New York 1, Sounders 0

It seems like there should be a lot to be excited about for tonight’s game in New York. For Red Bull it’s the season opener in a stadium that only opened last year, for a team that won it’s conference (OK, a weak conference, but they still won) last year (and is hotly tipped to repeat that), has Thierry Henry and one of the brightest and most exciting young American strikers in Juan Agudelo.

Despite all this, the 25,000-seat stadium looks maybe 2/3 full. That’s not a good sign, especially as there are no other New York teams playing in the city tonight (NBA or NHL).

RB have a very nice passing game, Dane Richard has great pace and vision in his distribution, I think everything going forward for the Red Bull goes through him. The home team’s game is based on controlling the ball, passing from the back to the front and looking for openings. It’s an interesting contrast to the more open, faster Sounders game.

For most of the first half there were big periods of time where Seattle struggled to win possession and when they do get it, lack the imagination to really do much. Not sure if it’s the midfield missing something or NYRB doing a really good job at shutting them down.

When Seattle had the ball, and it happened more and more towards the end of the first half, they really started to open up the RB defence. Fernandez is having a good game and is happy to run with the ball and is doing a wonderful job at getting behind the RB defence.

Ozzie Alonso looks solid, but not getting the time on the ball that he did on Tuesday against LA. His influence on the game is limited when he’s being closely taken out of the game like this.

Red Bull had a penalty awarded 10 minutes in when John Kennedy Hurtado miss times his tackle and took down Agudelo in the box. Henry put it to Keller’s right at just the right height. Keller guessed correctly and got a solid hand to the kick to turn it wide. There have been some questions about maybe this being a year too far for Keller asked on the blogs and forums over the last few days. The penalty stop was largely down to experience, and Keller has not lost that.

Both teams had chances, Red Bull perhaps the better (especially the penalty), but somehow it was 0-0 at half time in what had been a tremendously entertaining half.

The game was a little quieter after the break, but again both teams had chances to go ahead. It took a wonderful individual effort from Juan Agudelo to break the tie and put Red Bull 1-0 up with a little over 20 minutes to play. It’s his first goal in the MLS and he had to take on Gonzales and Hurtardo to score it. It’s the first time I’ve seen Agudelo play; he’s only 18, has a played for the full US national team and looked very impressive on the ball.

The final real chance of the game, and perhaps Seattles best chance of the night, was a free kick taken by Montero from maybe 30 yards out in stoppage time. It was a beautiful dipping shot that the keeper could only parry. There were three Seattle players in the box, the ball fell to Nagle who snatched at it and managed to put it over the bar from 6 yards out.

Ignoring the result, there were few negatives for Seattle.

Gonzales, the left back was beaten with ease at times. As he did Tuesday night he looked a step or two slower than last year. He had no issues with the physical side of the game (though he was physically beat on the goal), but he seems to struggle defending against speed.

Montero did a decent job of finding space, but the service to him was typically to feet rather than space. His style does not fit a classic center forward; he’s not a target man and seemed far more effective and found space better when playing just behind White

This game was being shown around the world in 50 countries, and was a great advert for the style of football played in the MLS. So far both Seattle games have been good, entertaining games. However, if Seattle wishes to be thought of as one of the elite teams this season, these are they game they need to win.

It could be argued that they have been slightly hard done by in the two games so far this year, certainly the schedule has not been kind. But the reality is they have not scored yet and that was always the worry going into the year. Loosing Nkufo is a blow there, and the team have until April 15^th to find a replacement, that’s when the MLS transfer window closes until the summer.

It’s another tough game next, this time against Houston at RBP on Friday night. I hope we see the first goal of the year to go along with three points.