CHESTER, Pa. — Turns out of all Thierry Henry’s worrying and warnings weren’t paranoid — they were painfully prescient.
The Red Bulls took all the good vibes of a five-game unbeaten streak, and the golden opportunity of playing a sorry Philadelphia Union team ripe for the picking, and flushed them down the toilet in a 3-1 loss.
“Out of all the Philly teams that I’ve faced, I thought this was the most vulnerable team that I faced. This was the team that was most ripe to take point,’’ coach Mike Petke said. “Individual defending mistake on the first goal, two individual mistakes on the second and the penalty kick which I’m not very happy with. … This is a team we felt very confident [against].’’
Coming off last weekend’s 4-1 rout of Columbus, Henry cautioned about the Red Bulls’ leaky defense and facing Philadelphia striker Conor Casey. On Wednesday, they coughed up yet another early score, gave up a goal and an assist to Casey, and got run off the field by a team that had been mired in a seven-game home winless streak.
“It was a poor game overall. Other than the loss there wasn’t much to take from it,’’ midfielder Tim Cahill said.
“I don’t have a clue, honestly, but this can’t keep happening every week, because it’ll mean we have to score four goals to win. Sooner or later, it’s got to turn. We can’t come off the back of a 4-1 win — and off of mistakes we conceded in that game — and come here and lose.’’
But the Red Bulls did just that, losing and made to look downright tired and ragged. Casey set the tone, taking a pass and cutting inside Matt Miazga before slotting the ball past goalie Luis Robles for his fifth goal in as many games.
“We killed ourselves. It’s a trend we have to find a solution to, giving up early goals,’’ Robles said of their MLS-worst eighth goal allowed in the first 15 minutes of games.
“Collectively we’ve got to get better defensively. Last year there was a certain toughness that we’ve got to find.’’
Fred took a pass in midfield, and — as Miazga rushed out to challenge — laid it off out wide Sheanon Williams. Fred took off running hard into the box with Dax McCarty giving chase, as Casey softly touched Williams’ cross to the Brazilian midfielder who doubled the lead.
Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his MLS-high 16th tally. But it was bittersweet, with the All-Star fan voting revealed Wednesday and Wright-Phillips not making it. Henry made the team.
To add insult to injury, Wright-Phillips had an equalizer waved offside in the 66th minute, and three minutes later Eric Alexander was called for a foul in the box on Mo Edu, and Sebastien Le Toux buried the penalty.
“Fan voting is a popularity contrast,’’ Petke said. “I’m confident the leading scorer should be at the All-Star game, whenever that [decision time] comes.’’
When asked about the absence of forward Peguy Luyindula, Petke said “Peguy practiced [Wednesday] with the young guys. He had a bit if a toe injury and besides that was given a day or two. He’ll be there [Thursday] at practice and be available.’’