Henry hat trick leads Red Bulls
BEFORE THE MATCH on Saturday, the Red Bulls fretted openly about their depleted front line. It turned out, however, that Thierry Henry required very little help from any teammate during a 5-2 victory over Montreal before 13,415 shivering fans in Harrison.
Henry netted his first MLS hat trick and made a pretty, back-tap assist on yet another goal to more than compensate for a paucity of strikers and for some ugly early defensive mistakes by the home team. “I don’t want to talk about the goals,” insisted Henry, who has scored five goals in his last two matches. “I care about what we did in the first half and how bad we played. I’m a competitor. I always think about what’s not good going on. We have to make it hard for teams to beat us.”
The Red Bulls (2-2) found themselves playing catchup during the first half because of several ugly errors on the back line. First, a slow deflection from Dane Richards went through the legs of defender Markus Holgersson, allowing forward Sanna Nyassi of the Impact (0-3-1) to score in the 19th minute.
Henry evened things in the 28th minute on a header off a cross from Rafa Marquez. But once again, the Red Bulls sabotaged themselves when Jan Gunnar Solli allowed Justin Mapp to scoot by in the 38th minute from the left side for a clear shot past goalkeeper Ryan Meara.
The Red Bulls tied the score again, 2-2, after Montreal defender Matteo Ferrari took down Dax Mccarty in the 45th minute. Kenny Cooper waited for goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts to commit, then blasted his penalty kick down the middle.
Henry could have taken that penalty kick, but said he wanted to spread the wealth. “We all have to be on board,” he said. “I wish more people could go on the score sheet.”
Henry and coach Hans Backe gave the team a rough talk at halftime. Then Henry invented the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute, spinning at the top of the box and ripping a low shot to the left of Ricketts. The French star set up the team’s fourth goal with his nifty back tap to a wide-open Mehidi Ballouchy in the 72nd minute. Henry then completed his hat trick in the 89th minute on an easy rebound off a shot by Cooper.
“It’s great to see him so hungry and scoring,” Backe said of Henry. “His work ethic is phenomenal. Already in preseason in Arizona, I could see those two or three months in England (training with Arsenal) made a difference. Now he starts picking up goals like this.”