By Dario Camacho - MIAMI, FL (Nov 11, 2011) US Soccer Players -- When the final whistle blows at this Sunday's MLS Cup, the story will finally come to a close for one of the biggest disappointments in Major League Soccer history. It's a story that ended when the Los Angeles Galaxy knocked New York out of the playoffs, a predictable conclusion when a #1 seed meets the 10th-place club.
At the beginning of the year, the pundits, the critics, the fans, and everyone else with a pulse for the game picked the Red Bulls out of the East. It was supposed to be New York as the top seed, then everyone else.
We know how that turned out.
So what exactly happened here? What was that one defining flaw that opened the door in the Eastern Conference? What turned the Red Bulls from preseason sure things into regular season and playoff disappointments?
One item that clearly stands out is almost a cliché of Major League Soccer. On a game-by-game basis, the Red Bulls coaching staff relied heavily on their starters. During the 34-game season, New York played 11 games where they elected to use only one substitution, 16 games where they used 2 subs, and 7 games when they used all three. It might not seem glaring, but when you look at the stats and when those substitutions came during the game, a certain tactical question arises.
Hans Backe and company overwhelmingly used their substitutions late in the game. Out of the 84 substitutions used during the season, only 9 of them came before the 60th minute mark. If you subtract the subs used because of injury, that number dwindles to six. How do those substitutions affect the outcome of games?
When you look at the missed opportunities to change a game through substitution, and the fact that New York tied 16 games, one has to wonder if having more substitutions up to that decisive 60th minute mark would have turned some of those draws into wins. Not to mention the wear and tear that those choice starters faced playing most of the minutes game after game.
During those 11 games where only a single substitute was used , the Red Bulls went 1-1-11. When you bump up the subs to two per game, their record improves marginally to 5-5-6, practically the same percentage wise, but winning more games than tying. When they used the full 3 subs, they went 4-2-1.
Even when they did use substitutes, the choice players used were normally Mehdi Ballouchy and Juan Agudelo. There is an obvious question of depth involved here, which is true for almost every MLS team, but to have such a limited stock of options raises other questions about player selection. For the Red Bulls in particular, it's a question of how and where they spent.
Under the Designated Player exemption, teams don't take as much of a salary cap hit as they otherwise would, but it's still a hit. $335,000 a player. Spend on three designated players, and you're short space against the cap, not to mention the overall amount being spent on the squad. Where this shows up is further down the squad sheet.
Having such a stacked team always limits the sort of funds available for the role players that might come of the bench. In this case, it was clear that Ballouchy and Agudelo were the only candidates that Backe could rely on, which also dictates the limited amount of subs used in the year. To put it bluntly, New York created the nightmare scenario that came with the designated player rule. A team that spends on world-class talent but doesn't have the role players - the depth - to win games on a regular basis.
It might have been a different story had the Red Bulls starting eleven ran roughshod over the rest of the League. That was certainly what was expected when they traded for Dwayne De Rosario in Week Three. For all the pundits and fans picking New York, they were an even safer lock when DeRo joined the squad. Yet even De Rosario ended up being more of a problem than feature in the Red Bulls setup.
That he would go onto win the League Most Valuable Player award at DC United was solely due to how DC coach Ben Olsen used him in his formation as opposed to how New York saw his role.
Say what you will about egos and strong personalities, but De Rosario is no doubt better suited at the top of a diamond midfield or a forward. His role in New York placed him directly at the opposite side of that diamond. To say that he disappeared in that sort of formation would be quite astute. It’s also baffling that New York did not see any other way to use him.
With such a goldmine of riches at their disposal, its also worth mentioning how the coaching staff elected to use Rafa Marquez. With the speed and physicality that MLS is known for, Marquez was ill suited to deal with such an attacking style of play. Never mind that his technical passing abilities would be lost in the fray. When Marquez was moved late in the season to the De Rosario role, things changed. In turn, the Red Bulls found more consistency in attack and a tougher defense. Too little too late, especially in a two-game series against the Galaxy.
The question remains, have we ever seen a team in this League that should have been so good in theory go so wrong in practice?
Dario Camacho made the move from regular commentator as Pesmerga7 to columnist. He writes weekly for US Soccer Players. Follow him on twitter at DarCam7.
More from Dario Camacho:
