not relinquish.
Both goalkeepers made four saves, CT United held a not so dominant 8-5 edge in shots on goal, and both teams had virtually the same number of shot attempts but the difference in the game was turnovers. On both first half goals, Red Bulls II gave away possession on avoidable plays and CT United were able to strike hard and fast with long balls and good finishing from their Hungarian striker, Barnabas Tanyi, who led all players in the game with two goals.
During the post-game press conference, RBNY II head coach Dominik Wohlert was critical of his team’s performance.
The biggest takeaway for us is similar to the last game — we have to learn from these moments where we turn the ball over too often and too easily. This time, it’s probably the first time this season that I really told our guys that we deserved to lose that game. I had the feeling even in previous matches that we still had strong performances overall, but today it was really unnecessary how we turned over the ball. It was everything we expected from Connecticut — a team that plays long balls and puts pressure on our build-up. But most of the situations came from us. It wasn’t that Connecticut did a lot of good things — it was more on us. That’s why I’m saying very clearly, this is the first time this season that we didn’t deserve to win.
The lone goal scorer for the hosts, Dennis Gjengaar is normally a first team player but was sent to the second team in March. The 22-year-old Norwegian has also found his form recently as he has started RBNY II’s last seven games and had six goal contributions during this span.
Gjengaar described who and what’s helped him unlock his form recently with the Baby Bulls.
Yeah, I mean there’s a lot of young talent and Dom’s been a very good coach this year, both on and off the field, talking a lot individually to the players and helping them develop a lot. I think, as you can see, Dennis Nelich for example, he’s been very good and playing with him… I’ve made a couple of assists to him and he’s got a couple of assists to me, so we’ve found a good connection there.
On the bright side, Red Bull New York II showed they could be versatile and play well on the ball. They made 710 passes and were accurate on 83 percent of them which is a remarkable conversion rate. This new wrinkle to the Red Bull style of play is something that contributed to their only goal of the match and Wohlert elaborated on it.
That was one of the plays where you see when we’re concentrated and when we play our idea with the ball and everyone is on the same page then you can see how our Football can look and that was just from the beginning, progressing over the field and being dominant in ball possession as well, so obviously, that’s a big goal for us. It’s not just Red Bull 1.0, pressing high, trying to deal with transitions, you saw that today as well but again it’s how do we manage the game in ball possession and we have phases in a game where we create chances or we score goals, but we have to do that more often.
Red Bulls II will head back to the training ground in Whippany and prepare for a three-match road swing starting in North Carolina against another independent MLS NEXT Pro club, Carolina Core FC.
Gjengaar gets the last word on what the team needs to do, to regroup.
We’ve got to pretty much grab ourselves by the neck and get rid of all the mistakes we made today. We need to play more as a team next game, clean things up, and go back to the way we played at the beginning of the season.
Despite losing their second straight game, the Baby Bulls remain second place in the MLS NEXT Pro eastern conference with 23 points.
