In front of 14,308 soggy fans at Red Bull Arena, the English striker Luke Rodgers equaled his team’s goal-scoring total through four games when he scored his first two goals in M.L.S., and Thierry Henry broke his personal goal-scoring drought (after 684 scoreless minutes) on a late header as the Red Bulls eased to a 3-0 victory.
“I’m buzzing,” Rodgers said. “I’m just so happy to have scored.”
The victory ended a three-game winless streak for the Red Bulls, who won the Eastern Conference regular-season title last year and then promptly lost to San Jose in their first playoff series.
The Red Bulls (2-1-2, 8 points) had produced a league-low two goals in 360 minutes this season, but Rodgers scored his first one two minutes into the match and added a second in the 15th minute. It was the second start of the season for Rodgers, who joined the Red Bulls before the season from Notts County, which plays in English soccer’s third tier.
“Of course not scoring weighed on us; we read in the papers that we have world-class strikers and you can’t score,” Rodgers said. “We knew it was just a matter of time before it clicked, and I think this will kick-start our season.”
The Red Bulls took the lead almost immediately when Rafa Marquez’s corner kick was headed backward across the goalmouth by Jan Gunnar Solli. Dane Richards sent the ball back across the goal for Rodgers, who nodded it past goalkeeper Jon Busch from 4 yards.
Rodgers made the score 2-0 in the 15th minute off a steal by Henry. Henry, who had been questionable for the match with a strained Achilles’ tendon, stripped the ball from Ramiro Corrales on the right flank. Henry touched the ball once, pushing it forward, before crossing to the far post, where Rodgers met it and powered a shot under Busch while tumbling into the goal.
Henry played perhaps his strongest match for the Red Bulls, energetically running the field, laying off passes to Rodgers and Joel Lindpere on the wing. But he also misfired on a handful of scoring opportunities.
Henry’s frustrations finally came to an end in the 88th minute, when Rodgers sent in a cross from the right side. Streaking in from the left, Henry dove and struck a strong header that sailed back across the goal, past Busch and inside the far post.
Asked about the constant questions about when his first goal of the season would come, Henry said: “It was more annoying than important today. My goal didn’t have an effect on the game, but I tried everything today to score and finally did. The most important thing is to say that we worked really hard up front, Luke and I. It really doesn’t matter who scores.”
As relieved as Henry seemed, Coach Hans Backe, too, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that Henry, his highest-paid player, got on the scoresheet.
“You could see today when he feels fresh he’s in a different class,” Backe said. “He set up Luke with a lot of final passes and was very composed on the ball. This was his best performance for Red Bull.”
Rodgers earned his second start in place of the 18-year-old striker Juan Agudelo and brought more directness to the Red Bulls’ attack. In Philadelphia last week, Agudelo was perhaps guilty of trying to do too much with the ball at his feet.
“Juan has been playing and training since early January,” Backe said, referring to Agudelo’s time with the Red Bulls and the United States national team. “We just needed to calm him down a bit.”
The Red Bulls will get little rest after Saturday’s victory, as they play at D.C. United on Thursday night. But to a man, from Backe to Rodgers to Henry, they sounded certain that the best is yet to come.
NOTES
John Rooney, the younger brother of Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, made his M.L.S. debut as a late substitute for Dane Richards.
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