Red Bull nation can exhale now.  Sunday night’s match against Portland marked the end of a tough stretch for New York, yet marked the beginning of another.  The match, which ended in a 3-3 draw, was significant in many ways.  While the team welcomed back playmaker Dwayne de Rosario to the starting XI, the first of five key players set to return throughout the next two weeks from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, they lost Thierry Henry on a questionable red card for arguing with Portland’s Adam Moffat– after all, as the always-colorful Shep Messing said, “no one pays to see the referee.”  The point gained also gave New York the slenderest of leads at the top of the Eastern Conference table over Philadelphia. 

            Going into Sunday’s match with confidence from a win over rivals New England, New York welcomed back De Rosario with open arms.  For much of the last month, the Red Bulls’ match day 18 featured bit players and reserves – at one point listing only three on the bench – so having a player of De Rosario’s quality is immense.  De Rosario’s impact was felt early and often, as he was involved in the lead-up to Austin da Luz’s fifth minute opener and coolly slotted home a penalty kick in the dying moments of the match.

             The win against the Revolution was the first since April 30 against a Sporting Kansas City side that was in the middle of a 10-game road trip to start the season.  Since the SKC win, the Bulls have endured a dire stretch which saw the offense sputter and gain only 9 of 27 possible points.  Although they are on a six-game unbeaten streak, New York has looked far from the imperious side they were in early April.

            Hans Backe will have at least Dane Richards for next Thursday’s match at Seattle, the second of the team’s four-game stretch until July 2, which also includes tough matches against Chicago and San Jose.  By the end of the trip, Rafa Marquez, Tim Ream and Juan Agudelo will all be back, to the delight of Backe and fans alike.  Yet in the mean time, Henry will be missing in action for at least the run-in at Qwest Field, meaning Dane Richards could be forced up front to pair with De Rosario.

            On the pitch Sunday, there were both positives and negatives to take into the next stretch. Encouraging were the performances of De Rosario and rookie da Luz, who consistently put in the effort, even in the second half when Portland dominated play.  Henry was also influential, especially with his long pass to De Rosario to start the sequence leading up to the first goal and his own goal.  New York played with intensity in the first half, something lacking in previous weeks.  That play, which culminated in the early goal, silenced the raucous Jeld-Wen field crowd and will be important for Thursday’s clash.  New York also showed a feistiness late, which allowed them to even be in place to come back.

            However, the lackadaisical play to start the second half will be distressing for Backe.  The Red Bulls lax play for the first 25 minutes of the second half allowed Portland to get back into it, and fans must have had déjà vu, thinking they were watching clips from previous matches – or maybe even last season’s first round playoff second leg match against San Jose.  Defense against set pieces was also shocking, with the first goal coming off a free kick and Jack Jewsbury always looking threating.

            At the end of the day, the point will have been encouraging, and fans will be happy to see the Gold Cup coming to an end, even if the end did come prematurely for De Rosario and the Canucks.  Yet there is still plenty of work left to be done if the Red Bulls are to stay in first place for the remainder of the season.

Questions/Comments? Find Brian on twitter, @brianm1090.