Red Bull Academy Side Eliminated From Skee Ball Tournament

Members of the Asbury Park Sharks warm up prior to their victory over the RBNY Youth Academy

ATLANTIC CITY, 6 August 2009: Red Bull New York Red Bulls Of Harrison, New Jersey's nightmare season of bad dreams continued last night, when, at the same time their senior squad was being eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League by Trinidadian powerhouse W Connection, their Academy side was humiliated in the first round of an Atlantic City Boardwalk Skee Ball Tournament, losing to the Sharks, a co-ed U-10 side from the Asbury Park Boys & Girls Club, 1520 to 270.

"The Sharks really came at us hard in the first frame. We thought we could hold them off, but then right before halftime, we just fell apart," said Red Bulls Sporting Director Jeff Agoos, who was in Atlantic City for the match. "We feel that we have all the pieces in place for a successful skee ball team, we just have to concentrate a little harder."

The Red Bulls received bad news just two hours before the start of the match, when they learned that leading scorer John Paul Cherubim was ruled out by team doctors after suffering a mild concussion at a warm-up tournament last week, courtesy of a stray skee ball. When asked when he learned Cherubim would miss the match, Red Bull Director Of Youth Programs John Carl Soreass replied: "Well, two hours before the game. Frustrating, however that was a medical decision. It is my understanding the club's policy it is to have a player symptom free after a concussion and I'm just following the rules."