Coach Raphael Wicky rips Fire over second-half errors in loss to Red Bulls

HARRISON, N.J. — Fire coach Raphael Wicky expressed frustration with his mistake-prone team after a 2-0 loss -Saturday to the Red Bulls.

“It’s always the same,” Wicky said. “The team is there, the team is in the game ... then again out of nothing, you make a big mistake and it costs us the game. That’s the frustrating thing, and we’ve got to change that as quick as possible. Otherwise, we’re going to talk about that the whole year.

“It’s just not good enough to make these mistakes every single game. We have to fix that. Otherwise, you will never be rewarded.”

The Fire dropped to 0-2-1.

Cristian Cásseres Jr. and Caden Clark scored second-half goals to help the Red Bulls (1-2) break into the win column.

Cásseres opened the scoring in the 47th minute, making a late secondary run into the area as Fábio Gomes Netto won possession of Kyle Duncan’s long pass near the end line. Cásseres finished Fábio’s low cross for his second goal of the season.

Clark, a 17-year-old homegrown player, made it 2-0 with a well-timed volley in the 64th minute for his second goal of the season. Sean Davis sent in a diagonal pass, and Fábio laid off a high header for Clark to smash into the net.

Fire defender Johan Kappelhof said that the team needed to work on “keeping the focus for 90 minutes, 90-plus minutes. We were focused in the first half. We didn’t start well in the second half.”