Thierry Henry may not be happy about the Red Bulls’ slow start, but he isn’t stressed over it, either. The French striker points to their grueling early-season schedule as a big culprit, with five of their first seven games on the road capped by Saturday’s derby at archrival D.C. United.
“It’s not great, obviously, but it’s not that bad, considering we’re going to play five games on the road out of seven. I don’t know why, but that’s how it is,’’ Henry shrugged. “To start a league playing five games away, if you do what we just did right now, it’s difficult to find your confidence.
“Again, hear me out well: I’m just saying you have to take it into consideration, because it’s not that easy. And we’ve seen in the past, teams that have started with a lot of games away from home never started well.”
Henry pointed to last year’s Houston Dynamo as a team that had a long road stretch to start the season, and struggled early on as a result. The Red Bulls are just 1-3-2 going into Saturday’s game, facing a slow start of their own.
To be fair, the Red Bulls captain stressed over and over again that he wasn’t complaining, and that it wasn’t an alibi, simply a very real part of the big picture.
“It’s difficult to find a rhythm five games away, in any league in the world, trust me. Last year at least, (we played) the two first games away, we went back twice at home and then we went to start like a normal league, home, away, home, away,’’ said Henry, who proclaimed himself fit to start if Mike Petke needs him.
“If you look at our results away from home last year, they weren’t that great. But…bringing the confidence back when you came back at home, you won some games, so you were like “Oh, we struggled away, but we’re winning at home.” We can’t even find out if we can win at home, because out of seven games we have five away.”
After Saturday’s tilt at RFK Stadium, six of the Red Bulls’ next nine MLS games will be at home, including three straight. Even that will be followed by a short trip down the Turnpike to Philadelphia before returning home.
*** Henry expressed his concern and best wishes for New England Revolution defender Kevin Alston, who was diagnosed with leukemia.