The Red Bulls have come closer together since coach Mike Petkeās dustup with Thierry Henry, communication helping clarity and breeding trust. They snapped a three-game winless skid with consecutive victories, and haveš§ found their form because theyāre finally concentrating on themselves, not their foes.
In short, just do you.
āThe teamās become steadily stroź§nger over the season. There are all sorts of things, times when weāve had pain and difficult moments. You get strength,āā sportiš¼ng director Andy Roxburgh told The Post when asked about their improved chemistry since the incident.
āItās a choice: You collapse or you get stronger. Thatās the case, and the teamās got stronger and stronger.Ā Itās been a few games this season ā especially against some of the top sides āš where I started to feel this teamās got a character about it. And youāve seen thāat playing in that heat in Houston the other day, a character. The technical side is one thing; but character is crucial, and you can see that.āā
As important as charaš cter is, clarity is just as vital; and theyāve developed a better sense of how to play since that šAug. 29 practice field altercation. Whether itās last weekās opponent Houston, or Saturdayās foe Toronto FC, the Red Bulls have stopped reacting to their foes and starting trying to perfect their own gameplan.
āIt doesnāt matter if weāre playing Barcelona orš» Toronto. Same rules apply with how we want to play,āā Petke said. āWe need to approach the game the way we set out to; not anything to do with the other team.āā
It is an epiphany that came after the altercation where Petke and Henry had to be separated.Ā Henry got benched two days later for the derby game against DC, but came on as a reserve in theĀ 2-1 victory that snapped a three-game winless skid, and thenĀ last Sunday scored in the Red Bulls’ 4-1 win at Houston.
After that laugher in Texas ā a quintessential six-point swing, since the Red Bulls are vying with the Dynamo for Eastern Conāference playoff positioning ā keeper Luis Robles said theyāre on the sāame page because Petke and the coaching staff have been more specific. Thursday, he expounded on that philosophical shift.
šāItās more specific now. Itās a little bit of our training week, and also the film. But the one thing that was different the last two weeks, as opposed to the rest of the season, is we had this mentality weāre going to customize our game plan to our opponent, and the last two weeks it hasnāt been like that,ā Robles said.
āRegardless of who weāre playing, this is way į©į©į©į©į©į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©ā¤ā¤ā¤ā¤į©š±į©į©į©we want to line uš¦¹p, this is how we want to put them under pressure and this is the way we want to counter, since weāve been able to do that the last two games I think thatās only going to allow us to gain more momentum and confidence going forward.āā
The best teams in MLS ā Real Salt Lake, Sporting KC, defending champion LA ā dictate the gameā and enforce their style on their foes. Former coach Juan Carlos Osorio had insisted no MLS team was good enough to do that, and tailored gameplans to respond to opponents. The past three weeks, the Red Bulls have concentrated on themselves, and the results have been impressive.
āI know in the last two weeks ā including this week, now the third week ā thereās an objective of our gameplan that weāre trying to implement. And if we do that each and every game I feel weāre going to have quite a bit of success,āā Robles said. āWe were able to do that last week, and I think thatās why the result š„was 4-1. (We concentrate on) how do we want to play, and we did that.āā
Newcomer Bradley Wright-Phillips hasnāt š beš·en on the roster for long, but even he can see a change the last few weeks.
āWe (did) a lot of work iš§øn the week leading up the game on what we had to do tāo stop them scoring, and how weāre going to score. Everyone got 100 percent into their training sessions and it worked,āā Wright-Phillips said.
āI think from my first session I can tell you from then (to now) a lot of boys are open to saying anything to each player. Everyoneās talking a lot more. If they donāt like something, they say it. If they want someone to tuck in or track a runner, they say it. That helps oną½§ the pitch. We need a lot of honesty. Thatās what Iāve been seeing the last few weeks.āā