J’cans Richards, Cummings, Palmer steal MLS spotlight
NEW YORK CITY, USA (CMC) — Dane Richards collected his first goal of the season, and then set Thierry Henry up for the same milestone to formalise a 2-0 victory for the New York Red Bulls over the San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer on Saturday at the Red Bulls Arena.
Jamaican Richards netted in the 46th minute to give the Red Bulls the lead before squaring a ball that gave French superstar Henry a 63rd minute item, which put the issue out of reach of the Earthquakes.
This was easily the best game of the season for the 26-year-old Richards, a midfielder from the Jamaican north-coast resort town of Montego Bay.
He had failed to make use of an opportunity in the third minute in a strong Red Bull start, when a searching cross down the left flank found him surging through the area, and he put his shot just wide.
Both sides continued to attack each other’s goal, and Trinidad & Tobago international Cornell Glen should have given San Jose the lead in the 25th minute, when he pushed his effort wide right of goal, after he got into a one-on-one situation with Red Bulls goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul.
But Richards ensured the Red Bulls had the lead at half-time, when he trapped a ball headed back to him by Joel Lindpere outside the penalty area, and weaved his way through two San Jose defenders before sidestepping Jon Busch in the Earthquakes’ goal, and tapped the ball into an open net.
In the second half, Richards continued to play well, when he put-in a nice cross, and Henry slammed a shot into the bottom right corner of the goal to end the drought for his teammate, since he joined the Red Bulls.
With the win, the Red Bulls are now four points behind first place Columbus Crew in the Eastern Conference.
Next up for the Red Bulls are the defending MLS Champions Real Salt Lake.
In Commerce City, Colorado, Omar Cummings and Lovel Palmer grabbed the headlines for different reasons, as the Colorado Rapids crushed the Houston Dynamo 3-0 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
All three of the Rapids’ goals came in the first 25 minutes, with Cummings’ 16th minute item extending the home team’s lead, after Jamie Smith put them ahead in the second minute, and Conor Casey kept them in front with a 23rd minute strike.
To add insult to injury, midfielder Palmer succeeded in getting sentoff after just 10 minutes, when he retaliated against Rapids captain Pablo Mastroeni, after the two collided in pursuit of a ball.
The match was over as a genuine contest, when the two sides entered the locker room for the halftime break.
Casey put Smith through to set-up the opening goal, and then swerved an inch-perfect cross to Cummings lurking in front of the goal for the Jamaican’s sixth goal of the season.
Seven minutes later, the United States international scored his side’s third goal with a header into an open net.
The result kept the Rapids on a trajectory, which would place them in the play-offs, but the Dynamo slipped behind in the race for the post season.