New York Red Bulls Victorious Over Manchester City...Soccer Snobs Everywhere Weep

I'm going to let this stew for a while if you don't mind. As I stated in the preview, the Red Bulls only shot at winning was to use speed on a dreadfully slow Manchester City team. No one realistically believed the Red Bulls could pull it off and I'd feel confident to say that expectations were low. The team played well against Tottenham but no one expected a win over Man City. The match turned out to be wildly entertaining.

The big story today wasn't the play of Thierry Henry. The Frenchman was scoreless in his 45 minutes on the field. The story was the great play of Macoumba Kandji and Dane Richards. They were playing with such a connection that the passing came across as effortless. They first connected in the 7' when Dane Richards crossed the ball to Macoumba Kandji who put the ball into the back of the net right in front of the South Ward. ESC and GSS were in top form with their songs heard on tv and when Kandji scored his goal the arena was deafening. The duo connected again in the second half with Mac Kandji repaying Richards with a pass outside of the box that set up a 30 yard game winning goal in the 70'. In a game that was important to show Coach Hans Backe they deserve to remain in the starting XI once league play resumes, these two came up big. The obvious starting strikers are Juan Pablo Angel and Henry but now Hans Backe needs to find a way to keep both Kandji and Richards in the line up. The reported addition of Rafael Marquez adds to the issues of remaining as starters.

The team kept a clean sheet through the first half with some amazing saves by Bouna Coundoul. It was only after the team made substitutions at the start of the second half that Man City appeared to gain any sort of footing. They were unable to many scoring opportunities until the Brazilian striker Jo was able to blast a ball at close range. There was only one other opportunity that Man City had where I was worried the Red Bulls would concede another goal, which happened to go over the net in the most miraculous fashion.

The stats on this game actually paint a very accurate picture of what happened:

The numbers don't lie. The Red Bulls out played and out hustled a severely disinterested Manchester City squad.

Video highlights after the jump...