In case you haven't been paying attention, the Red Bulls were one of the few MLS teams to come away with a win in the U.S. Open Cup's fourth round. The list of MLS casualties is high. The New England Revolution had seemingly put away the USL Harrisburg City Islanders with three extra time goals, only for the Central Pennsylvania side to come back, tie it up and win in penalty kicks. Eric Wynalda's Cal FC made everything right in the world with an extra time goal that saw them past the Portland Timbers.

The Dayton Dutch Lions knocked out the Columbus Crew. The Chicago Fire crashed out against the Michigan Bucks. The San Antonio Scorpions moved on at the expense of the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas was shut out by the Charlotte Eagles. Real Salt Lake, who following the Seattle Sounders and the Portland Timbers, bought home field advantage, got beat 3-1 at home at the hands of the Minnesota Stars. And, finally, the LA Galaxy got beat by the NASL Carolina Railhawks.

So if Hans Backe was planning on taking this year's Open Cup seriously to avoid embarrassment, he probably picked the wrong year. The Red Bulls would likely be lost in the shuffle if the went down to Charleston and lost. But they didn't. And the Red Bulls are still alive among a mix of MLS, second and third division teams.

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There's hope in Hans Backe's promise the Red Bulls will pull out all the stops for the U.S. Open Cup this year -- you know, unlike last year -- with the whole "starting a respectable XI" thing. But its important to remember that they do, in fact, have a game tomorrow. And no matter how many MLS-tested players take the field tomorrow night they do still have to score more goals than the Charleston Battery tomorrow starting at 7:30 p.m.

It's important to remember this because the team, has never, in its history, gone down to Charleston and won.

The other two times the then-MetroStars traveled south, they suffered a 4-1 browbeating in 2001 and crashed out after losing 1-0 in 2004.

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If you said the season was over after Thierry Henry came off in the first half against the New England Revolution in April, no one would blame you. In the seven games leading up to the Revs tie, Henry practically was the team, with eight goals in seven game and added another before he strained his hamstring.

To compound the issue, Wilman Conde, Stephen Keel, Juan Agudelo, Teemu Tainio and Roy Miller all suffered injuries and Rafael Marquez got suspended. All of them were out for a portion of the last five games Henry missed.

What followed was completely unexpected. Three straight clean sheets, keeping the Revs off the board before shutting out the LA Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo. Then they went down to Chester and got their first win on the Philadelphia Union's home field and last night they battled back to secure three points against the Montreal Impact despite being down to 10 men.

With Henry scheduled to come back next week and the addition of Heath Pearce fans can exhale a little, but before the now awkward mid-week match-up against Chivas USA, let's take a look back at the team's stunningly un-Metro-like run.

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According to Erik Soler, anyway.

"To obtain someone of Heath’s pedigree and gain substantial financial considerations, we had to trade Juan – an exciting player with potential.''

For the services of Juan Agudelo, the Red Bulls get defender Heath Pearce, allocation money and a chunk of Agudelo's allocation fee should he (when he) bolt(s) to Europe.

Regardless of your take on the issue, whether you loathe it, or you're taking the Pro Soccer Talk and Dave Martinez route on things, this trade was huge for the Red Bulls. There are a ton of facets through which to view this deal and there are still a ton of questions to be answered about this deal.

So let's take a look at them, because this is a blog, and what do blogs do better than baseless speculation, rumor mongering and over-analysis?

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Hans Backe is the best manager in Red Bulls history.

For all his faults, and there are many, the numbers, crunched by Steve Davis over at Pro Soccer Talk, don't lie. Backe's got a winning percentage nearly 50 points higher than his next closest competitor, Mo Johnston. His next win will make him the team's second winningest coach and, being only 9 wins behind, might by the end of the season oust Octavio Zambrano at number 1. If his deal is extended -- it's up at the end of the year -- he'll be the longest-tenured coach the team's ever had.

But if we're being honest in all this, it's a bit like saying Backe is the smartest kid with down syndrome.

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We knew almost two weeks ago Teemu Tainio wouldn't be around for a bit and we knew Wilman Conde could be out a month last week, but now Roy Miller figures to be out a bit after a tackle took him out of last Saturday's tie with the San Jose Earthquakes and Rafael Marquez's Foul Heard 'Round MLS figures to keep him off the field for a while.

Remember when Hans Backe said the Bulls were deep? We'll, that depth is about to be tested this weekend against D.C. United.

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Comparing Chris Wondolowski to Thierry Henry and his laundry list of individual accomplishments might seem a stretch, but when taken in the context of MLS, it's an apt comparison.

In raw offensive numbers, the two sit 1 and 2 in goals and 3 and 4 in shots and shots on goal. Henry is second in assists, more-often-than-not setting up Kenny Cooper (who's tied with Wondolowski for second in goals). The San Jose Earthquakes have 8 goals for, and Wondolowski has scored six, while the Red Bulls have netted 14, with Henry having a hand in 11. For those of you into this kind of thing, the Castrol Index ranks Henry and Wondolowski as the two players with the biggest impact in the league. The teams they play for both sit second in their conferences.

And it's not as if Wondolowski doesn't have an impressive resume himself. He was named to the MLS Best XI team the last two seasons and would've had two consecutive golden boots if it wasn't for a tiebreaker last year.

Now that Wilman Conde is out another week -- and possibly longer -- the conditions might be just right for Wondolowski to wreak havoc on the Red Bulls' end of the field. While the Quakes defense is stingy, Henry only lets his frustration drive him. Not to mention, the Red Bulls have the highest offensive output in the league.

These two are the engines by which their club's offenses run, and if the two keep up their play into Saturday, the offensive fireworks on the pitch might be more than enough to distract fans from the post-game fireworks.

Plenty of Red Bulls fans are headed into Saturday's game against the Columbus Crew fearful that this week's game could be the "trap game" where a team's confidence allows it to overlook its opponent.

Some of the same fans enter the weekend with confidence built up from two brow-beatings at home against a weak Montreal Impact side and a depleted Colorado Rapids squad.

Truth be told, neither side is right, and neither side is completely wrong, either.

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