After the Red Bulls followed last year’s breakthrough Eastern Conference crown with a heartbreaking first-round playoff exit, they opened training camp this week. And a recharged, rejuvenated Thierry Henry _ his knee vastly improved if not 100 percent _ reiterated that the goal this season is MLS Cup or bust.
“I never set myself any (personal) targets. All I want is the team to win,’’ said Henry. “Last season everybody got excited; we thought we could’ve done it. It’s the same thing this year. Every time you enter a competition, you want to try to win it. As an organization, we finally want to bring that trophy that New York has never won. That’s the thing.’’
Henry, 33, joined the team in the summer already fighting fitness problems, and scored just two goals while injuring his knee and hamstring. This offseason the Red Bulls let Juan Palo Angel go to the L.A. Galaxy in the re-allocation draft, largely because they’re expecting a quantum leap forward from a healthy Henry.
“We’re confident we can do the job without Juan Pablo,’’ GM Erik Soler said of the team’s all-time leading scorer and former captain. “He was a fantastic player for this club, and you have to give him all possible credit for what he did for us.
“But now he’s in LA. I hope he does well every time he doesn’t play us. We don’t want him to come back and score more goals at Red Bull Arena. He’s a wonderful player, but we’re going put the team together in a way that hopefully we won’t notice that he’s not here anymore.’’
Soler said the Red Bulls aren’t adding any attackers or Designated Players before the season, and the only player on their current roster likely to make the supporters not notice Angel’s absence is Henry. But coach Hans Backe is confident with a full training camp under his belt, the French star can do just that.
“I’m sure that even if he does still have some pain the knee, he did some gym work in London, to strengthen the area around the knee. I think he did one week with Arsenal doing some football,’’ Backe said. “But I’m absolutely sure if he stays fit this preseason, definitely we’ll see a very good striker.’’
Ah, but note Backe threw in that all-important caveat. For Henry, staying fit last season was easier said than done. Truth be told, he never really GOT fit, arriving in midseason without a training camp. Henry was limited to just a late-game cameo in their crushing 3-1 home playoff loss to San Jose due to the injury woes. He says his physical health from the end of last season to now is like night-and-day.
“It’s incomparable. I was dead at the end of the season; I was literally dead. I don’t recall having cramps an hour into a game ever in my entire life. It was kind of difficult to compare,’’ said Henry, pausing and summarizing “I feel like a battery as low as possible and (you) try to recharge it. That’s exactly like I feel like now; I feel like I’m recharging the battery.’’
It remains to be seen if a refreshed, rejuvenated _ and yes, recharged _ Henry can lead the Red Bulls to their first-ever cup.
