It just wouldn't be the New York Red Bulls unless the sky was falling.

The Red Bulls dropped their second straight league game against the Houston Dynamo last week, which went a long way to end the warm and fuzzy, honeymoon-type feelings after Tim Cahill's signing. We were near the top of the East, but not for much longer. The defense looked anemic, the offense couldn't get much going. It was a wreck, and the return leg of the home-and-home didn't seem like we were going to get much in the way of improvement.

But the Red Bulls came out swinging Friday night and earned three points, vaulting them -- temporarily -- to the top of the East. And as unfashionable as it is to give props to our manager, Hans Backe deserves a pat on the back after Friday's performance.

Why?

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Well, looks like we have a better idea of why the Red Bulls picked up Luis Robles.

Costa Rica, Estonia and Puerto Rico have called up Roy Miller, Joel Lindpere and Bill Gaudette respectively for international duty.

The games -- Costa Rica-Peru, Estonia-Poland and Puerto Rico-Spain -- will all be played on August 15, possibly causing them to miss the Red Bulls tie with the Portland Timbers August 19, though that doesn't seem entirely probable.

With Jeremy Vuolo "not MLS ready" and Ryan Meara out with a nagging injury, a void of "acceptable" keepers could've been the catalyst for GM Erik Soler to go out and find another backstop.

For Lindpere, who came under criticism thinks week from head coach Hans Backe, the international tie could give him an opportunity to regain his form, which, if we're being honest, has been up-and-down at best this year.

Miller's absence shouldn't be as much of a problem, as it seems he's the second (or possibly third) choice at left back thanks to the acquisition of Heath Pearce and the emergence of Connor Lade.

It appears the New York Red Bulls finally got their man. After targeting Luis Robles in the off-season but backing away from signing him due to the allocation process it would have triggered, the Red Bulls have now acquired Robles, costing them their previous position of 10th overall in the league-wide allocation order.

Robles has spent the last few seasons in Germany with FC Kaiserslautern and Karlsruher SC. He had been drafted by DC United in 2007 but never signed with the club, and was capped by the U.S. National Team during the 2009 Gold Cup.

Robles brings some international experience to the team and is no doubt somewhat talented, but its hard to say from a roster management point of view what impact this will have on the club in terms of salary. Needless to say, this does not bode well for youngsters Jeremy Vuolo or Ryan Meara. Vuolo is assumed to be on his way out at the club since carrying four goalkeepers is out-of-the-ordinary. While Meara opened the season as one of the top first-year players in Major League Soccer he has missed time to a nagging hip injury. It's unclear how his injury affected the Red Bulls decision to pursue a new keeper, or if Robles was their preferred keeper all along?

What do you think about the latest move in what has been quite an active summer for the Red Bulls roster?

Less than one month ago, when news broke that the New York Red Bulls had acquired then Vancouver Whitecap Sebastien Le Toux, there was an assortment of confusion, excitement, and tepid support for bringing in a player who could be a difference maker for a club desperate to win MLS Cup. Since then, Le Toux has started and gone the full ninety in five league matches and also played in the friendly Barclays New York Cup against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite Hans Backe deserving enormous credit for leading an often battered roster to near the top of the Eastern Conference and within striking distance of the league-leading San Jose Earthquakes for the Supporters' Shield, benching Kenny Cooper in order to start Le Toux alongside Thierry Henry against the Houston Dynamo was a mistake that should not be repeated.

Most of the post-game attention surrounded new designated player Tim Cahill making his MLS debut. Some touched upon how much missing Dax McCarty due to yellow card accumulation hurt the team. But I was a little surprised more wasn't said about benching the team's leading scorer with thirteen goals (five game-winners), which is enough to tie him for second most league wide. He's also tied for most shots on goal with thirty-six. While it's a small sample size, the Red Bulls are 1-3 without Cooper in the starting lineup, with the one win coming in a very low-offensive output 1-0 result against the Chicago Fire.

While Kenny Cooper has started alongside Thierry Henry in seven of the games he's scored in this season, Henry has only scored one of his eleven goals when Cooper wasn't on the field. They work well off of each other, and anytime a pair of MLS forwards has scored twenty-four goals with eleven games left to play, they should start together whenever possible. Cooper also scored in three out of the four matches that Henry missed in May after injuring his hamstring against New England. During a stretch from which Red Bull fans expected the worst, Cooper carried the offense and was crucial to New York winning all four games without Henry and earning thirteen out of a possible fifteen points in May - by far their most effective month in terms of points earned per game all season.

But that was May, and this is now.

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Well, that was fast. Back-to-back losses at Montreal and Houston have dropped the New York Red Bulls from first place in the Eastern Conference and narrowed their lead over rival DC United and the Chicago Fire.

With forty points apiece through twenty-three games played, both Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo pulled ahead of New York who has been stuck on thirty-eight points since beating the Philadelphia Union on July 21. Both Chicago and DC won over the weekend as well, which only makes the top of the Eastern Conference more crowded, especially considering D.C. United has played two fewer games than the Red Bulls. Houston has played an impressive stretch of games to reach the top of the standings (6-0-2 in their last eight matches). In comparison, New York is 3-3-2.

