With injured stars Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez watching from a luxury suite, starting their inexperienced backup back line for the third straight game, the Red Bulls shut out Houston tonight for their third straight 1-0 victory. They’ve ground out wins that are more hard work than work of art; and sometimes in MLS, that’s exactly what you need.
Striker Kenny Cooper scored a seventh minute goal that was all hustle, pressuring a backpass to keeper Tally Hall and scoring off a deflected clearance. And Red Bulls keeper Ryan Meara – playing behind Brandon Barklage, Tyler Ruthven, Markus Holgersson and Connor Lade – ran his shutout streak to 293 minutes.
“We’ve got to lose that (unheralded) title. We have the same questions every week, that they can’t believe we’ve done it. But we have: We’ve done it,’’ said Ruthven. “It is cynical. It’s gross. We’re not impersonating Barcelona; we’re not playing beautiful stuff. But we’ve got a very limited squad right now. We’ve gotten nine points from these three games when most people expected we’d get zero.
“That being said, the last two weeks have been the craziest of my life. I never could’ve dreamed it up that way. I get goose bumps thinking about it. To play in an unbelievable venue like this and grind out results when people are expecting us to get us to get routed is surreal.’’
They won despite a decimated defense, with Wilman Conde, Stephen Keel, d-mid Teemu Tainio out, Roy Miller limited to late sub duty and RB Jan Gunnar Solli at left midfield. Marquez – who’d missed six of their last ten games dating back to last year due to suspensions – was a late scratch after suffering an ankle injury in practice. And none it mattered.
“Let’s give ourselves credit for having great character and pulling these games out; but we’re not going to continue to hang on to these 1-0 leads. We need to start putting teams to the sword and get that second goal,’’ said Dax McCarty. “But a young back line, a young goalkeeper and three 1-0 wins in a row, you can’t ask for more than that.’’
The Red Bulls got a break when Cooper got dispossessed at the top of the box and D Corey Ashe played the ball back to Tally. Cooper hustled to pressure Tally, and the keeper tried to clear the ball but it bounced off Cooper and into the net.
Cooper himself had no idea where the ball was, turning around and finding it in the net after spotting the Red Bulls to yet another early lead, their league-high seventh goal in the first 15 minutes of games. Cooper snatched the ball up, kissed it and booted it high into the air in celebration.
“It was lucky. It was nice to get off to an early start, and I think we’ve gotten off to a couple early starts this year, and it was nice to get off to another one,’’ said Cooper, whose eighth goal left him third in MLS, and matched his total from all of last season with Portland.
“I think I may have lost the ball in the first place, and may have been charged-up to try and get it back….I wish that happened every time you close the keeper down. But fortunately it went in.’’
The Red Bulls (6-3-1, 19 pts) vaulted into second in the East. With his back line decimated, Hans Backe had turned to that young backline before the New England game, entrusting a group that had a grand total of just 23 games of MLS experience, the second-least since the early days of the league. And they’ve paid him back with shutouts of the Revolution, champion L.A. and now Houston.
“With all the injuries everybody’s really stepped up. (It’s) just another example of us grinding out a tough win,’’ said Meara, an MLS Rookie of the Year frontrunner who made a huge save off a Will Bruin header in stoppage time. He didn’t catch it cleanly, but tapped it up to himself as if he were going for a basketball rebound.
Now the Red Bulls prepare for a short turnaround with a game at rival Philadelphia Sunday. It remains to be seen if Backe will keep Solli in midfield – something he intimated is a possibility – and if Marquez will be able to play.
Marquez had drawn interest from Mexican sides Atlas and Club America in the offseason, the former his boyhood club, but the Red Bulls appear set on keeping their enigmatic star. Backe and GM Erik Soler talked to him about his penchant for getting suspended, and that they’re committed to going forward with him.
Still, the young defenders have stolen the show – and possibly saved their season, helping them earn nine points out of a stretch where two or three seemed likely.
“I myself am quite impressed with these young guys with three clean sheets, inexperienced guys working very hard to win this game,’’ said Backe. “Of course you need a little bit of luck, but overall I must say I’m pretty pleased with the number of injuries we have and with these young guys coming in.’’