September 14, 2012
STAYING CLOSE
While some teammates took a break, Henry trains with some others

By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor

HARRISON, N.J. -- The Red Bulls received a long and unique break -- some 2 1/2 weeks -- thanks to the recent World Cup qualifying dates.

Many players took advantage of the break by getting out of town.

Others, such as team captain and striker Thierry Henry and recent new signings Lloyd Sam and Luis Robles, stayed behind to train and keep fit.

"I don't know what time off is, man," Henry said after practice at Red Bull Arena on Thursday. "If you take time off, someone else is working. If you want to win the league, if you want to help the people around here, that's my only point, that's my mentality."

A reporter brought up the fact Henry worked out with Sam. It wasn’t intentional, the English man was there to keep in shape as well.

"I wasn't looking to get anybody ready," Henry said. "For me, That is what the game is. I don't know what are days off. We have the privilege to play -- I won't call it work -- I do what I love. You don't have a lot of people in the world who can say that. I want to be the best player I can be and it was just so happen that I saw him there. we worked together. That is my mentality, that is his mentality."

Henry was impressed with Lloyd's work ethic.

"He could have come [and said], 'I'm just arriving. I could take it easy.' He went to trian. Luis Robles was there, too. We worked for a week. I didn't have any plan behind it."

Of course, there Red Bulls have some plans against the Columbus Crew when they host their Eastern Conference foe at RBA on Saturday at 7 p.m., such as accruing three points.

The Red Bulls (13-7-7, 46 points) need those points if they want to keep pace with conference leaders Sporting Kansas City (15-7-5, 50), move back into second place and keep ahead of other playoff challengers. Kansas City hosts the fourth-place Houston Dynamo (12-7-9, 45) on Friday night.
The Chicago Fire (14-8-5, 47) moved ahead of the Red Bulls with a 2-1 win over Toronto FC on Wednesday night.

The Red Bulls recorded a 4-1 win at fifth-place Columbus (19-9-6, 42) on April 7. For Henry, that is ancient history and he felt the score was not indicative of the game.

"The score against Columbus wasn't actually how the game happened," the former French international said. "To be honest, the first half I don't think they had anything. Suddenly in the second half, [Emilio] Renteria could have had four goals. I think they hit the crossbar or the post. They had so many opportunities. When you think about it, we took four or five or six chances and that was the difference between the teams.

"They didn't finish well and we did. In the second half we didn't touch the ball and they had chance after chance. We know it's going to be difficult. Columbus, Real Salt Lake . . . they're always fighting for a place for the playoffs. They're always going to be around. It won't be an easy one. Forget about the 4-1. It's going to be a fight on Saturday."