An inspired New York side hammer an uninspired Columbus side 4-1 on Saturday night in Harrison, New Jersey.
Red Bulls Crush Crew
Bradley Wright-Phillips 17th minute goal was cancelled out by Adam Bedell’s 39th minute finish before the bottom began to fall-out of the Crew’s ship. Thiery Henry put the hosts on top for good at the dearth of the half and Lloyd Sam and Erik Alexander both scored for the Red Bulls who sailed away with the match.
The result moves the big-city outfit into a bit of separation from Columbus whilst the Crew now face a daunting task of trying to right their slowly sinking ship that has gone winless in their last seven fixtures and hasn’t won a league match since May 24.
Both sides provided plenty of early fireworks with chances for troubling both the visitor’s and the home side early.
After 16 minutes New York front-runner Wright-Phillips was able to evade the attentions of Crew defenders and find the space to be on the end of some fabulous combination play between Eric Alexander and Thierry Henry for the match’s first goal.
Columbus’ Ethan Finley found teammate Adam Bedell 22 minutes later after a deep delivery saw him sneak past and lock the match up at one-a-piece.
Red Bull fans were rewarded when Thierry Henry doubled-up the Crew in the 45th minute.
Despite the Red Bulls having an edge in possession (51.4%/48.6%) for the match the Crew continued to control the game and as the Red Bulls safely held some Columbus free kick set pieces.
Caught napping early in the second half after a great run Henry saw him find Lloyd Sam who drove home a third goal after 56 minutes.
A flat Columbus outfit had no response as the men in yellow and black continued to attack but to no avail.
Henry, who had a hand in all four of his side’s tallies assisted Alexander for the fourth of the eve in second half stoppage-time to ice it up at 4-1.
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Main Photo by Jim Campbell via USA Today Sports.
