The New York Red Bulls go up against the Chicago Fire in this matchup between two eastern conference teams at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. The Red Bulls come into this game coming off a 3-0 commanding win over rival D.C. United at Red Bull Arena. In the Fire’s last game they lost 4-3 to the Montreal Impact giving up a hat trick to Didier Drogba in Montreal. This season the Red Bulls are 12-7-6 good for 42 points, 2nd in the Eastern Conference behind DC United. The Chicago Fire are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference Finals with a record of 7-14-6 for 27 points.
The last matchup that these two teams was at Toyota Park in Chicago where the Red Bulls have never won. The Red Bulls were coming off a six game unbeaten streak and they went into the trap game and didn’t play well against the Fire. They lost that game 3-2 and came out flat.
Prior to this game Red Bull head coach Jesse Marsch talked about the loss to Chicago and the win - United, “We learned from the last game and we showed in our quick turnaround D.C. that we learned certain lessons and we'll have to apply them again in this game and to make sure from the start, at home, that this game is on our terms in every way."
Red Bulls Captain Dax McCarty talked about the loss to the Fire a few weeks ago, “We’re definitely aware that we weren’t sharp enough in our last performance in Chicago, we’ll be sharper at home, and we’ll have more confidence to try and play and do the things that we want to do.”
The Red Bulls have Karl Ouimette and Kemar Lawrence so it will be interesting to see how Marsch fits them into the plans tomorrow night. This one should be better for the Red Bulls as they have played well at home recently. Bradley Wright Phillips comes into this game hot getting eight goals in his last ten games including putting two on the board a few weeks ago at home against D.C. United.
The Fire come into this game riding a 21 game road winless streak which is the 2nd longest in MLS history. This season the Fire are 0-8-5. They are the only team without a road win this season. The longest winless streak in MLS history comes from the Red Bulls in 2008-2009 when they didn’t win away from their home arena, Giants Stadium, for 27 straight games.
Prediction:
The Red bulls home cooking will work and they will prevent another trap game as they will win this game 3-1 over the Chicago Fire. The Fire’s winless streak away from Toyota Park will move to 22 games in this one.
