HARRISON, N.J. – The New York Red Bulls were playing on short rest and in their third game in eight days, and they still managed to deliver a convincing victory that now has them sitting pretty in the MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T.
The Red Bulls defeated rival D.C. United, 2-0 at Red Bull Arena in the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series on Sunday, and Thierry Henry was the player who stole most of the headlines with his magical, two-assist outing. It was the team performance, however, that left head coach Mike Petke extremely proud and New York’s long-suffering fanbase cautiously optimistic going into Sunday’s return leg at RFK Stadium.
“It was a big victory,” Petke said after the match. “In the first 10-15 minutes it was obvious that they were rested and physically up for it, and we looked a little slower than usual. They put it on us a little, great pressure by them.
“I think after that it opened up a little bit, and once we were able to find the wings and play a couple of penetrating balls, I think from then on, especially in the second half, we found a lot more success, particularly getting the ball out to Lloyd [Sam] on the right, or Thierry on the left, or him coming into the middle.”
While the Red Bulls’ defense did a tremendous job of limiting the space that United had en route to just their fifth shutout of the season, it was the midfield in Petke’s 4-5-1 formation that really stood out. Dax McCarty and Eric Alexander once again did the majority of the dirty work in the middle, and Henry, Sam and Peguy Luyindula generated a number of scoring chances for themselves and lone striker Bradley Wright-Phillips.
The result was dominance once again from the run of play - they did so for much of the teams' three regular season meetings too, creating 56 opportunities in the process - and impressive goals on each side of halftime.
“Our whole system, it caters to the attacking players&rsquorsquo; strengths,” said McCarty. “It caters to Tim [Cahill] and Peguy, it caters to Bradley, it caters to Lloyd, it caters to Thierry, because these guys are now in positions where we get the maximum out of their talent and we’re not trying to fit square pegs in round holes anymore.
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“Now, each guy is extremely comfortable in the position he’s playing. We’ve not perfected it, but certainly become much more comfortable in the system that we’ve played.”
With road goals now playing a crucial part in which team advances out of the two-leg aggegate-goal series, if the Red Bulls score one on the road this weekend, DC will have to win at least 4-1 in order to advance.
The odds of advancing might lie with Petke and his players, but they know full well that the job is not done yet.
"We have to relax," said Henry. "They have showed this whole season that they are a good team. We took care of business at home and I expect them to try to do the same thing on Saturday. Like I said to you, it’s always better to go out there with something to defend, but we haven’t done anything yet."
Added Petke: “It’s far from over, though. D.C. won the East this year for many reasons, one of them being that they get results. They’re organized and hard-working, so we know it’s going to be a fight next weekend.”
