HARRISON, NJ — In just five second-half minutes, the New York Red Bulls scored more goals than they did in their previous three games. Nabbing tallies through substitute Dante Vanzeir in the 53rd minute and Cameron Harper in the 58th minute, head coach Troy Lesesne’s men erased a multi-goal deficit to salvage a 2-2 draw against Charlotte FC on Wednesday night at Red Bull Arena.
“I give a lot of credit to the group in terms of the way we played in the second half,” Lesesne said. “But that’s what I expect. That’s the standard I expect us to have all the time and it wasn’t there in the first half.”
The result avoided consecutive losses for the first time this season after New York (4-8-6, 20 points) fell 3-0 to Orlando on June 3, but it did little to improve their standing in the Eastern Conference. A win could have seen the 12th-place Red Bulls overtake Charlotte for 10th place — just one spot behind the final Wild Card spot — on goal difference in what Lesesne described as a “great opportunity that slipped away.”
Ben Bender’s brace gave Charlotte a 2-0 advantage just 20 minutes into the match.
“The first half was unacceptable from us,” Lesesne said. “The energy, the mentality, the match plan. Everything we wanted to do in a really important game… we have to take accountability for that. We put ourselves in a really bad position.”
He nabbed his first in the 13th minute when he seamlessly took down a long ball from midfield at the right edge of the Red Bulls’ box, took one touch past Sean Nealis, beat goalkeeper Carlos Coronel low and to his left with a left-footed fizzer.
Six minutes later, Bender nabbed his second and doubled Charlotte’s advantage when he curled a right-footed effort from the left side of the box through the fingertips of Coronel.
The rolling opportunity came to the Charlotte midfielder after forward Enzo Copetti seemed to commit a tackle through the back of Nealis as he tried to clear the box — though referee Sergii Boiko was disinterested in New York protests.
“It seemed like a clear foul to me,” Lesesne said. “It wasn’t called that way and just to not even have it reviewed is hard to understand because we hear that there are so many things reviewed. What I was told was that they arrived at the ball at the same time, but you have to take into consideration the positioning and the contact that was there.”
New York had further reason to protest at the stroke of halftime when a scramble in the Charlotte box appeared to result in a handball off defender Guzman Corujo after a short clearly struck off his left hand. But a VAR check confirmed Boiko’s original decision and amidst Red Bull objections, Coronel was given a yellow card — one of three for New York in the first half.
The Red Bulls pulled one back in the 53rd minute through the second-half substitute Vanzeir, who managed to pluck a low cross from Elias Manoel off the foot of a sliding Charlotte defender in the middle of the box with a one-touch effort that soared just inside the right post.
“It started with a very good ball from [Manoel],” Vanzeir said. “We all know he has this acceleration that he can use to go past defenders and the moment he puts his put on the gas, I knew it was my time to run to toward that first post.
“It was a perfect pass and a good finish.”
In the 56th minute, Casseres came inches from levelling things when his free kick from the left edge of the penalty area curled off the bottom of the crossbar, but stayed out. One minute later, Vanzeir nearly had a second right-footed attempt from outside the box was saved by Charlotte keeper Kristijan Kahlina.
Just one minute later, though, Harper nabbed the equalizer, receiving a downward header from Nealis in the center of the box and bouncing it through traffic through the fingers of Kahlina.
Red Bulls pressure continued and in the 80th minute, Manoel’s minuscule flick of a header put further pressure on Kahlina, but the keeper did well to fight it off the goal line. Luquinhas and Omir Fernandez found golden chances of their own in the ensuing 10 minutes, but failed to convert.
The second-half barrage saw the Red Bulls out-shoot Charlotte 14-5, though only five of those New York efforts were on goal.
“I was very direct with the group at halftime,” Lesesne said. “We made a couple changes and I think that had something to do with giving a little bit more life and energy.”
