It was a testy, ugly affair when the New York Red Bulls took on the reserves from sister club Red Bull Salzburg earlier Monday at the Salzburg club’s training center near Red Bull’s corporate home in Fuschl, Austria. “So much for corporate harmony,” writes Jack Bell of the New York Times, who described this friendly as “90 minutes of contentious soccer” which the reserves won, 1-0.
“I really think their intention was to hurt our guys from the get-go,” New York goalkeeper Jon Conway said after the game, adding: “They just wanted to get someone and they did.” That someone was midfielder Dane Richards, who sprained the right medial collateral ligament (MCL) after being hacked down early in the first half. Coach Juan Carlos Osorio was more forgiving in his assessment of the game: “We’re the guys from the States and I think they thought they had something to prove. That’s O.K.”
It wasn’t okay with New York captain Claudio Reyna, who spent several years in the German Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen and VfL Wolfsburg. “They’re diving cheats,” Reyna said. “The referee lost control, and I told him in German that he had to do a better job. For us, it was really just an exercise and the object was not to get injured. We were just trying to get a game and they were playing like it’s the World Cup. It wasn’t a friendly. They stepped over the line from the beginning. And for that reason there was no rhythm to the game, especially in the first half. It was unfortunate.”