Hard as it is to believe, three Red Bulls defenders Andrew Boyens (New Zealand), Carlos Johnson (Costa Rica) and struggling Alfredo Pacheco (El Salvador) have been called up for their national teams, and will leave on Sept. 2. Yes, not one, not two, but three.
I know, crazy, isn’t it?
Oceania Region champ New Zealand _ awaiting the winner of a home-and-home series between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to determine their next foe _ will play at Jordan in a Sept. 9 friendly. Boyens has 13 caps, so that isn’t a shocker. But Johnson is, just because he hadn’t played in eons.
I actually think he’d played very well early on, but he’d just come back after missing three months with a fractured fifth metatarsal suffered on May 16. Costa Rica leads CONCACAF and hosts resurgent Mexico on Sept. 5 before going to El Salvador on Sept. 9. They’ll face Pacheco there, just days after his El Salvador team takes on the U.S. Sept. 5 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah. If the struggling left back stinks up the joint as badly as he has been lately for the Red Bulls, expect the U.S. and the Ticos to win.
The Red Bulls host defending league champ Columbus Crew this weekend, just the latest reminder of how far they’ve fallen since last year’s MLS Cup final.