It’s fall, which in New Jersey usually means two things: red and golden leaves on the trees, and the Red Bulls are struggling. Despite its habitual failure during this season, writes Frank Giase, the players in the New York locker room after Saturday’s defeat at home to Toronto FC seemed surprisingly stunned, with most of the more recent arrivals failing to realize that “late-season swoons are the norm around here.”
In the franchise’s 13 years, New York has posted a winning record in September and October just three times, he recalls. Either the team scrapes into the playoffs without home-field advantage and gets knocked out, or it misses them entirely. If the poor results of recent weeks don’t improve, the club’s fall will be just another gloomy prelude to the long winter ahead.
“I’ve been here for five years now and we’ve had every year like this,” said defender Jeff Parke. “It’s difficult that we keep putting ourselves in these spots.” The team posted a 3-0-1 record in August, outscoring the opposition 9-1, prompting some pundits to tip them for the MLS Cup. Since then, four defeats in five games have left them hanging on to a wild card spot for the post-season (and the pundits most likely deleting the evidence from their hard drives).
“The last two games were pretty painful, especially losing at home,” said forward Mike Magee. “The hardest part was before that [in August] we were playing so well.”