The Red Bulls opened Red Bull Arena the same way they closed Giants Stadium, with a convincing victory in front of a cheering crowd.
Saturday night they christened their brand new stadium with a 3-1 victory over Santos FC of Brazil before 25,000 screaming fans in their final tune-up for the Major League Soccer season.
“I can’t put it into words,” said defender Mike Petke, who scored the second goal. “There came a point this week that I had to stop smiling and realize we had a game tonight. Tonight was a special night. However, the season starts next week and that’s going to be a special night as well.”
The game was billed as a friendly but it was a heated match from the start with plenty of fouls, hard challenges on the ball and four yellow cards. Midfielders Carl Robinson (knee) and Dane Richards (hamstring) limped off with injuries for the Red Bulls, who were already playing without leading scorer Juan Pablo Angel, who sat out as a precaution with a knee injury.
Still, the victory enabled the Red Bulls to finish the preseason undefeated (7-0-3), quite a difference from the 5-19-6 record they finished up last season with.
“The second half, it’s difficult when you’re three up,” Red Bulls coach Hans Backe said. “At halftime, we said ‘Go for the fourth one. Don’t sit back and let them have possession,’ but it’s typical all over the world when you are two or three up something happens in the game and you sit back a little too much.”
It was difficult to tell which team the fans were rooting for. Whenever Santos had the ball the fans went wild as players dribbled through the Red Bulls defense, but whenever the Red Bulls scored a goal they cheered as well.
And at halftime, that was three times.
Joel Lindpere scored the first goal in Red Bull Arena, pouncing on the rebound of his own free kick to drive home a left-footer from 15 yards for a 1-0 lead just 11 minutes in.
Petke slipped in front on a corner kick and redirected a Tim Ream header into the net in the 43rd minute to make it 2-0. Richards increased the lead to 3-0 in the 45th minute on a 15-yard shot from the right that zipped into the upper left corner.
Santos, playing without leading scorer Robinho, who injured a thigh last weekend in a regular-season game in Brazil, had chances, but Red Bulls goalie Bouna Coundoul made some excellent saves and appears to have wrapped up the starting job. Greg Sutton was in net when Santos’ Germano scored in the 91st minute to ruin the shutout.
Petke, the franchise leader in appearances (153) and minutes (13,013), has heard talk of a stadium for years. When it never happened he figured it never would.
“After the six-week (groundbreaking) announcement starting in 1999 or 2000, it was six weeks away, six weeks away,” he recalled. “This last 10 years has been the longest six weeks of my life, and up until the point that ground was broken I wasn’t sure if it was ever going to happen. It was a great day for the New York franchise, MLS in general and soccer in this country.”
Frank Giase may be reached at fgiase@starledger.com