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Reliance on defense jinxes Red Bulls

 Photo by Basillio Falcinelli
 Text by Dylan Butler a contributor to MLSnet

E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. - There was perhaps no greater example of the lack of depth on Mo Johnston's bench.
With Jeff Parke battling flu-like symptoms, Carlos Mendes forced off with a bruised right foot and Peter Canero
receiving injections for an injured knee, the best option off the bench for the New York Red Bulls on
Wednesday night was Taylor Graham, a central defender who hasn't played since double sports hernia surgery.

"We obviously need players, especially with three or four of your first team players banged up," Johnston said.
"We need players."

Graham replaced Mendes in the 65th minute with the Red Bulls clinging to a 1-0 lead. Some 25 minutes later,
FC Dallas was victorious 2-1, with Carlos Ruiz scoring the game-winner, spinning Graham into the ground near
the top of the box three minutes from full time.

"I was disappointed in a few of the plays, but that's my responsibility and I'll take it," Graham said.

But the Red Bulls didn't lose for the second time this season in the final 25 minutes. They lost because they let
Dallas walk through the midfield untouched and seemed content with Stammler's eighth-minute goal.

"Defensively we are not good enough to say, 'OK, 1-0 we can keep the lead,'" Youri Djorkaeff said. "I think we
defend too much, and after we are in not (a bad) position. Today we're not strong enough to keep a result 1-0."

Instead of enjoying a second consecutive victory and fourth game without a loss, the Red Bulls squandered yetanother lead, and thus squandered more points. Instead of the desired
seven points from three home games in a row, New York has four and remains in last place in the Eastern Conference.  "We have to close them down, we can't sit back and defend,"
Johnston said. "No team, I think, in this league can sit back and defend for 45 minutes. You always give up chances."

At the start, the Red Bulls took the game to Dallas, a team that came in with an MLS-best 18 points. In the opening 10 minutes they played some beautiful soccer, stringing passes
together and getting dangerous opportunities. And when Mark Lisi threaded a perfect pass into the box, finding Seth Stammler, the Red Bulls had a deserved 1-0 lead.

But the Hoops recovered, attacked the flanks with Ramon Nunez and Ronnie O'Brien, and without any pressure from the Red Bulls, they were able to whip balls into the box to the
dangerous tandem of Kenny Cooper and Ruiz. After knocking on the door for the final 10 minutes of the first half and the entire second half, Dallas got the  deserved equalizer when
Cooper leapt over Parke to head in O'Brien's cross in the 76th minute. The Hoops secured their first three away points when Ruiz's double spin move shook Graham and
'El Pescadito' pushed a shot to the left of Tony Meola.

"We let them come to us and play the way they wanted to play and we paid the price for it in the second half," Parke said. "They got two goals on us and they made us look stupid."

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