ASN spent Saturday afternoon at the brand new Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. The purpose of the visit was threefold: 1. To see the arena before it opened, 2. To photograph it for our readers and 3. To do our part in supporting Seth Stammler's Sporting Chance Foundation charity. (We aren't the only news organization doing this.

Thierry Henry's MLS debut for New York Red Bulls as they took on the Dynamo. Pretty good start for the former Arsenal man as he assisted on both goals by Juan Pablo Angel. Get used to hear these guys names mentioned in tandem a lot.

He had a golden opportunity to get on the board in the 41st minute after Angel's clever flick sent him on a one on one situation with Tally Hall but he pulled the trigger too early and his shot trickled wide.

With Rafa Marquez, Dane Richards, Bouna Coundoul and Roy Miller all out on international duty, the Red Bulls put in a dominating performance against a strong Toronto FC team, taking three points at home, and ending their five game winless streak with a 1-0 victory last night at Red Bull Arena.

The Red Bulls start the most important week of their franchise history with a celebratory dud, taking home the Atlantic Cup while tying the inept DC United 0-0 at home.
The lineup stayed fairly consistent, with the reemergence of Salou Ibrahim up top from injury, Carlos Mendes further solidifying his spot as the teams starting center back over Mike Petke, Lindpere and Stammler manning the middle, and Ubiparipovic and Dane Richards controlling the wing play.

Last weeks uninspired performance against DC United was not only a disappointment when put into context of the weeks events, but it was also a lost opportunity for the Red Bulls to tie the Columbus Crew for first place in the East. This week, the team has a shot at redemption, and then some.

With their tie last week, and the Crews loss, the Red Bulls found themselves two points out of first place through 15 games even.

The reserve team that has been carrying the Red Bulls through the US Open Cup managed to put in a world class performance against the Italian Giants of Torino. Juventus, sporting names like Del Piero, Trezeguet and Diego in their starting lineup, could not figure out a way to beat the Baby Bulls, walking away from Red Bull Arena with a humiliating 3-1 loss.

Last night the Red Bulls took another emphatic step toward qualifying for this years Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with a comprehensive 3-0 thrashing of New England Revolution in Harrison. RBNY fielded what was essentially a second choice XI that included a mix of veterans such as Carlos Mendes, John Wolyniec and Andrew Boyens, as well as youngsters such as Tony Tchani and Conor Chinn.

What a fantastic match this was down at Robertson Stadium in Houston, Texas. The action was hot and heavy along with the terrible weather this time of the season and of course the first league match for Thierry Henry with the New York Red Bulls facing the Dynamo.

The action got started in the first ten minutes of the match when Carlos Mendes made a quick pass to Henry and attacked down the near side.

Man oh man, what a few weeks it's been. Apologies for the brief hiatus but the finals crunch has proved pretty time consuming. So I figured now would be as good a time as any to introduce a new segment called "In case you've been living under a rock..." where I'll run through all the top events that I've missed since my last post.

The Baby Bulls have once again risen to the occasion, downing a veteran, first team Rapids squad 3-0 at home to earn their ticket into the US Open Cup proper.

Coach Hans Backe promised few changes to the team he featured against Juventus, and he was true to his word. Almost.

MLS

Saturday's slate of seven matches featured plenty of goals and some surprising results.

The Los Angeles Galaxy showed why they are the best team in the league this season by beating the Crew in Columbus 2-0 without Buddle and Donovan. The Crew controlled the game and outshot LA 21-3, but Bruce Arena has put together a very disciplined side that just doesn't make mistakes and capitalizes on the opposition's errors.

With the transfer window about to open, it's time to take a look at our current roster and think about what changes will have to be made as the Red Bulls are about to sign one, and possibly two, new Designated Players in the coming days.
Roster regulations
A team must have between 18-20 players on the Senior Roster.

Today the Red Bulls took another massive step toward solidifying their position as the most hated team in MLS (bring it on!) when they announced the signing of Mexican captain Rafael Marquez from FC Barcelona.
The Marquez signing had been the subject of intense speculation since Dave Braneck of The Daily Harrison broke the rumor that the Red Bulls were in discussions with the player and his (now) former club several weeks ago.

