By: Milos Kosic
With another superb win, the New York Red Bulls are getting ready to end the season in style. The latest team to suffer at Red Bulls Arena was the Colorado Rapids. Henry, Richards and Ream were all on target last Saturday, while Cummings scored a consolation goal for Rapids.
From the beginning, the Red Bulls pushed forward, forcing the opponent to defend. Already in the 5th minute Richards had a good opportunity to score, after a dribble inside the penalty area, but Rapids goalkeeper Pickens stopped the shot.
It was encouraging to see that the Red Bulls stopped relying entirely on Henry. Instead, the New York team controlled the midfield, slowly building up, with Marquez and Lindpere playing important roles in every action.[picappgallerysingle id=”9736456″]
And it was Lindpere who, in the 17th minute, sent a beautiful back-heel pass to Henry, leaving the Frenchman one-on-one with Pickens. Henry sent the ball calmly into the left corner, scoring his second goal of the season.
Just a few minutes later, Henry could have doubled the lead, when he escaped the Rapids defenders, but his shot on goal didn’t have enough power, and Pickens blocked it.
After being a star man two weeks ago in a game against the San Jose Earthquakes, in form winger Dane Richards continued to impress the home crowd. His constant runs down the right flank caused trouble for the Rapids defenders who almost every time failed to stop the Jamaican player.
The second goal for the Red Bulls came in the 32nd minute, surprisingly by central defender Tim Ream. Marquez sent a long ball from a free kick to the right side, Tony Tchani forwarded it to the middle of the penalty area where Ream was waiting, smashing the ball into the net. This was Ream’s first MLS goal.
Colorado entered the second half determined to fight back, but they were unable to break through the tight Red Bulls defense. The only goal that they scored was not a result of any impressive build up. It was simply a purely brilliant play by Omar Cummings, whose shot from distance hit the crossbar and ended up in the Red Bulls net.
But Colorado’s hope of making a comeback was gone just six minutes later, when Richards again broke free on the right side, dribbled past two defenders and scored, setting the final result to 3-1.
After the game, Red Bulls Coach Hans Backe’s only complaints about his team’s performance were some sloppy passes in the first half. When asked about Marquez’s injury that forced him to leave the field in the second half, Backe said that he still hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to the player. “I don’t think it’s too bad,” he assured everyone in the press room.
The Red Bulls play their next game on Friday, September 24th, against Western Conference leaders L.A. Galaxy.
