Thursday _ and Thierry Henry _ can’t come soon enough for the Red Bulls.
They slogged through a dour scoreless tie with archrival D.C. United last night, one of their most listless performances of the season. They ran their unbeaten string to five straight games, but there was little explosiveness on the ball or running off it, two things the French striker can provide in abundance.
“Two well-organized teams defensively. Too many side-passes, back-passes. We couldn’t make a difference or break them down. It was a rather boring nil-nil game,” said coach Hans Backe, whose Red Bulls (8-5-2, 26 points) are a point behind the East-leading Crew going into next weekend’s showdown in Columbus.
Even though GM Erik Soler adamantly refused to mention Henry by name last night, they’ll unveil the ex-Barcelona striker Thursday. He won’t feature next weekend in Columbus, but should debut on May 22 in the Barclays New York Football Challenge vs. Tottenham.
“It’s exciting. Getting top-quality, experienced players, it’s obviously going to help us continue what looks like as decent year for the club…He’ll lift the whole team, make everybody sharper and better. It’s going to be a great experience,” said Soler, who called Backe Friday from Norway to tell him they’d had a breakthrough in negotiations and will likely add a third Designated Player.
“It’s more than 50/50. We’ve gone far in negotiations. We’re more or less ready to sign.”
Centerback/defensive midfielder Rafa Marquez _ who played with Henry at Barcelona, and under Backe when the latter was an assistant on the Mexican National Team _ is reportedly the third star.
And in last night’s plodding, cynical game that saw just five shots on goal _ three by New York _ they looked in need of another star to pair with captain and Designated Player Juan Pablo Angel.
“We could never up the tempo. It was a pretty boring game,” said Angel. “There were some positives in terms of keeping a clean sheet again, but overall we really couldn’t test them and generally there was not much in it.”