Sold out crowd, big cities, ESPN, and five designated players make this one of the most highly anticipated MLS regular season matches in recent memory. The game should mark the debut of Nery Castillo and Rafa Marquez as MLS players while former Arsenal teammates Freddie Ljugnberg and Thierry Henry make their first appearance with their respective new clubs at Toyota Park.

This was supposed to be a big test for the up and coming New York Red Bulls as they were facing for the second time the defending MLS Cup champions Real Salt Lake. Unfortunately for the Red Bulls they were without Dane Richards (Jamaica) and Bouna Coundoul (Senegal) as they were called in for National Team duty.

Brian Lewis is reporting on the planned starting XI and some substitutions we should expect for tomorrow's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup qualifier tomorrow. Here's the reported lineup for your New York Red Bulls:
Chinn Agudelo
Nielsen Tchani Stammler Ubi
Borman Boyens Mendes Sassano
Sutton
We should also expect to see Austin da Luz enter the game in the second half (presumably for Nielsen).

The New York Red Bulls will look to move one step closer to the U.S. Open Cup when it takes on the New England Revolution tonight in an MLS Play-in Match at Red Bull Arena (8pm).

The Red Bulls routed the Philadelphia Union to reach the current round of play, and they will turn to a young squad again as head coach Hans Backe is using the tournament as a chance to give his reserves playing time.

That's right! After defeating the Colorado Rapids, in a qualifier, by the score of 3-0, the Red Bulls are in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup proper. Another great performance by our reseve team, with goals from Woly (2) and Chinn. "Irvinho" Garcia once again made his case for inclusion in the starting eleven with another superb performance.

Two red cards doomed the Red Bulls as the Revolution pull out a victory behind a Zack Schilawski winner in the 80th minute.

Red cards to Carlos Mendes and Roy Miller put NYRB two men down and Shairie Joseph took advantage playing a perfect chip to the streaking rookie who headed it home for the Revs first win since April, 10th.

Two red cards, one own goal and another loss at Gillette could only mean one thing; Doc forgot to put enough plutonium for the flux capacitor to properly function, thus leaving you and the Delorian stuck, in perpetuity, in the year 2009.

Unfortunately for the Red Bulls, there was no clock tower to send them back in time to erase this embarrassment.

BY MIKE NASTRI

Two red cards doomed the Red Bulls as the Revolution pulled out a victory behind Zack Schilawski's winner in the 80th minute.

Red cards to Carlos Mendes and Roy Miller put NYRB two men down and Shalrie Joseph took advantage playing a perfect chip to the streaking rookie who headed it home for the Revs first win since April, 10th.

It's bad enough to have players that are total crap, but do they have to be blockheads also? If you'll recall, Luke Sassano did us in a few weeks back @San Jose, with one of the most ill advised tackles I've ever seen. The ref promplty issued him a red card and we lost. This time, we managed to let Shalrie Joseph kill us again (can we ever just shut him down?

The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee has fined New York Red Bulls head coach Hans Backe $2,500 for publicly criticizing MLS officiating. In comments that appeared in the Boston Globe on May 30th, Backe took issue with referee Andrew Chapin's decision to give a straight red card to defender Roy Miller during the second half of the Red Bulls' 3-2 loss to the New England Revolution last Saturday.

Good afternoon! It's an extra beautiful day here in Red Bulls land and they're back in action @The Cathedral of Football. This time it's against a Houston Dynamo team making it's first appearance @Red Bull Arena. The Dynamo are coming off an embarrasing 3-2 defeat at home, against Philadelphia, and will look to bring three points back to the Lone Star State.

The World Cup break, that is. A 1-nil victory against Chivas USA and another three points in hand. Yes - three more points, as we go into a three week MLS break, already equaling our total points for the whole of last season. A fantastic job, by the great Mr. Backe, to get our boys back to winning ways, after a 4 game MLS losing streak.

