The Red Bulls have a big contest coming up this weekend in LaLa land, home of David Beckham. But this will be against a healthy Beckham and a revamped Galaxy team that revolves around him.
Let me make one thing very clear: Beckham is a warrior, and all hype aside, is a terrific player. He always has been. He will be especially dangerous against a New York team that must contain him and Landon Donovan at the same time.
If New York watches videotape of the Galaxy game in Salt Lake last weekend, they will see what not to do.
Up 2-0 in the first half, two Real Salt Lake defenders stood frozen as Beckham collected the ball, pushed it into space and then smashed a right foot drive to the upper 90 from outside the box.
Beckham never has been, and never will be, a player who wants to run at a defender and beat him on the dribble. But if you give him time and space, he will punish you as effectively as anyone in the world.
Defenders must step up, pressure him when he has the ball and deny him the opportunity to strike on goal. The problem with doing that is the increased risk of fouling, which Salt Lake did five minutes later. Beckham calmly ripped the free kick over the wall, dipping past Nick Rimando for the final result of 2-2.
Stopping Beckham is priority No. 1. He's dangerous on free kicks and his ability to serve balls in from wide positions with velocity and accuracy is a given. But he is also an underrated passer and has the perfect teammate in Donovan, who knows how to make his runs, receive the ball and finish.
The good news for New York is that the Galaxy is pathetic on the defensive side of the ball. Their best chance to stop Beckham will be to continually attack the Galaxy and make them defend.
The Red Bulls had the lead going into the second half, played almost the final 45 minutes with a man-up, but failed to pull out a win. Instead, New York settled for a 1-1 draw with the New England Revolution Saturday night.
Steve Cangialosi and I explain what happened.
Watch head coach Juan Carlos Osorio and Jozy Altidore react to the draw by CLICKING HERE.
During halftime of the Red Bulls' 2-0 loss to FC Dallas, Steve Cangialosi and I took a look at the on-going construction of RBNY's new stadium in Harrison, NJ, which will feature a natural grass field -- a key component in attracting top-level players.
Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio has a beautiful philosophy on coaching. His goal is to keep his team playing with passion and emotion, while respecting the game of fútbol.
Watch the video for more of my interview with Coach Osorio ...
It started in the parking lot tailgating in the afternoon, included the electric atmosphere in a packed stadium for the goal fest and heroics in the closing minutes by Clint Mathis and Juan Pablo Angel, and finished with a late night dinner at Tao in Manhattan. Spectacular.
What struck me at 6:00 p.m., as the 66,000 fans converged on the stadium, is where have they been? Yes, David Beckham is special, but my perspective on the crowd I saw was that they were real soccer fans, finally showing up to watch a Major League Soccer game.
I believe that only a very small percentage were cross-over fans that were there to see an event with Beckham, but he had brought existing soccer fans in the Tri-State area back to see the sport they love.
My message to those soccer fans that came out is that they should come back. In this country, Major League Soccer is our league and the Red Bulls are this area's team. The crowd, although thrilled to see Beckham, was clearly and loudly supporting the Red Bulls.
This Red Bulls team is also an exciting team to watch. Juan Pablo Angel is a superstar and Jozy Altidore is rising fast. I am sure Bruce Arena is not happy with what he saw on the defensive side of the ball, but entertaining it is.
Thanks to Beckham for enticing soccer fans in this market to come out in droves. Let’s hope some of them saw enough to come back.
This is clearly the best year Major League Soccer has ever enjoyed.
The excitement, the soccer stadiums, the television and sponsorship deals and the overall buzz that the league has generated. The skill and flair is back, thanks to the artistry of players like Schelloto, Toja, Juan Pablo Angel, Blanco, Emelio and Xavier.
The catalyst for this dramatic improvement in the quality of the league was the signing of David Beckham. With one dramatic move, Major League Soccer suddenly became attractive to players of skill from all over the world.
I am not a proponent of making an effort to convert sports fans into soccer fans. Whether it is through marketing, TV broadcasts or public relation campaigns, the notion that we need to attract non-soccer fans to our sport is false.
There are more than enough soccer fans in this country for Major League Soccer to flourish, to pack the stadiums, drive up ratings and satisfy our sponsors. The challenge is to make those fans support and follow the league. That is the significance of Beckham coming to America.
The paparazzi, the press, the Posh Reality Show (which is actually so bad, that it's good!) and the circus that has been created are fine, but Beckham's real impact is the improvement in the quality of play by international signings.
My theory in following general public opinion generated by the media is that you pretty much cannot go wrong by going the opposite way. When popular thought, early this season, was that Houston was terrible, guess what, they are very good. When everyone said that Columbus was going to have another dreadful season, they were wrong again.
When Beckham signed with the Galaxy and for a time at Real Madrid, the consensus opinion was that he was on his way down, not the same player he used to be and was an over-hyped player even at the height of his career. That was wrong as well. And I have been making the argument for the last several years that he is one of the better players in the world at his position.
