Tim Parker: “When we look at the performance that we put on at home, that’s just not good enough. ” (Melissa Majchrzak-USA TODAY Sports)

By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

Tim Parker could not have said it any better after the Red Bulls suffered a 3-0 home trouncing by the Philadelphia Union.

“When when you lose your head coach, it’s now everyone playing for their jobs,” the veteran center said.

Indeed.

In their first game under interim head coach Bradley Carnell after Friday’s firing of Chris Armas, the Red Bulls hardly did anything to impress their new coach or their fan base.

In fact, they likely took a few steps backwards in an poor performance, especially in the latter stages of the second half at Red Bull Arena Sunday night.

“Ryan Meara (goalkeeper) said it really well. There’s a culture at this club of winning and being a premier team in this in this league,” Parker said. “When we look at the performance that we put on at home, that’s just not good enough. Two straight home losses is something that this club isn’t used to the fans aren’t used to and we’re not used to.”

Actually, its two straight shutouts at home. Fortunately for the Red Bulls, it was a closed-door match without any fans because their ardent supporters would have booted them out of RBA after Sunday night’s subpar performance.

“That’s something that we’ve got to kind of look ourselves in the mirror, judge ourselves.”

As a veteran, Parker realized he would have to talk to some of the younger players after a result such as this.

“We’re going to have a talk with a bunch of guys,” he said. “I think it’s everyone in the locker room. Everyone’s got to know that we’re playing for our jobs at this point and we got proved that we want to be here and that we deserve to be here.”

Carnell noted that he felt the team was playing well, trailing only 1-0 after 68 minutes. Then the ceiling fell down on his team. Man-marking was dubious when push came to shove as several players were ball watching, which shouldn’t be happening at the professional level.

He will deal with that in training after the team takes two days off Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s all about winning your 1 v 1 battles,” he said. “Whichever area of the field, if you just let a guy walk past you, that’s got to be personal. That’s got to be you against me and do whatever it takes at all costs. … We cannot be happy with certain moments of that second half, where the energy just seems to be sucked out of us. So that’s a little sort of observation that we need to address, and make sure that. We become more edgy, we become more personal, more aggressive in certain moments. And that comes through training.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.