Sports

Thierry Henry’s two goals lead Red Bulls to comeback victory

The Red Bulls seemed destined to start the critical, crowded stretch run of the MLS season with a loss. Then a dominant second half from Thierry Henry — and a record-breaking pair of goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips turned destiny around — carrying the Red Bulls to a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Montreal on Saturday night.

Trailing 1-0 at halftime, the Red Bulls were on the verge of starting a stretch of 10 games in 36 days with a loss to the MLS’s worst team. But, despite the fact Red Bull Head of Global Football Gerard Houllier has said he expects Henry to retire at season’s end, the team’s grand old man showed he’s far more grand than old, scoring two goals and setting up Wright-Phillips for a third.

Wright-Phillips added another tally in the 90th minute to break Juan Pablo Angel’s team single-season scoring record. But Henry was the star of the night, walking off in the 83rd minute to an ovation from the home crowd of 17,891, arguably the best French import New York has seen since the Statue of Liberty and “Les Miserables.”

“We all knew what was at stake,” Henry said. “It’s a conference game. We needed to win. Six games [remaining] at home, we need to win them all.’’
Regarding possible retirement, Henry added, “Right now that fire is still in me. All I’m thinking about right now is to make sure that we can make the playoffs.

“You guys here have a long break, so I’ll have a long, long, long thought about what’s next. But right now I’m thinking about the next game. … I’m physically OK, mentally, too. I’m still the same guy. When everything’s done at the end of the season, we’ll see what’s going to happen.’’

After coughing up a 37th-minute counterattack goal to Montville, N.J., native Dilly Duka, Henry equalized in the 53rd on a diving far post header from Eric Alexander’s cross. He put the Red Bulls ahead in the 67th on a curling shot to the right post.

Wright-Phillips finished a Henry feed in the 75th, and — after Montreal’s Andres Romero pulled a goal back — he added the exclamation point at the end of this statement win with the record-breaking score. He’s on pace for 29 goals, which would break the MLS mark of 27.

“I went into the game thinking about it, I can’t lie,” said Wright-Phillips, whose 2015 contract extension kicked in with his 20th start Saturday. “We went a goal down, so I just wanted to get the goal. I didn’t care who it was. After we went up, I started thinking about it, getting a goal or two.’’