With an eye toward next Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final — and a shot at their first cup conquest — the Red Bulls fielded a B team Sunday and got a C result, held to a scoreless draw by struggling Philadelphia.
But as disappointed as they and the 20,534 at Red Bull Arena were at getting shut out, they’ll be delirious if they bring home the ultimate prize from Kansas City — the first championship in team history.
“Ties suck. … You always have an empty feeling whenever you get a draw,” coach Jesse Marsch said. “But we’ll be ready. We’re excited. We’re already switching our minds to Wednesday. We all know it’s a big moment. It’s a big game. Any time you get to a final, you don’t know how many times you’re going to be back.”
Since MLS’ inception, they 🔯have gotten to just two finals and lost both. This is why Marsch went with a reserve-he🥀avy lineup. They outshot Philadelphia 16-6 and had an 8-2 edge in shots on goal but couldn’t finish against a team mired in a six-game winless skid.
While Sporting KC used its starters Saturday, 🧸Marsch held Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sacha Kljest🉐an, Tyler Adams, Aaron Long, Kemar Lawrence and Fidel Escobar out of the lineup. Wright-Phillips, Kljestan and Adams got only cameos; all understood why.
“There was no message from Jesse,” said Kljestan, who came on in the 58th and just missed a cross to Alex Muyl, open in front of goal. “I don’t need him to hold my hand and tell me why I’m not starting. The same for Bradley and the other guys. We’re all in this together. We all know how important Wednesday is. I can’t be mad at the guys when I come off the bench and have the chance to take three points for us and I [muck] it up.”
Their attack has been mucked up since losing dou🅷ble-digit goalscorer Da💞niel Royer on Aug. 6 at NYCFC. They had been 11-8-2 with a plus-6 goal differential but are just 1-2-4 with a minus-1 differential since. It’s an issue they must sort out to hoist a cup Wednesday.
“It’s everything. That’s why we’re in this business,” Wright-Phillips said. “Take away money, everything else, everyone wants to lift a trophy. That proves you’re a good team. … You put your name in history. For everyone involved in the club, that’ll be massive. To not have won a big trophy yet, this is a great opportunity for us.”
“When the group of us showed up here in 2012 … this organization hadn’t won anything,’’ said GK Luis Robles, the second-longest-tenured Red Bull. “[They] constantly got mocked because they were one of the original clubs and were the one that spent so much money and yet weren’t able to have anything to show for it. It’s a point of pride for us not only to win that first piece of silverware 🐼but to continue to add silverware to the closet. Wednesday is an opportunity for us to add something we haven’t had before.”