Barcelona vs Red Bulls

zdirish17 · Division 2 MVP

Barcelona vs Red Bulls
Barcelona's match versus the red bulls shows how far MLS soccer has come, and how far it still needs to go, the red bulls played hard, and competed well for a while but it gets tough when Barcelona can sub out all of their players and not lose any skill

does any1 know who got Ronaldinhos jersey, iwas wondering

kenneth · Division 1 Novice

Re: Barcelona vs Red Bulls

ColombianGus · Apprentice

I was at the game...and that was my first time ever seeing Barcelona!!! I loved the game, even though the score was 4-1, the Red Bulls played hard and Im really happy that games like this attract more and more people every time. With this kind of attention, Im sure the US is gonna start pumping more money to the MLS and national team and in time they'll become a soccer power house. As far as Im concerned, MLS won a fan because I thought MLS soccer was mediocre but the Barca and Real Madrid's tour showed that there is pontential here.

papadoodpoedels · Division 1 Novice

It would have been very easy for the New York Red Bulls to come out Saturday night against reigning UEFA Champions League winners FC Barcelona, with its array of stars, and bunker in until there was no room for Barça to shoot.
And although the 4-1 scoreline at a sold-out Giants Stadium crowd went against the Red Bulls, the experience of playing full throttle against the "best team in the world," according to new head coach Bruce Arena, was more than worth it.

"At the very least we wanted to be part of a game that was entertaining for the fans," said Arena. "We didn't want to come in with a real negative attitude and just drop our entire team back and try to keep them off the board. What was the point of that? This is a game for the fans and it's also a learning experience for our guys."

Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard agreed that the tactics produced an attractive game for fans.

"I think that if you see an attractive games that's always thanks to two teams," said Rijkaard. "I think that the Red Bulls played a good game. They weren't here only to defend ... they wanted to participate. Thanks to them as well -- it was a nice game for the spectators."

Saturday's game represented the culmination of Barcelona's tour through North America and the support and treatment the team received from fans in the United States surprised many of the Barça stars.

"Every game was sold out, everyone came to the stadium; it was surprising to us to get this kind of reception," said teenage Argentinean international and Barcelona midfielder Lionel Messi, who scored one goal and assisted on two others. "It definitely felt the same as playing in front of a full stadium with the exception of people being so supportive for Barcelona."

"Everyone said that the U.S. never liked soccer," said reigning FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho through an interpreter. "Every country has their own preference for sports. You've been able to see that soccer is growing in this country."

Red Bulls players soaked up the atmosphere as well.

"It was great for us and our organization," said goalkeeper Tony Meola. "Now we know that there's at least 79,000 fans in this area. We played good soccer and we did all right. We should be proud of what we did."

"Obviously, you can see they are the best team in the world, bar none," said midfielder Danny O'Rourke. "They can sub a whole team on and bring in guys the caliber of Deco, Messi and Gudjohnsen. You test yourself against the best team in the world, which is good."

Arena pointed out that for any team, facing Barcelona would be a daunting task -- not to mention a team still trying to find itself in the midst of the MLS season.

"That game is a challenge for any team in the world," said Arena. "I think they were the best club team in the world last year and they just got better.

"We had a bunch of young guys in the back and for them to see these things and try to recognize problems on the field early and make quicker decisions ... it's an invaluable experience. You can talk about those kind of things but once you see it on the field, I think, it could allow some of these players to grow." As much as the Barcelona players were looking to round into form for the upcoming Spanish league season, the Red Bulls were playing their first game in front of the new boss with a chance to impress and earn more playing time on the line.

"I thought Edson Buddle had a real good game," said Arena. "I think Dema Kovalenko and Guevara and Henderson were fairly solid. I thought they did a good job. I was pleased with those guys. I also thought Meola did very well.

"At times we did some real good things," said Arena, "but obviously we were overmatched man-for-man all over the field ... I think it was a good experience; I enjoyed it and I think our players will benefit from it."

"I don't know if I was in awe," said Meola. "I was more proud than anything.

"We didn't look shook up or rattled like we couldn't play soccer."

seiya · Soccer Expert

When you copy and paste something , please put it in quotes so you dont get points for it, thats not fair Wink

First and last caution.

BTW a lot of these games vs mexican and american teams i just feel the european teams arent taking them seriously enough, come on , 4-4 the other game, seriously, when was the last time barcelona let someone score 4 goals?

kenneth · Division 1 Novice

yeah probably Barca was playing whit a B-team couse i don't think this year in the premeira division any team wil score 4 times against Barca.

zdirish17 · Division 2 MVP

kenneth · Division 1 Novice

against the Red Bulls i know but against the Red Bulls was the score 4-1 so i'm not sure all there stars played against America Mex