As the injuries began to pile up for the Red Bulls, forcing coach Hans Backe to field a young, inexperienced back line for at least a month, heres what even the most optimistic fan had to be thinking:

Theyre on an elevator to the Eastern Conference basement.

Then, 22 minutes into their April 28 game against the New England Revolution at Red Bull Arena, leading scorer Thierry Henry went down with a hamstring strain and the less-than-sunny assessment had to be updated.

Make that an express elevator to the Eastern Conference basement.

Fast forward to today, with the Red Bulls sitting in first place following a four-game winning streak, and it would be easy to start an explanation with Well, a strange thing happened ...

But why would it be such a strange thing?

Americans know how to play defense. We grow up playing defense in all sports, not just soccer, and the phrase defense wins championships is constantly pounded into our heads.

Heres something else. We can play goalkeeper, too, as the honor roll of Tony Meola, Kasey Keller, Brad Friedel and Tim Howard over the past two decades can attest. So the fact that Ryan Meara, a New York kid who played at Fordham, can come into Major League Soccer and play well as a rookie shouldnt surprise anyone.

Ireland sure noticed. They wanted Meara to join their Under-21 team for European U-21 qualifying, but the Red Bulls blocked the call-up.

But back to the defense.

Read the rest here:

On Soccer: Red Bulls rise to top of Eastern Conference with help from trio of young American defenders