As my partner, JP Dellacamerawrote in his Beckham blog for Game On!, anyone who watched his SuperLiga game against D.C. United saw a world-class player, even at much less than 100 percent physical fitness.
Forget the fancy clothes and jet-set life, Beckham is a warrior. His work rate is second to none, his pinpoint ability to strike a 40-yard ball on a dime and his vision are all superb. Poor Troy Perkins put seven players in the wall and had no clue as to where Beckham was going with the free kick.
Beckham can't do it alone because that is not the nature of our sport. But his impact at the end of the day will be the attraction of other quality players, which will in turn raise the overall level of play.
For the millions of soccer fans in this country who have not yet bought into Major League Soccer, now is the time to become a fan.
The real pleasant surprise among the Red Bulls has been the play of Carlos Mendes and Jeff Parke as central defenders. An experienced center-back is no longer a priority. With the well documented woes at the outside back positions hopefully solved, the issue now, ironically, is an Amado Guevara type playmaker.
Claudio Reyna never has been and never will be a central attacking playmaker. He has been a great addition to the team and he can and should play better than he has. But the need for a creative midfielder is now glaring as Mathis has not been the Schelotto or Marinelli type answer.
Bruce Arena will do what he has to do in order for this team to be a contender. As we all know, points are vital now, but the time to get it right is in the home stretch and heading into the playoffs.
The inexplicable component to the game against Columbus was the lack of effort. Major League Soccer is still very much a league where you must compete for ninety minutes, work hard, fight for loose balls and make the most of your goal scoring opportunities.
I believe you will see the Red Bulls do that in their next game.
This is a dramatically improved New York Red Bulls team from last year. Having said that, in the world of Major League Soccer, the needs of teams change dramatically from week to week.
When the season began, the need for scoring power and a true striker was top priority. So was the search for an experienced central defender to add quality to a relatively young back line. After the debacle in Columbus last weekend, Bruce Arena has markedly different challenges towards the goal of molding Red Bull into a championship team.
Juan Pablo Angel has solved the problem upfront. As to who supports him, that is still very much up in the air.
Dane Richards out to the right and Dave van den Burgh out to the left started out the season with a good display of speed and service using the width of the field. Neither player is good on the defensive side of the ball and both have dropped off the radar screen in terms of productivity.
Markus Schopp? Something is wrong with him if he cannot replace Richards in the starting line-up.
A combination of Claudio Reyna, Seth Stammler and Dema Kovalenko is good in the role of holding midfielder (if Kovalenko is healthy and if Stammler dramatically improves in terms of giving the ball away).
Check back later today for more on the Red Bulls ...
Last weekend the Red Bulls ran into something they rarely have found over the last several years in Kansas City: a hot, exciting team supported by a good crowd. They also caught a poor decision by the referee, but in the end, their own defending let them down.
This was always going to be a difficult challenge because this Kansas City team looks like the real deal. They are upgraded in goal with Kevin Hartman, strong on the back line with Conrad back in the lineup, solid in the midfield with Marinelli and Victorine and lethal up front with Arnaud supporting Eddie Johnson.
I rarely criticize MLS officials. It's a physical and challenging league to call; the officiating has improved in accordance to how the quality of play has over the years. Having said that, the straight red card to Clint Mathis was ridiculous. (So was the one against Houston.)
The relevant language regarding straight card offenses - if a player:
1) is guilty of serious foul play; or, 2) is guilty of violent conduct.
Surely this language leaves it up to the subjective determination of the referee. I have seen and broadcast 200 games this year in La Liga, Serie A, Champions League, UEFA, Holland, Germany and England. If the standard applied to Clint Mathis against Kansas City last weekend were applied in the same manner in Europe, teams would be playing 5-on-5 every weekend.
I would make the argument that the rush to such harsh judgment was made because the player was Clint Mathis. Major League Soccer should take a look at how the NBA handled the ejection of Tim Duncan during an April game against Dallas.
After an investigation, Referee Joe Crawford was suspended by the league at least through the playoffs.
Duncan was ejected from the Spurs' 91-86 loss after receiving his second technical foul while sitting on the bench and laughing.
I'm not suggesting that the behavioral history of Tim Duncan and Clint Mathis are similar. But penalty kick calls and red card calls determine the outcome of games. Major League Soccer must strive towards getting those calls right.
While I'm on the subject of players, let me weigh in on one of the most talented strikers in the league, Jeff Cunningham. Everything he says and does suggest that he's a total idiot. In the opening minute against Colorado, the ball went out of play for a Colorado goal kick. As Bouna Coundoul started to get it, Cunningham collected it, and rather than pass it over to Coundoul, struck a bending ball into the far corner of the goal. He should have received a yellow card for it, but did not.
That's OK, because every goalkeeper in the league will make a mental note of how to play the next 50/50 ball involving Cunningham. Jason Kreis made a good move getting rid of him.
Kansas City and Eddie Johnson were great, the Red Bulls got shredded in the second half and it's time to put it in the past and move on. Toronto and DC United are up next.
