This is the 15th in a series of 20 short columns focused on the things I'm thinking about as we approach the 20th season of Major League Soccer. I'm going to dig into mostly non-obvious questions here – the tertiary stuff that can become bigger over time – rather than the giant storylines (e.g., How do the Red Bulls replace Henry? What if Ozzie's injury lingers? Is this THE year for TFC?).
You can find previous installments in my story archive HERE. For this latest entry, we're in the Ironbound...
I explicitly said, in the blurb above, that this series of columns is not for the big questions. This series is where we go under the radar a little bit, take our time to look at some smaller issues that may not be getting big headlines or column inches.
And so, I specifically reference a certain Thierry Henry – who was, by my reckoning, the most important player for the Red Bulls in 2014. I have a number of friends who are now cursing at their monitor/iPhone/whatever because they think I'm selling Bradley Wright-Phillips short, and are busy mis-using the word "narratives!" in nasty emails headed my way. Metro fans, by and large, do not feel that BWP got/gets the respect he deserves given last year's Golden Boot performance.
Maybe they're right. He'll have this year to prove it.
With that as preamble, I am now breaking my own rule and explaining a bit about how the Red Bulls have to replace Henry. I just want to focus on one facet - that being his ability to draw the defense toward him:
You see how as soon as Henry gets on the ball, three Columbus players step toward him? And poor Tyson Wahl actually knows what's coming – you can see he positions himself to cut out the throughball – and still can't stop it?
Yeah, that's not a little thing. Getting the defense on the wrong foot merely by existing is a pretty neat trick, and one that neither Mike Grella, nor Sal Zizzo, nor Leo Stolz or anyone else Jesse Marsch might line up on the left wing can pull off.
For the Red Bulls, that's trouble because the Red Bulls need the game to be open – BWP and Lloyd Sam in particular – in order to remain an elite attacking team. Henry's ability to pull the opposition toward him meant fewer defenders to beat for the other guys, and I'm sorry if this offends any of my old ESC friends, but that is not a narrative.
Most of the focus on replacing Henry has been on replacing his numbers (10g, 14a), which were huge. Or his presence as the captain, which was also huge. Or his sheer playmaking genius, which gives me an excuse to use this GIF again:
Again: all of those are huge. But don't forget that ability to simply tilt the entire field toward him, and in the process make everybody for RBNY better.
