Random thoughts about this weekends game…

According to BAS, Thierry Henry had plenty of good things to say about Dane Richards this week, and rightfully so. Dane has played very well as of late, and was responsible for key contributions on all four goals last week in Toronto. Will Dane be able to sustain this high level of play has been the main question coming out of this weekend. Plenty of times in the past he has shown great skill, only to relapse into poor decision making and ill timed runs. Even though he has shown promise in the past, he has never shown the level of decision making and passing that he has currently exhibited. His ability to hold up the ball has definitely improved, and his crosses have been much more accurate as well. There may be a bit of humility on display here, but whatever it is, it is working.

I think Dane suffered a great setback in his play earlier in his career for two reasons. He was able to skate by on his blazing speed his rookie year, and he was dangerous in just about every game. The pieces he was missing were defensive responsibility, crossing well into the box, shooting, and positional awareness. Bruce Arena would have helped this development along, but he was sacked for missing out on the MLS Cup in his first full year as a coach. In stepped JCO, and the team overall suffered, but especially a player that needed to be brought along like Richards. In a mini-Adu-like situation, Richards did not get the proper coaching, and his play declined. You could see his improvement this year under Backe, and hopefully he will continue to develop well. Let’s hope that Henry’s words reach Richards at his core, and push him to be the best player he can be.

I am very excited about seeing the boys back in action at RBA this weekend, and it is hopefully the game where Henry opens his scoring account in the MLS. San Jose is a formidable team, and I expect this game to be a tight defensive battle. The last time these teams met, Backe handed the keys to the right back position to Luke Sassano. He played so well, that he didn’t see much action after his early red card for the rest of the season in MLS play. Luckily, he won’t be around to screw things up again. Now Chris Albright is manning the right side of the defense, and he has been very solid. The former National teamer nailed down the position once he returned from injury and hasn’t looked back since. Albright has done very well serving in at least one dangerous cross a game, and it is only a matter of time before Angel or Henry buries one.

In the middle of the field, Tchani will be looking to continue his stellar form as of late, and Rafa will be doing his best to control the pace of the game. The two of them are the most important piece to winning the game. If Tony and Rafa are dangerous, it will free up the wings and open up space on the rest of the field. If they fail, the defense will be on its heels all day, and will most likely cough up a goal. Keep your fingers crossed, this should be a good game to get some much needed revenge for a pitiful performance from earlier this year. As always…

LET’S GO RED BULLS!