Mike Magee is the longest tenured New York Red Bulls player, but for a while it seemed like he was the most forgotten.
The 23-year-old spent much of last season sidelined because of injury and underwent surgery to remove a membrane and a piece of inflamed fat pad under the patella in his right knee in January.
While Magee spent countless hours rehabbing over the past two years with a variety of ailments, the club brought in Jozy Altidore, as well as Juan Pablo Angel and Claudio Reyna from the English Premier League.
But Magee was back in the forefront Sunday, scoring what proved to be the game-winning penalty kick in the 79th minute in the Red Bulls' 2-0 win against the San Jose Earthquakes at Giants Stadium.
"It has been a long road for me with a lot of ups and downs," Magee said. "To finally get a goal, it makes all the rehab and time spent on the bicycle worth it."
Magee came on at halftime for Sinisa Ubiparipovic and scored his first goal since July 22, 2006, when he scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win against Kansas City at the Meadowlands.
"We know what Mike brings to the table," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "He has that final pass, he can keep good possession and he has an eye for the goal, so that's good for him, too."
With Juan Pablo Angel sidelined with a nerve-related back injury, the onus for the Quakes was to stop Altidore, and for the majority of the game they did just that. But Magee won the ball in the midfield and fed John Wolyniec, who played a great ball over the top of the San Jose defense to Altidore.
As was the case when he scored a thunderous strike in a 1-1 draw against New England last week, Altidore caused havoc by running at the Quakes defense, creating the penalty kick when Ryan Cochrane lunged out and tripped him inside the 18-yard box.
Usually it's Angel who takes the Red Bulls penalty kicks, but without the Colombian on the field, a decision had to be made.
"Jozy looked like he wanted to take it," Magee said. "So I put on my saddest face and asked him please and he let me."
Altidore, though, said it had nothing to do with Magee's puppy-dog face.
"Mike deserves it," he said. "He worked so hard and I think he deserves his chances. I think you are going to see a lot more from him."
Magee picked his spot, which just happened to be the same side of the goal Joe Cannon was standing. But he still fired the shot over the goalkeeper's right shoulder for what proved to be the winner.
"It felt pretty incredible," Magee said.
Altidore would get his goal in the final seconds of second-half stoppage time. Once again Wolyniec was the provider, setting up the 18-year-old who put the ball off the near post and in from eight yards out.
"Sometimes you play the best games and you can't get a goal, and then you play not such a great game and you do get a goal, but at the same time, I think we did well," Altidore said. "Johnny gave me a great ball and it was a team goal, a team effort."
Wolyniec, who has forged a reputation as a quality striker off the bench, needed to play the entire 90 minutes Sunday after defender Kevin Goldthwaite left the game with a strained back with a quarter hour to play.
"He battles for 90 minutes, and he made the center backs know they weren't playing the proper game," Osorio said of Wolyniec. "He showed us at the end what we need to be appreciative of."
Perhaps lost in the much-needed victory for the Red Bulls, who played to a disappointing 1-1 draw against the Revs last weekend and head to red-hot Toronto FC Thursday night, was the play of Reyna.
In probably his most complete game for the Red Bulls since coming from Manchester City on a free transfer, the former U.S. national team captain was masterful in the midfield and if not for a goal-line clearance from Nick Garcia -- one of two from the Quakes defender on the game -- Reyna would have had his first MLS goal.
"A healthy Claudio is a very influential player," Osorio said. "He showed today he can play as a playmaker or as a second midfielder, central midfielder and both positions he played very well. He competed very well and I think he did a lot of good for the final score."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