A two week World Cup break and the United State's elimination from tournament play did little to faze the New York Red Bulls, who picked up right where they left off with a 3-0 drubbing of the Kansas City Wizards at the Comm.
The lineup featured some key tweeks, including the benching of Dane Richards in favor of Tony Tchani, Carlos Mendes in for Mike Petke, Danleigh Borman starting over Roy Miller, and Chris Albright manning the right back slot over Jeremy Hall.

The scoreline read 2-0, but it actually didn't do justice to the thorough thrashing the Red Bulls received against the Columbus Crew. Though this was billed as a battle for first place, the gap in talent between both sides could not be more apparent.

This weeks signing of Thierry Henry certainly did much to buoy the hopes and expectations of this fan base, but the performances of the squad since the World Cup is a stark reminder of the deficiencies this team still has to cover.

Hey everyone,

First of all, much love and thanks to every single person who has supported the Seeing Red! podcast, whether a long term listener or a casual first timer. Taking a look at the roster of guests the past few months, from Erik Stover to Nick Zimmerman, Ives Galarcep to Shep Messing, Jeremy Hall to Tim Ream and so many others, we could not have asked for a better start.

Photo by Howard Smith of ISIphotos.com

BY MIKE NASTRI

It was Thierry Henry's big night and New York's newest star produced under the bright lights of Red Bull Arena.

Henry dazzled the 20,312 fans in the first half with quick one touch passes and superb vision.

In front of a sold-out Red Bull Arena, the two best teams in Major League soccer met Saturday night with the LA Galaxy beating the New York Red Bulls 1-0 behind Edson Buddle's 13th goal of the season.

With LA manager Bruce Arena watching from a suite after spending two days in a New Jersey hospital, Buddle's 10th minute strike allowed the Galaxy to extend their lead in the Western Conference to an MLS-best 43 points.

Once again it was another fantastic night of Football at Red Bull Arena and from the first row in the lower bowl all the way to the last of the upper bowl, it was a full house and not one section was barren. Everyone came to honor Clint Mathis before the match started & see America's superstar in Landon Donovan, Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez and a hard fought match that came with it.

After almost coming a cropper against the worst team in the league last weekend the Galaxy will attempt to raise their game against one of the best before a national television audience.

So naturally, David Beckham gets a start in only his third game back from injury with Coach Bruce Arena presumably confident he'll go at least 45 minutes.

I sat down in front of the TV late on Friday night hoping for the best, but - pessimist that I am - expecting the worst. The Red Bulls hadn't beaten a top three team this season, home or away. While a result in LA probably wouldn't have made a difference one way or the other to the Red Bulls playoff prospects, the idea of starting off the weekend by dropping the most overhyped game of the MLS season, and once again failing against one of the league's big guns, had me filled with dread.

With the MLS Playoffs around the corner, Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America handicaps the field of contenders for the MLS Cup-
Each MLS team is ranked by its odds to win MLS Cup, given the teams' performances this season and their grouping in the playoff brackets. If all eight teams had an equal chance, each would be ranked at 7-1 (one chance in eight, 12.

SBI MLS Spotlight: Carlos Mendes from Soccer By Ives on Vimeo.

Everyone loves a David and Goliath story. When the good guy defies the odds and beats Superman, everyone wins. It is the basis of the American dream, countless Disney movies, and (at least for Alexi Lalas) many people's playoff predictions. Still, who can relive such timeless moments as the Miracle on Ice, the Battle Thermopylae, or even Jerry outwitting the much larger Tom without giving a cheer for the little guy?

It was a packed Buck Shaw Stadium on the campus of Santa Clara. Not a single seat was empty in the college soccer stadium to see their beloved San Jose Earthquakes face the New York Red Bulls. It was a great atmosphere for such a fantastic playoff match and as the other two first leg matches showed plenty of excitement, this one was equal to the task.

Oh, what a triumphant return to the playoffs it was for New York. With injuries to Theirry Henry, Tony Tchani, and Salou Ibrahim causing them to miss the cross-country trip, Hans Backe was forced to make some changes to his starting 11. Boy, did they work out well.