Of their eleven remaining games in the regular season, the Red Bulls play six against Eastern Conference teams that are within three points of them in the current standings in either direction. While the introduction of an unbalanced schedule came under a lot of scrutiny from fans to open the season, it's hard to argue it won't make for some compelling matchups and storylines down the stretch.

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The season ticket price hikes, the idiotic quotes, the attendance drops. It's all over (well, maybe no the attendance dops). Chris Heck, public enemy number one among much of the Red Bulls fan base, is out after roughly a year at the post.

Kristian Dyer alluded to as much last night, and the Post's Brian Lewis followed up, confirming that the target of "Chris Heck Hates Soccer Fans" t-shirts was "no longer with the organization." Whether or not he was fired or stepped down himself is a question unanswered, but that's not stopping celebrations inspired by his ouster.

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Erik Soler's been wheeling and dealing. The day after he swaps Mehdi Ballouchy for an international spot and a draft pick and just a few days after he signs Tim Cahill and cuts Ryan Maduro, here comes some much needed defensive help.

The New York Post's Brian Lewis is reporting the Red Bulls have signed Babajide Ogunbiyi, a Nigerian-American defender from Viborg FF of the Danish First Division and who was drafted by the team back in 2009.

If the name sounds familiar, it's because we profiled him over the winter as a solution to Hans Backe's desire the team pick up a physical centerback. Back then, he was described, by Viborg, as "big and very strong," "half American and half Nigerian muscle," and, as the headline indicates a "lighthouse from Philadelphia."

Not much is known on the deal yet, as the news has only broken on Twitter, but we assume Ogunbiyi is still a gigantic man and still plays defense.

Speculate away in the comments on what this means for Wilman Conde, Markus Holgersson, Stephen Keel and Tyler Ruthven (as well as the team itself).

UPDATE 7/31, 12:18: Here's the press release from the team.

Announced Saturday, but datelined today, the Red Bulls announced they were waiving midfielder Ryan Maduro. The Providence College grad featured in the Red Bulls U.S. Open Cup victory over the Charleston Battery, but never got any league minutes.

In more interesting news, Kristian Dyer of Big Apple Soccer and Metro fame, is reporting Erik Soler has pulled the trigger on a deal that sends Mehdi Ballouchy to the San Jose Earthquakes. There's been no news on how the Red Bulls are being compensated for the Moroccan international.

This year, unlike years past, Ballouchy is actually playing well, and his absence Saturday night left a hole none of the other bench players (all five of them) could fill. Fresh legs could have provided a spark and got the Red Bulls back into the game, but Ballouchy, whose visa issues keep him out of games in Canada and international friendlies, wasn't around.

UPDATE 1 p.m.: The release says the Bulls got a 2013 international spot and a 2013 conditional draft pick in exchange for Ballouchy.

Well, that was rough.

It all happened in two minutes. First Marco Di Vaio puts one away at the outset of the second half, then Davy Arnaud. Thierry Henry put one in the back of the net for the Red Bulls in the 57th minute, but Sanna Nyassi put the game out of reach in the 74th.

It felt a bit like the team's chickens were coming home to roost. Jan Gunnar Solli, filling in for the injured Brandon Barklage, was caught out of position on two of the goals. Bill Gaudette, who was given the honor of starter-'till-he-screws-up, seemed to hesitate on coming off his line on the first two goals.

To make matters worse, a rather stupid yellow card suspends Dax McCarty, a model of consistency and health in an inconsistent and unhealthy line-up, for Friday night's game against the Houston Dynamo.

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Oh, yeah, in case you haven't heard, next week is the Barclays New York Cup, because if we can't travel across the Atlantic to win some rather meaningless silverware, why not win some rather meaningless silverware in our own backyard!

Anyway, Tottenham Hotspur is the other team in all this, and they've released their roster for the game. I'm no Spurs fan, but it seems they're coming with a pretty good mix of players.

From the official site...

Goalkeepers: Jordan Archer, Carlo Cudicini, Brad Friedel, Heurelho Gomes

Defenders: Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastien Bassong, Michael Dawson, William Gallas, Younes Kaboul, Kyle Naughton, Adam Smith, Jan Vertonghen, Kyle Walker

Midfielders: Gareth Bale, David Bentley, Tom Carroll, Tom Huddlestone, Jermaine Jenas, Aaron Lennon, Jake Livermore, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Andros Townsend, Rafael van der Vaart

Forward: Harry Kane

Also, a cool thing, sort of in keeping with Chris Heck's promise that the friendly was a gift for the fans, the Red Bulls are going to sport numbers with the names of season ticket holders on them. Plus, two fans, picked by contest, will get to do the radio broadcast and supporters group members and season ticket holders will "be taking part in pre and post match ceremonies, including the medal presentation following the match."