New York 2-2 FC Dallas: Henry’s Magic Strike Saves A Point

It looked like it was going to be another heartbreaking loss for the New York Red Bulls after a fantastic first half. Down a goal and down a man in the 80th minute, you would have thought it was going to be another loss. But five minutes later, life came back to the Red Bull Arena.

In the 85th minute, a good looping ball from Dax McCarty found Thierry Henry. He held the ball and looked to hit it with his right, but instead he faked it and shot the ball with his left. He caught Kevin Hartman ball watching and the equalizer splashed the back of the net and Red Bull Arena erupted.

“That’s the kind of player that he is,” said Hans Backe. “Suddenly he can just switch it on, make a difference and score a goal like that. It’s a phenomenal goal.”

Once again a draw ended the evening for the Red Bulls against FC Dallas. Once again the club dropped another two points at home to a side that did look better in the second half and took advantage of some bad defending. Marvin Chavez was a small and fast player the Red Bulls had to watch out for, but the team got burned once again.

In the fifty-first minute we saw a nice display of one touch passing between Bruno Guarada and Ricardo Villar. They got close to goal and Villar made a nice pass to Chavez who struck it well, which was deflected off Tim Ream into the goal. The second goal was a pathetic display of ball watching by the Red Bulls.

In the seventy-eighth minute, FC Dallas was on the attack again. It was a good run and cross from George John and when the ball went through all four players on the Red Bulls backline, Chavez took advantage and ripped it inside the near post. Just a little loss of concentration and the Red Bulls got burned.

But once again we can’t ignore the fact that in the first half the Red Bulls played well. They looked fresh and determined to score. And, to be fair, got a bit of luck on the first goal of the game. It was Juan Agudelo that got his fifth of the season when Dane Richards tried to cross the ball towards Henry in the thirty-ninth minute.

Agudelo ran at the ball and tried to take it first time. His shot was deflected off the defender and then off his leg and popped up in the air. It caught Hartman off his line and the ball fell inside the net and over the goal line.

“Great first half,” said Backe. “We kept Dallas very quiet on the first 45 minutes. We played well, played smart, lots of possession and a decent end product with the possession. So we definitely deserved to be up one – nil at halftime.”

For the South Ward that is made up of the three supporters groups of the Red Bulls — the Empire Supporters Club, Garden State Supporters & Hans Backe Viking Army — they held a protest for the entire first half of the match for the club’s refusal to take the US Open Cup seriously. They stayed silent ’til halftime. However they did applaud Agudelo’s tally.