Columbus v Red Bulls
Very tricky game here and to be honest im still stuck in two minds here as to what bet to follow as both sides have near bad enough records as each other
Firstly some big news for the Red Bulls. Ex USA manager Bruce Arenas has been apointed General Manager, Sporting Director and whatever other titles they fancied giving him.
When i first heard this i was siding with the Red Bulls but he won't be taking over until 12th August i think it was for the friendly v Barcelona so they are still going to have the inexperienced manager in control still.
Big appointment for them as they are a side that have promised so much down the years but never delivered so the fans are hopeful this could be about to change now.
Both teams are in a bad run of form but to be honest neither have been playing poorly and both have been pretty unlucky not to come away with anything from their games.
Columbus have now gone winless in 8 games although they have shown promise going down in their last two back to back games with DC by the odd goal home and away.
They have been having trouble scoring goals of late which has stopped them picking up points that their displays have merited.
Defensively they are quite a solid unit as they never usually concede more than 1 goal a game. Its up front where they are extremely weak and their struggles come from their struggle to put the ball in the net.
Saying that they have shown a bit of promise scoring 6 goals in their last 2 games so confidence upfront should be pretty high.
They still have that mountain of injury problems with the majority of them being squad players though. Palmer has done reasonably well in goal after being thrown in at the deep end after the Crew having 3 keepers injured and bar a couple of lapses he isnt as weak a link as many are suggesting.
Similar to Columbus, the Red Bulls have just been on a rotten run also and after going 5 games winless themselves they finally picked up midweek and got themselves that elusive win with a decent win over Colorado 1-0.
With only 3 goals in their last 6 games they have struggled to gain points due to this also although when you look at their games recently they have been creating plenty of chances and they just seem to be lacking a goalscorer.
3 wins all season shows what a poor outfit they have been with the draws being a killer for them.
Eddie Buddle is an old Columbus player and was their top goalscorer last season so he will be trying his hardest to get on the score sheet to get his season back on track after an average start to his career here.
Red Bulls top goalscorer Peguero is also bakc in the line up now and came through the last game without any setbacks so thats a big boost for them.
Injury wise keeper Meola and playmaker Djorkaeff are unavailable. Veterans with plenty of experience and Djorkaeff is more of a miss but they are replaceable and it just puts more onus on Guevara to fire the Red Bulls on.
Seems to play better minus Djorkaeff and scored in their 1-0 win over Colorado after playing very well so the signs are good.
All in all you have the side with the worst home record in the league up against the worst away record in the league.
Both are playing alright and struggling to score goals. The head to heads down the years at Columbus don't really separate them at all.
I'd call this pretty close to 50/50 so the value lies with the away win @ 3.75 and i will have a small bit of this but nothing major as its just an interest bet more than anything.
New York Red Bulls to win @ 3.75 Bet 365 (2/10)
Columbus v NY Red Bulls 20/07 (Late night)
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TOTW/F/M Award(s): 1
