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Henry ends drought, Rodgers bags brace to lead Red Bulls past Earthquakes

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By MIKE NASTRI

Luke Rodgers scored twice, breaking the New York Red Bulls' 135-minute scoreless streak to power New York past the San Jose Earthquakes, 3-0, in the pouring rain at Red Bull Arena.

Thierry Henry finally got on the scoresheet to break his scoring drought. Henry had a few chances off the foot of Rodgers, but he couldn't convert until the 87th minute. Rodgers sent a curling cross from the right corner of the box to find a streaking Henry. The Designated Player buried the header in the right corner of the goal for Red Bulls' final goal.  

"I think [the fans] wanted me to score, and I wanted to score," said Henry, the Red Bulls' captain. "Overall, we won't remember that today. I think the most important thing to remember is the way we played and the way we put pressure. If we do carry on defending like that on the front, we will be a difficult team to beat."

In a surprising move, New York head coach Hans Backe started Rodgers over the usual starter aside Henry, Juan Agudelo. Rodgers stifled any criticism scoring just two minutes into the game off a Red Bulls corner.

"We have three good strikers," said Backe. "I think we need to rotate a little bit with those three guys. Juan has been training and playing since the beginning of Janurary. We just a feel that he needs to calm down a little bit."

Rodgers added his second of the game just 13 minutes later, after Thierry Henry stripped San Jose captain Ramiro Corrales and slotted the ball to a streaking Rodgers. The former Notts Country striker flicked the ball past Earthquakes keeper Jon Busch for the 2-0 lead.

"I knew exactly where he [Henry] was going to put it," Rodgers said. "If you don't make as a striker then you're not a striker. It was brilliant. Two goals in 15 minutes. It was the perfect start for me."

San Jose never held a grasp on the game. They had a hard time extinguishing an explosive Red Bulls attack. The one or two chances that Chris Wondolowski and the Earthquakes had were handled with relative ease by Bouna Coundoul and the rest of the New York defense.

"I think the best team of the night won," San Jose coach Frank Yallop said. "I thought New York played well — score an early goal and followed up with another one. So for us to start out, we got no real chance to get back into the game, so I think the result was fair."

The win for New York avenged a playoff loss to the San Jose Earthquakes in last year's Eastern Conference semifinals. But revenge wasn't all this match was about. The Red Bulls struggled to score this season and it cost them points in matches in which they dominated possession.

In this match, New York came out with new energy and a strong team effort to rebound from last week's 1-0 loss on the road to Philadelphia.

"It is a great team effort," said Henry. "We defended together and we attacked together, and that's what we need to do to win games."

Added Rodgers: "It's just a matter of time before it clicked. All you have to do is watch a training session to see how sharp we are. I think tonight it clicked, and this will kick-start our season."

Comments

  1. Um, no.

    An “English International” is someone who has played for the English National Team at some point.

    An English citizen would be an Englishman.

    I’m an American and play soccer in England. Would you call me a US International?

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  2. I agree. There is no way Agudelo will be able to have watched that game without wondering how he would have done. He also has to know that he will need to continue to prove himself if he is going to get the chance to find out. Those are good things!

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  3. The Philly TV stations actually mention the games, both before and after, home and away. Even the TV weather people have a soccer ball displayed for days with a Union game.

    Do the NY stations ever even acknowledge the RedBull exist?

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  4. You as well should type in ANTIFA and S.H.A.R.P. in google. Don’t presume anything about anyone. REAL SKINHEADS AREN’T RACIST – REAL SKINHEADS KILL NAZIS

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  5. One of the guys you saw with a shaved head and tats was most likely my husband, who, not only is he most certainly not a Nazi, he’s actually Jewish, and would probably kill anyone sieg heiling in the stands.
    This isn’t the 90’s anymore, and assuming that a person with a shaved head, tattoos, and their arm up in celebration is a nazi isn’t excusable. Like someone said in another comment, kindly google skinhead and educate yourself about the history of the culture and why real skinheads get pissed when you refer to them as nazis.

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  6. Do yourself a favor. Go to Google and type in Antifa – while you’re at it, type in S.H.A.R.P. – a temporary relief of extreme ignorance at best, but it’ll have to do. Real skinheads aren’t racist.

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  7. haha those are my friends! actually one of them is one of my grooms men. Considering that i’m hispanic i doubt he’s a nazi. The other is also a good friend of mine and trust me he aint no nazi. thats why i hate boneheads (neo nazis skinheads) they give the real skinheads a bad name and make ignorant people think that all shaved heads are neos. google it next time! =)

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  8. Well, I would qualify as a doubter instead of a hater, but I ate a little crow when I watched the highlights of this game. Just last week I said Henry looked slow, but he consistently outran the SJ defenders. It was good to see. Hopefully he can continue.

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  9. The last 4 of 5 comments have been some of the most idiotic i’ve seen on this board. I’m somewhat disappointed in my fellow SBI followers.

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  10. I have to agree with Mike here. I have disagreed vigorously with Ives many times(see: Osario, Juan Carlos), but he never called Henry an injury-prone bust. He pointed out that he’d had some injuries & was looking like bust as of that writing. Ives never makes it personal & like most good sportswriters, allows himself some room to work with should the player turn it around (which Henry began doing Saturday night).

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  11. He did ok, had one bad turnover that was uncharacteristic of him….also in Philly game. Maybe he’s having a bad spell.

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  12. Henry showed real passion last night and it was welcome to see. The fans booed him when he missed that second easy goal chance. He went down in embarrassment (which I understand) but got back up and came back to score. I like Henry even more now.

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  13. In the kind of rain that we had falling pretty much the whole day on sat, there was flooding. and it is clear you are not from the area because you would know that harrison is like a river when it rains…

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  14. I agree completely with the first sentence. On the second, not being given a National team place before earning one on his club team would be even better.

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  15. Yeah, I think that’s the thing. It was the travel to and from the stadium that was the real problem weather-wise. And as others have pointed out, even once you’re in the stadium, you’re not necessarily safe. That stadium can be amazingly cold when it’s really not that bad outside.

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  16. I’m very, very happy that he scored and I hope that this leads to many more. But last night was still frustrating. He looked much more active and engaged than usual, and that’s a good thing. But he still wasted a bunch of simple opportunities. Could have had a hat trick easy. He converted one and played like he actually cared tonight, so I’ll give him a pass on all the misses. But this one game definitely does not vindicate him. He’s got more work to do. The moral of the story is that you can’t cast judgment on a player based on one game. Oh, and Henry has been bad ever since he came aboard, not just this season.

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  17. I love that Rogers came up big and now Agudelo will have to fight for pt. Best thing that could happen to keep the kid grounded and hungry.

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  18. I’m in the first row of 101 and I was able to take my rainjacket off and attempt to get dry. The concrete below was dry as well, it really depends on which way the wind was blowing

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  19. Dude,

    I just saw the highlights and I count at least 3 chances that he should have made. I’m not saying your average MLS player would make them– but he’s not 1/2 the player who played for Arsenal.

    I just felt sorry for him after the second missed chance.

    But hopefully this will boost his confidence and get him near to where he once was.

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  20. Thanks, Brian. I guess Jim is too smart to understand a pun like Nazi vs. Notts County. After all, puns are low-brow humor.

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  21. He really worked hard the whole game and it looked like he was angry at the fans. After he missed the second breakaway chance, some fans started booing and whistling…but he had another chance where he created a chance out of nothing on a full sprint, and got some cheers for that. Good that the goal finally went in. Last night’s effort was what people were expecting when he signed with RBNY.

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