What happens when one of the best teams in the world plays one of the worst teams in Major League Soccer? The winning coach is bemused at how easy it was, while the losing coach becomes irritated when asked why his team was so outclassed.
“It’s a little bit strange,” said Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola after his team beat the New York Red Bulls 6-2 at Giants Stadium Wednesday in front of 38,152 spectators. “It’s not normal to score so many goals and create a lot of chances. In that way, it’s good, but you have to be careful because it’s not normal to score (so much).”
New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio may also have been pondering the usefulness of the game when he called it “a very difficult game against one of the best teams in the world. The first half, it was impossible to control the game, never mind to dominate the game. It is very difficult to deal with that.”
He also said it would be “very difficult” to find any positives from the game and, according to Frank Giase, responded “testily” when asked how overmatched his team was. “What can I say? I’m not going to sit here and embarrass my players. We tried to control the game but they have midfielders that can pass the ball forever….We couldn’t have done anything better than we did today. This is the strongest team we have.”
Red Bulls’ forward Juan Pablo Angel duly called it “a great experience,” but acknowledged “they are top players and we are still trying just to grow here and make a league that at some point will be strong. But right now that’s the difference between MLS and Barcelona.”