Everybody kept waiting for the bit Tim Cahill breakout.
And everybody finally got one. Quite an important one, too.
Cahill nailed two goals Saturday as the Red Bulls picked up three huge points on the road. (Three road points that help mitigate some of the points lost back at Red Bull Arena earlier this year.)
Cahill had yet to score in 2013. In fact, for all the midfield drive he provides, for all that aerial work for which the Australian international is known, for all the assistance with passing, possession, pressuring and such, the guy just hasn’t chipped in the expected number of goals around Red Bull Arena.
It was really a bit confounding.
As we said in a post last week, it’s not that anyone was complaining about his effort or his general output around the park, but that goal total – Just one in his first 20 MLS matches! – was starting to stick out like a sore Australian thumb.
So Cahill’s first half strike following the very classy dummy run from Thierry Henry and his second-half header will go a long way to reminding everyone that the man still knows how to score.
Oh, and as we pointed out the other day, how ironic that Cahill found his first two goals of 2013 on Saturday; he was playing deeper in the midfield, filling in for the injured Dax McCarty in the holding role rather than sitting higher in his usual, more advanced position.