Hurting Red Bulls face busy stretch

The upside to the Red Bulls’ new highpressure defense and high workrate style— along with a pair of early byes— is they have run opponents into the ground during a better than expected start. The worrying downside: How will they hold up when the schedule gets congested and theweather gets hot?

Despite two byes in the first five weeks of the season, the Red Bulls still are likely to head to face archrival DC United without their two most accomplished defenders, Roy Miller and Ronald Zubar. Neither has recovered from injury enough to resume team training. It begs the question: How fit will the Red Bulls be when they face three games in seven days later this month?

“Obviously it’s been a little frustrating to play so few games early in the year. But given everything and a lot of us being new to this, it’s given us extra time to prepare and make sure we’re ready to go,’’ coach Jesse Marsch said. “We’ve had to look at certain things in training, evaluate where guys are and start to think about what it’s going to look like when we have three games in seven days.’’

Zubar lasted just 77 minutes in the seasonopening tie at Sporting KC before limping off with a hamstring injury. He missed the home opener then suffered a quad injury he still hasn’t recovered from. Miller suffered a knee injury before the homeopening win, and has been out since, with Jamaican National Team member Kemar Lawrence likely to start at left back.

“I would classify them both as doubtful. They’re not training with the team yet, but getting closer each day,’’ Marsch said. “Kemar, I think is the most likely. But Anthony Wallace has filled in well against Columbus, and Connor [ Lade] has played well and in the USL program. We’re still evaluating, but we’re leaning toward Kemar.’’

The Red Bulls have three games in a week looming — the Galaxy on April 26, Rapids on April 29, at New Englandon May 2— and have similar stretches in June, August and September. Thought his team is younger than itwas last season, with 30somethings Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill and Peguy Luyindula gone, conditioning will be the key to surviving hightempo play mixed with a clogged schedule.

“It’s clearly a big element of what we’re doing every day is trying to determine physically what’s best for our guys to have peak performances on theweekend,’’ Marsch said.