Thierry Henry has always cast a huge shadow wherever he’s played, from leading Arsenal’s undefeated season to scoring 26 goals in Barcelona’s unprecedented sextuple, from his hated handball to get France into the World Cup to supposedly fomenting a player mutiny once they arrived in South Africa.
MLS and the Red Bulls _ who host archrival D.C. United at 7:30 p.m. tonight _ both hope the 32-year-old forward will cast just as big a shadow when they introduce him on Thursday as the best player the league has ever seen. He won’t help New Yorkers forget about losing LeBron, but can he do for the Red Bulls what the Knicks had hoped King James would’ve done for them?
From the French that love him to the Irish that hate him, from the so-called Eurosnobs who’ll respect his pedigree to the casual American sports fan who’ve actually found an MLS player sides David Beckham they can recognize, Henry is expected to immediately become a face of the league and foundation of the club.
The L.A. Galaxy are the runaway leaders in the league so far despite the absence of its two big stars, with Beckham injured and Landon Donovan joining Galaxy teammate and MLS-leading scorer Edson Buddle at the World Cup. But Henry joins Red Bull captain Juan Pablo Angel _ the league’s second-leading scorer _ in boosting New York into a legitimate East Coast-West Coast rivalry.
Think Lakers-Celtics of the 1980s, or even past few seasons. Perhaps Lakers-Heat for the next few. Surely MLS’ front offices must be, salivating over the prospect of what Henry’s presence will do for both their middling TV ratings and their steadily-rising gate _ already up nearly 10% from last year, at over 16,455 coming into this weekend.
The Red Bulls debuted a new $200 million stadium in Harrison, and despite their attendance being up an MLS-high 48% from last year’s dismal Giants Stadium swan song, at 16,284 coming into tonight it was still nearly 2,000 short of what managing director Erik Stover had hoped _ and almost 9,000 short of capacity.
Henry _ who was one of the world’s five most marketable soccer players according to Futebol Finance _ can help that.
*** Midfielder Brian Nielsen is out 6-8 weeks with a bone edema. There’s bone-on-bone contact from his meniscectomy, but the team doesn’t foresee a microfracture surgery.
*** The Red Bulls are still hoping forward Luke Rodgers’ can get his second Aug. 3 visa meeting moved up.
*** If they don’t sign their defensive midfield target, Joel Lindpere will stay at central midfield and they’ll use Sinisa Ubiparipovic or Roy Miller wide left.
*** Swedish goalkeeper Max Bergander wasn’t on trial; the 23-year-old was just training with the team.
