Red Bulls look to cool Fire, improve playoff position

Soccer Betting Lines

09/14/2007 - Bridgeview, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Red Bull New York and the Chicago Fire square off for the third and final time this season in a Major League Soccer fixture Saturday at Toyota Park.

The teams just played each other on Sept. 1 - a 1-0 New York win at Giants Stadium - so there should be little mystery involved with this game.

The Fire will probably pack it in, in an effort to limit the Red Bulls chances while using its talented trio of attackers - Chris Rolfe, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Paulo Wanchope - in a counter-attacking role and on set pieces.

"Their focus as a group is they establish a block of players that are very hard to break down," New York coach Bruce Arena said. "They have seven or eight players behind the ball which makes it hard to play against them. It's no secret that the games they play are generally 1-0. I think there is a reason for that. I think they do a pretty good job of trying to keep Wanchope, Blanco and Rolfe up high and try and bring defenders. They try to take advantage of the opportunities they get the run of play on the counter attack. They can be very offensive at times, they have the ability to go forward with such fine players as Wanchope, Blanco and Rolfe."

That strategy has worked well in recent games for the Fire, who have crept into the eighth and final playoff spot with seven games remaining since the addition of Blanco, among others.

"They have been able to bring in a number of players, specifically Blanco, Wanchope and now with the addition of (defender) Wilman Conde," Arena said. "I think they are very good players. Over the last five or six games they have gotten a number of points and some good results. I think they are a good team."

The Red Bulls needed a Juan Pablo Angel goal on one of their only chances in the game to earn the victory over the Fire in their last meeting. That victory has helped New York stay in a strong position to make the playoffs. It is currently in the sixth position, four points up on Chicago.

"It is extremely disappointing that at the end we limited Juan (Pablo Angel) to one chance and it was a goal and we also limited (Dane) Richards to one cross the whole game," Chicago coach Juan Carlos Osorio said after the New York loss. "They didn't have many goal scoring opportunities so it was disappointing. We know that we can play better offensively and we need to create more chances and just keep working. Hopefully, when we play them back at our place, it will be a different game."

The teams are coming off opposite results in their most recent fixtures, with New York being dominated 3-0 at CD Chivas USA and the Fire earning a 1-0 victory at Columbus, thanks to a goal by Wanchope.

"All week we worked very hard on the tactical side of things because we knew that today could be the decisive moment for us," Osorio said. "I think it worked well for us today. We limited a very good team going forward to few chances and we waited patiently for our chance and when it came our way, Paulo [Wanchope] put it in very well."

"It was one of those games," Arena said of the Chivas loss. "I guess we obviously shot ourselves on the foot. Give them credit, they capitalized on the mistakes we made, they won the game. I think we actually played pretty well in spurts and it was a very lopsided score given the quality of play. I think we created most of the chances in the game and made some individual mistakes that resulted in goals."

The Red Bulls will look to rebound Saturday, and could welcome back injured striker Jozy Altidore, who has been out since before the last Chicago fixture with what the team is calling "a lower left leg injury."

"He is day-to-day. We haven't made any decision on him at this time," Arena said Thursday.

The New York midfield could also see a shakeup. Dema Kovalenko, one of the better two-way players on the team, has seen limited action this season with injuries and after a recent car accident, but should be fit to see extended minutes Saturday.

"We haven't decided on a lineup for the game, but Dema could play more than he did in the last game," Arena said.

Also, midfielder Clint Mathis, who is third on the team in scoring behind Angel and Altidore, could miss the game because of personal reasons.

"(He's) day-to-day with personal reasons. I'm not going to get into it, it is a family thing," Arena added.

The Fire will be without midfielder Justin Mapp with an ankle injury while midfielders Chris Armas and Ivan Guerrero should play even though they are nursing injuries.

After Saturday's fixture, New York hosts Eastern rival New England next Saturday while Chicago travels to Dallas on Thursday.

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In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

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