Rafa Marquez Sparks the Red Bulls To a 4-1 Victory Over Toronto

Toronto - Rafa Marquez scored his first MLS goal in the 35th minute to ignite the New York Red Bulls to a 4-1 victory over Toronto FC.

Killing two birds with one stone, the Red Bulls ended Toronto's 17 game unbeaten streak at the BMO Field while silencing their home crowd of 22,108.

By winning their 10th game of the season, the Red Bulls doubled last year's win total and remain in second place in the Eastern Conference.

Today's four-goal performance by the Red Bulls demonstrated the offensive potential this team has when they're running on all cylinders and attacking the net.

Goals by Rafa (35th), Juan Pablo Angel (61st, PK), Carl Robinson (77th) and Toronto's Joseph Nane (44th, own goal) help end the Red Bulls three-game scoring drought in which they were only able to produce one goal while allowing the opposition to score one goal too.

Along with the goals, the defense was simply superb. Red Bulls Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has been playing well as off late and the tandem of Tim Ream and Carlos Mendes consistently helped him whenever Toronto was in position to take a shot on goal.

For Thierry Henry, he's yet to produce a score but he came so close in the 56th minute when he fired his shot after beautifully beating his defender. Playing 57 minutes today, Henry continues to play well and it's a matter of time in which he's going to go on a scoring binge.

For Toronto, despite their valiant effort and a beautiful goal by Dwanye De Rosario (49th) in which he nutmegged Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul to reduce their two-goal deficit to one, the Reds had the misfortune of not being able to muster up any more goals.

In addition to the loss, they've positioned themselves with the possibility of not reaching the postseason. Despite their third place standing in the Eastern Conference, there's six teams in the Western Conference with better records.

With an opportunity to avenge their 4-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes, the Red Bulls return to Red Bull Arena next Saturday, August 28th to face them. With nine games remaining in the regular season, the Red Bulls need to win as many games as they can in order to secure a postseason berth.

Cesar Diaz covers Soccer for Latino Sports. Please send him your questions and comments to [e-mail]