Luis Robles in warmups. Photo by Matt Kremkau

By ANTHONY J. MERCED

Jesse Marsch didn’t have the answers as the New York Red Bulls fell to the Montreal Impact 1-0 on Saturday night, lamenting his team’s inability to score goals. The 2017 team has been unable to match the output of previous seasons and it is now costing them key results.

“We are not able to score on the road, so that’s the most difficult thing to come up with a solution,” said Marsch. “On the road, we go down, we can’t score and we can’t take a lead. This year, for whatever reason, we are cold and cannot finish our plays. In two years we scored a lot of goals on the road.”

New York started the year off the right way with a 2-1 win against newcomers Atlanta United on the road. Since then they have lost six straight games away from Red Bull Arena, having not taken a single point since April. They have also been shutout in their last four road games, having not scored since April 1st. Even the players are at a loss for how to turn things around away from home.

“We just need to find a way to finish our scoring chances,” said Felipe. “We’ve been so good in the last few years, but it hasn’t happened this year. We have to look at ourselves, talk to each other and win games on the road and be better.”

The lack of goals has put pressure on a defense that is one of the worst in the Eastern Conference. Despite Aaron Long’s strong play as an MLS rookie, Marsch has been unable to keep the other pieces on defense healthy or provide suitable options alongside. This has led to disjointed play, mental lapses and and overall loss of confidence that has now filled the entire team.

“We’ve conceded 21 goals this season and 11 on set pieces,” said goalkeeper Luis Robles. “It’s a very concerning trend. We think about that number. If we could even defend half of those, how our season would be. That doesn’t change my belief in the guys. We look at some of our performances, our effort tonight and it’s really too bad we couldn’t reward ourselves with something.”