SBNation's US Soccer editor, Jeremiah Oshan, takes the pulse of the New York Red Bulls as they head into the first full week of training camp and finds a team with a lot more question marks than answers. A great summary of where things stand now, ahead of what should be a very active week.

I know Jurgen said he wanted US International players to spend the off season concentrating on their training, but is this what he had in mind?

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/11/30/agudelo-reveals-offseason-training-plans-liverpool

I'm sure Klinsmann would rather see his players work with a legitimate football club, rather than a 2-bit operation cheered on by a bunch of barely literate bums and drug addicts with funny accents (and no, I'm not talking about the New England Patriots.)

I guess there were 19 other clubs that wouldn't have him, so he just bumped his way down the list. Here's hoping a real team wants him next year.

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Wednesday night at 8pm the Red Bulls will travel to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco Texas to take on FC Dallas.  Dallas has a lot of dangerous attacking weapons, but they have been struggling recently.  Brek Shea has had a dip in form the last month or so for his club.  I'm not sure Dallas would be my first choice to see in the wild card round, but they're still very much a beatable team at the moment.  What does everyone think of our chances?

And one side note about the last game.  Against Philadelphia we improvised the position for the 4-4-2.  Dax played as a slightly wide midfielder and always looked to play Solli down the wing.  When Solli went up, Marquez pinched right and along with McCarty covered the space.  The team took a risk tactically and it paid off.  I hope Backe doesn't simply revert to the standard formation that led to so many stagnant performances this season (16 ties!) and plays another variation.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're no doubt familiar with the controversy surrounding Rafael Márquez's post-game comments following Wednesday's 3-1 defeat to visiting Real Salt Lake. Today, Hans Backe and the Red Bulls reacted, suspending Marquez for Saturday's home match against Portland, following a team meeting, according to MLSSoccer.com's Kristian Dyer. Jeremiah Oshan did a great job of breaking down Marquez's impact on the team's results this morning in his SBNation column, concluding that they may be better off without him. If further proof is needed of the Mexican's sub-par form this season, you need to look no further than Ian Thomson's piece from Kick Off Online, which we somehow missed before the postponed Galaxy game.

Credit to Backe and Solér for doing the right thing here. No man should be above the team, whatever salary he may command, and Márquez's comments were detrimental to team morale. Hopefully he has managed to patch things up behind the scenes with his teammates, Tim Ream especially.

Is our midfield really bad enough that we need to take an unwanted player from Kansas City?

Apparently so.

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          Thierry Henry will not make the trip to Houston for the Red Bull game against the Dynamo on Saturday, May 21. There is no word yet on the extent of the injury, but it involves the striker's knee which had sidelined him during the end of last season. Henry has had a stunning resurgence to his form since a lackluster beginning to his NYRB career which put his skill and future with the club in question. He has been a key asset to the team the past few matches, and he will be sorely missed on the pitched. However, the Red Bulls have depth at striker, and the emergence of Luke Rodgers as a competent finisher and playmaker takes some stress away from the injured Henry. Expect to see Agudelo and Rodgers up front tomorrow as the Red Bulls try to stay atop the Eastern Conference.

The New York Red Bulls club payroll is first in the league at $13,397,087, almost a full million more than the Los Angeles Galaxy who come in at second with $12,419,679. Both teams are well above the league average of  $4,451,621. Thierry Henry ($5.6 mill) is the second highest paid player in MLS behind only David Beckham ($6.5 mill) of the Galaxy. Rafa Marquez of the Red Bulls is the third highest player ($4.6 mill) well ahead of American superstar Landon Donovan who comes in at fourth ($2.3 mill). It is no surprise that the top four highest-paid players are from the Galaxy and the Red Bulls, more interesting is the fact that Rafa and Henry make up about 2/3rds of NYRB's payroll and David Beckham takes up half of the Galaxy's payroll. Join me for more after the jump...

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Backe said that the Costa Rica national team has notified the Red Bulls that they will not take left back Roy Miller as part of the Gold Cup squad, but do plan to include the player into their plans for this summer’s Copa America.

