His frustrations boiled over at the final whistle, earning him a yellow card for dissent, but New York Red Bulls goalkeeper and captain Luis Robles puts the 1-0 Week 4 home loss to Orlando City squarely on his team’s shoulders.
“When I think about this game, at the end of the day the most important thing is that we have to go out there with a certain desire and passion when we put on that uniform and play in front of our fans at Red Bull Arena. And it was missing today," Robles told reporters postgame.
“And it’s really important within the group and as leaders, to make sure that it’s a one-off. It can’t be a theme that reoccurs," Robles continued. "What we put on display today was not the brand of soccer we want to play and the mentality was not there today.”
The mea culpas were echoed by other RBNY teammates in the locker room, with midfielder Marc Rzatkowski stating that “Orlando was not that great. We just had a really bad performance from us.”
Manager Chris Armas cited the failure to win second balls in the match and others pointed to the lack of fluidity to the match with several stoppages and delay due to injury and gamesmanship tactics. The delays — Armas said he felt Orlando were “wasting time” all night — prevented the Red Bulls from getting into their regular flow.
But the prevailing feeling from Red Bulls camp is that the club left points on the table and did not give RBNY faithful “what they deserve,” according to Armas.
It’s all part of a mixed bag of results to start the 2019 season for the Red Bulls. They are 1W-1L-1D after three matches in MLS action and they wrapped up Concacaf Champions League play with two losses to Santos Laguna during a quarterfinal series ouster.
“The start to the season has been a bit loose,” Robles continued. “We have to correct this. We have to improve. We have that ability and the ceiling is high, but right now it’s a bit loose and we have to correct it.”
