HARRISON, N.J. – Sales rumors. Thierry Henry speculation. Tim Cahill drama.
The New York Red Bulls overcame it all.
After suffering a demoralizing 4-0 shellacking at the LA Galaxy last Sunday and dealing with plenty of distractions in the press this week, the Red Bulls responded in a defiant way on Saturday night by dominating the Houston Dynamo en route to a victory that helped them move one step closer to the postseason.
The 1-0 scoreline at Red Bull Arena was not overly kind to New York, and the win was overshadowed a bit by Cahill’s actions in the second half. But the performance they put forth in the one-sided affair told the tale of a team that can get the job done in the face of adversity.
“Whenever stuff like that comes up, we just focus on the things we can control,” said midfielder Dax McCarty. “We can’t control what people say in the media, we can’t control what the media writes. We can control what we do on the field and I think the fans, they deserved a good performance out of us tonight.
“They deserved three points because the way we were eliminated from CONCACAF Champions League was embarrassing, the way that we went and lost in LA was embarrassing.
“Those two games kind of leave a bad taste in your mouth, so the outside influences, whatever guys are saying in the media, we just have to kind of ignore it and make sure we’re doing our business and focused on getting our job done. We did that tonight.”
They did so thanks in large part to Thierry Henry, who provided the lone goal in the second half of a match that saw the Red Bulls hit the crossbar twice and miss on a number of other quality looks.
The Dynamo, meanwhile, failed to get much going offensively, as a New York defense missing its anchor in Jamison Olave (suspended) picked up the club’s fifth clean sheet of the season.
- Find more RBNY news at NewYorkRedBulls.com
Overall, it was an impressive showing that moved the Red Bulls up a spot into fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings, and one that came on the heels of quite possibly the most problematic week of their season.
Rumors of the club's sale cropped up and were swiftly denied, Henry’s future was seemingly decided – then made unclear again – and Cahill spoke out about his reduced role and international obligations to make for some serious eyebrow-raising.
Ignoring all that to focus and win this one was not at all easy for the Red Bulls, but necessary for their hopes of making it out of a tight crowd of playoff hopefuls in the Eastern Conference.
“We knew it was going to be difficult against them,” said Henry. “But we battled and then we scored when we needed to score – actually on a goal where maybe it didn’t look like it was going to be a goal right from the start, and we had other opportunities where we maybe should have done better.
“At the end of the day we won, and that’s the most important thing.”
New York continue their three-game home stand next week with another match against an Eastern Conference club battling for a playoff spot. Toronto FC visit the Red Bulls on Saturday (7 pm ET, MLS LIVE, TSN in Canada) in a match that will see the hosts play without a trio of impact players due to international duty.
But overcoming their absences might seem easy, especially after all they experienced this week.
“Massive three points,” said head coach Mike Petke. “We showed tremendous character with the guys we put out there and to get this result is huge.”
Franco Panizo covers the New York Red Bulls for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached by email at Franco8813@gmail.com.
