Henry hurt after taking scoring lead
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Apr 30, 2012
[MLS GOLEADORES] In Week 8 action, Thierry Henry scored the Red Bulls' winner against New England to pull away from San Jose's Chris
Wondolowski for the league scoring lead.
* Henry scored his ninth goal of the season by lobbing frozen keeper Matt Reis from 19 yards with a volley in the seventh minute. But
Henry had to be helped off the field midway through the first half when he went down with a hamstring injury that will likely keep him out of action for the nationally televised Cinco de Mayo match at
Los Angeles and key Eastern Conference matches against Houston and Philadelphia the following week.
* The 34-year-old Henry has scored his nine goals in eight appearances this season,
his third since joining MLS midway through the 2010 campaign. He scored two in 11 games in 2010 and 14 in 26 appearances in 2011.
* D.C. United's Brazilian striker Maicon
Santos scored twice in a 3-2 win over Houston to move into fourth place with six goals.
* The 28-year-old Santos is on pace for his most productive season since arriving in MLS in
2009, when he scored once in eight games for Chivas USA. In 2010 he scored once for Chivas USA and hit four after moving to Toronto. Last season he scored eight goals; six for Toronto and two for FC
Dallas.
* MLS Leading Scorers
| Player | Team (country) | Goals | Assists |
| Thierry Henry | New York (France) | 9 | 5 |
| Chris Wondolowski | San Jose (USA) | 8 | 1 |
| Kenny Cooper | New York (USA) | 7 | 1 |
| Maicon Santos | D.C. United (Brazil) | 6 | 1 |
| Will Bruin | Houston (USA) | 4 | 1 |
| Kei Kamara | Kansas City (Sierra Leone) | 4 | 1 |
| David Estrada | Seattle (USA) | 4 | 0 |
| Chris Pontius | DC United (USA) | 4 | 0 |
Henry's ninth goal of the season:
I like Henry, and that was a nice finish, but it sure looked to me like the reason he went from behind the defender to in front of the defender was by pulling the defender back, so I think the ref missed that one...
Kent, I disagree with you. There was no foul. Actually, the same defender was caught slow-reacting to challenges on few occasions during this game.
It looked to me like Henry grabbed the McCarthy's shoulders with both hands and pulled himself even (a "little grab" in the commentators words), which then allowed him to use his speed to get to the ball before the McCarthy. You can argue that McCarthy "held" Henry by extending his arms away from his body, so that might justify Henry's pulling him back, but I don't think so. It wasn't a big pull, but I'd argue it made the difference in allowing Henry to get to the ball first. I wouldn't criticize the referee for missing it, but I think it just shows how difficult refereeing can be (and since he was behind them, he'd have a harder time seeing that) and how even little things make a big difference.
Kent, I wouldn't use Kyle Martino's comments as reference. During this game, he was atrocioius. To me, it sounded like he has some grudges against the NYRB. He shouldn't be allowed near a NYRB game again. In regard to McCarthy, I don't know if you watched the game. He was so slow, to the point that even if wasn't touched at all, he would have been beaten to the ball every time.
Unfortunately, I did not see the game. McCarthy's lack of speed might be one reason the referee let it go, assuming that Henry's pull was unnecessary (since he would have beaten McCarthy without it) and therefore trifling, but from the replay, it looked like Henry beat McCarthy by a fraction of a second to the ball, which is why I thought it should have been a foul. Not an obvious foul, but one that made the difference between scoring and not scoring. My point in raising the issue is that sometimes things that seem to be insignificant can make a big difference.
I agree with your last statement. This is part of soccer, unfortunately. It happens every where on the field and all the time.
Gus, I hear you on that one.