Good news for the team that Miller isn't going to the Gold Cup, the defense will almost certainly be without the services of Ream and Marquez. Having one more experienced man in the back four will be crucial when the team is without almost all of its talent during the Gold Cup. The back four during the Gold Cup will certainly be a rag-tag group, it should be painful to watch them try to move the ball as well as Ream and Marquez do.

"Looks like the same injury as last year," Backe said, noting that Robinson missed nearly two months of 2010 with a knee injury.

"Probably the same team [but] Teemu [Tainio] will be back," Backe said. "He’s been training Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."

There is no good time for any player to get injured but Craig Robinson's injury came at a relatively good time. It is a shame that the veteran Welsh midfielder finds himself injured again, but Teemu Tainio looks like he is on the mend and ready to play against Chivas which means the starting eleven will be back to it was when the club looked its best. Luke Rodgers will also be good to go against Chivas, he didn't play against the Montreal Impact in the friendly earlier this week so that he could rest.

The attack should also benefit from the return of Luke Rodgers, who did not travel on Wednesday for the friendly with what the player called a "dead leg."

"Luke was just resting," Backe said. "Luke will be ready."

Backe also downplayed Rodgers' comments about Landon Donovan of the LA Galaxy, "I don’t bother, in a way, I don’t think it was too bad," Backe said. "That’s the kind of character he is." Which translates to, "He's a fucking hooligan, what did you expect him to say?"

In a veritable monsoon, playing against the team that ended the Red Bulls postseason last year, and wincing at the pain in his Achilles tendon, Thierry Henry finally put the ball in the net. He was dangerous all game long, involved in more than half a dozen good chances. It is clear that Henry and the diminutive English striker Luke Rodgers have some chemistry, Henry picked up his first assist on Rodgers' second goal and Rodgers picked up an assist on his great cross into the box that found Henry's head and the back of the net.

After scoring his goal it was clear that Henry had a message to give to the fans, especially the South Ward. That message was very clear when he beat his chest and pointed to the name on the back of his shirt. "I am still Thierry Henry."

Supposedly the crowd was jeering him after he went down and grabbed his Achilles tendon after an offsides call. (Source: NYDN)

...the crowd was chanting "au revior" and "you're going home in a Jersey ambulance" as Henry lay on the pitch after aggravating his Achilles injury.

Supposedly Henry hurled f-bombs at the crowd after his goal. It is pretty clear that the French Designated Player is fired up and recognizes the needs to perform for New York/New Jersey fans. I am glad to see some emotion from him, some fire in his eyes, to see that he cares and isn't just a tourist. There is little doubt that he was dynamic and a force to reckon with against San Jose. We can only hope to see it again against D.C. and for the rest of the season.

One person that came to Henry's defense was Luke Rodgers who had this to say about the fans jeering him:

"That kind of stuff, I can’t believe it,’’ marveled Luke Rodgers, who scored off an Henry assist, then set up the Frenchman’s headed goal with a cross. "He’s one of the best players in the league. Yeah, he’s got a problem with his Achilles, but Thierry’s our main man; we need him to play. Everyone in the team knows that, and the fans should realize that as well. You need a player like that to be happy.’’

(Source: NY Post)

A Few Notes:

Henry hasn't been fouled in 7 games, over 628 minutes. (@AdeHealey)

Despite a short week of rest, Henry looks as if he is good to go against D.C. Joel Lindpere also looks like he will be good to go against our rivals. ( NYRB official)

I was checking on the ESPN page for my New York Metropolitans (yes, they lost their fifth game in a row tonight and will probably be on the end of another beating tomorrow, against Atlanta) when I looked over to the side box for "New York Area Teams." The Mets were there, so were the Yankees, and the Giants and Jets, as were the Knicks, Rangers, and Islanders. But not the Red Bulls.

I know that ESPN gives soccer/football very little coverage on its American page, but it was a box that could easily have fit the Red Bulls' logo in as well. I also know that we don't fill our seats at Red Bull Arena, but there are ten thousand or so dedicated fans and probably many thousands more who keep up with the team's results. How does it harm ESPN to promote another part of their website that deals with soccer? (It doesn't.)

Quite simply, there is no reason for this, and it's probably not a hard fix for them. We are a New York Area sports team, ESPN. Give us some respect.