3 Thoughts: RBNY fall JUST short of MLS Cup Final

Luis Robles

Robles has had a tough year with a back line that didn't solidify until the second half of the season, and even then, he's been left out to dry a lot. On the first goal (we'll talk more about this later) he was a little unlucky because he couldn't see the ball coming in. He was blocked by his own defenders. On the second goal though, he had one job to do, hold onto the ball. He couldn't do that, and it led to Davies' second goal of the night. Granted, the defense could have shut the play down, but if Robles just does his job, then we're still looking at a 3-3 aggregate result and Extra Time. I'm not putting the whole series on him, because he was left helpless on 3 of 4 goals scored against him in the two games. He was just unlucky that his mistake led to the one that mattered.

Charlie Davies' First Goal

Davies' first goal of the night came off of a New England Revolution corner kick. It was a beautifully run set piece that had the defense guessing. The issue is in whether Davies' committed a handball or not on the play. I don't have a video I can embed in this article (as of writing this), but check out the replay available on the MLSSoccer.com recap. It's hard to tell what's going on because of all the activity around Davies, but there is a hint of a possible handball. If there was actually a handball, I can't blame the referee for not calling it. More importantly, the goal was 5 minutes before and came against the run of play. The Red Bulls had all of the momentum, and that killed it heading into the locker room.

Thierry Henry

This was possibly the last game of Thierry Henry, either for the New York Red Bulls or forever depending on what he decides to do. If so, while it wasn't the result that Red Bull fans wanted, at least we got to see a classic Henry performance. His cross to Tim Cahill for the first goal speaks volumes about his skills. The Red Bulls, and soccer in general, will miss it when it's gone.