Let me address another sore topic that has been highlighted by the new franchise in Toronto and the spectacular fan base that has already been established (Yes, they do need a real grass field).
The spectators who wore the colors and packed the stadium for their first two home games are the model of what Major League Soccer needs. It has been referred to as a "European" type stadium experience, but I would suggest that it is more.
If you look at crowds in the NFL or Major League Baseball, they are passionate, adult fans, wearing their team's colors and supporting their local team. Yes, they bring their children with them, but they don't parade the field and stands with thousands of pee wee players, who are there because they are targeted by group salesmen who are desperately trying to tap into the small children who play the game.
In Major League Soccer stadiums all across the country, by the time these poor kids have tailgated and gotten organized in the parking lots and have been paraded onto the field, they are ready to go home to sleep. It's bad for them, it's bad for the teams and most importantly, it's bad for the growth and development of real fans. These are manufactured fans.
Appeal to the adults, young and old. By all means, have them bring their entire family, including children, to the games. But stop pandering to the "20 million kids" that play soccer in this country. Look no further than Toronto to see how it should be done.
I usually find a silver lining to every cloud, but aside from the weather being spectacular last weekend, I cannot find any to the Red Bulls performance. I will not go through a litany of rationalizations to explain away a bad home game against Colorado:
Claudio Reyna, Ronald Watereuss and Hunter Freeman out.
Colorado having two chances, converting one and in a defensive shell for the remainder of the game (good, tactical away game for them).
New synthetic surface that the home team was not allowed on until game time.
Since I'm in a bad mood, I will focus on the last point. Soccer, at a Major League level cannot be played on artificial turf (FIFA thinks otherwise, which complicates the matter). This is a sport that is played with speed, agility, aggression, intelligence and a tremendous amount of technical skill on the ball. The first four ingredients do not suffer on a plastic field, but the last and most important, is dramatically challenged.
Professional players make their living based on the subtle and difficult task of making the ball do what they want, rather than having the ball drive them crazy. Although the ball is often in the air, the action emanates from when the ball is on the ground. Passing, crossing, shooting and sliding tackles are impacted by how the ball is on the playing surface and how the player uses his skill to make it react the way he wants.
As professionals, the players adapt to synthetic fields. But it dramatically affects every aspect of the game and the sport becomes unrecognizable to a savvy fan. The muddy field on a rainy day, the sound of a ball being struck on a magnificently manicured grass field, is all part of the drama and beauty of the game.
I do not want to hear from the salesmen who tell us that the new technology in synthetic surfaces makes it comparable to a real grass field. It is not. It is absolute garbage, it changes how the game is played, it is awful to play on and worse to watch. The day that every team is playing in a great stadium and on manicured, natural grass field is the day that we will really become Major League Soccer.
They each have three names, one an Argentine who starred in Colombia (Sergio Galvan Rey) and one a Colombian who starred in Argentina (Juan Pablo Angel). The similarity ends emphatically there.
When the time eventually comes for the New York Red Bulls team to hold the Cup as Major League Soccer champion, in all likelihood, Juan Pablo Angel will be center stage. The images above may well be symbolic of everything that has gone wrong for this franchise over the years and everything that is headed in the right direction now.
There is a tendency in professional sports to overreact when things either go poorly or things go well. But the beauty of it is that the ultimate goal is clearly defined, not by fans, not by writers, not by the media ... but by the players on the team when the final whistle blows, at the end of each season and there is a champion. Some teams never get there, some coaches never get there and some players never get there.
I was a believer, when I played, that players win championships. I now know that organizations win championships. If you look at organizations in other sports, many stand out, including the New York Yankees, Boston Celtics, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots. Good ownership groups, top people running the organizations and quality professionals from top to bottom, not just the players on the field. That’s why, although the teams had highs and lows, had natural turnovers in player personnel, the success model stayed the same.
Whether or not the Red Bulls win this year or not, Bruce Arena has clearly turned this team in the right direction. When you add up the rings on the fingers of Arena, Jeff Agoos, Richie Williams and John Harkes, it should come as no surprise.
Claudio Reyna, in four games, has shown why building a team toward success includes pieces that are subtle. It is obvious that you need a solid defense and the ability to score goals.
Reyna has been wonderful in his ability to lead and control the flow of play. His ability to possess the ball, read the game and think are superior to any other player in Major League Soccer. He has the ability to change the point of attack and the intelligence to read when to sit back and when to get forward.
Juan Pablo Angel, on paper, is the best pure striker in the history of Major League Soccer. He has the size, strength and skill to be an impact player provided that he gets quality service from the midfield. This midfield, so far, has shown that they can provide it.
I can speak for my partner at MSG, JP Dellacamera, when I say that we are excited about this team and look forward to bringing you the action as this season unfolds.
If New York watches videotape of the Galaxy game in Salt Lake last weekend, they will see what not to do. 
I am not a proponent of making an effort to convert sports fans into soccer fans. Whether it is through marketing, TV broadcasts or public relation campaigns, the notion that we need to attract non-soccer fans to our sport is false.
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