It wasn’t the Red Bulls’ blowing a two-goal second-half lead at Portland that had Thierry Henry frustrated. No, it was the team having to waste three hours on a tarmac Friday, only to have their flight rescheduled for Saturday and their preparation disrupted that had the French star irritated.
The Red Bulls scored a pair of opportunistic goals to take a 3-1 halftime lead, only to see Portland dominate the second half and earn a wild 3-3 tie. And, all things considered, Henry says they have to be satisfied with the draw, if not happy about the circumstances that made earning even that an achievement.
“Let’s be honest,’’ said Henry, who has never had an issue with speaking his mind. “We scored on two mistakes from their part and they had the whole ball the whole second half and they were pushing and playing really well.
“We didn’t prepare it the way – not our fault, obviously – the way you should prepare a game. But that’s the way the league is, and you have to come here and perform. We did match Portland for an hour; but then in the last 30 minutes they took over, and we ran out of steam. They took control of the game and scored two.”
Took control was kind, although Henry said the extenuating circumstances played into the Red Bulls’ shoddy second half.
They were supposed to take a commercial flight to Portland Friday, but after sitting on the tarmac for over three hours due to mechanical issues, they eventually ended up getting off the plane and chartering to Oregon the next day. They just trained briefly, and had their preparation thrown off.
“What is frustrating is the way we came here. We didn’t prepare anything because we were at the airport on Friday, on Saturday, too, trying to come here,’’ said Henry. “We did eventually; but we didn’t prepare the game how we should’ve prepared the game. And you could see the last 30 minutes: Everyone ran out of steam.”
Here are video highlights of the wild 3-3 draw.