NEW YORK RED BULLS (Red Bull Arena)

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER, NEW YORK RED BULLS 4-3 REAL SALT LAKE CITY, ATTENDANCE: 18,604

Season 2013/14 began competitively with a game 3,000 miles away from home. The seeds of this trip were sown last Christmas when, after watching Everton succumb to a goal from Fat Frank, resulting in a home defeat by Chelsea, my friend and I sat in the pub discussing potential January reinforcements.

She questioned the possibility of Tim Cahill, who had recently left, returning on loan for 10 games like Landon Donovan did a couple of years back. I thought it very unlikely and said the only way we would ever see Tim Cahill play again is if we went and watched him play for the New York Red Bulls.

There was a pause, we looked at each other and you could see the respective cartoon light bulbs begin to flash. Game on.

The Major League Soccer announced their fixtures in January so flights and hotel were booked and it was off to the 'Big Apple'

Since the World Cup in 1994, football, sorry soccer, has grown in popularity but is still lacks behind the major American sports, though a recent ESPN survey did rank soccer as the 2nd most popular sport with 12-24 year olds. This could possibly down to the influx of Latin American migrants, where Soccer obviously rules.

The MLS began in 1996 and currently has 19 teams and the average attendance is around the 18,000 mark indeed the crowd tonight was just over that figure but if you compare that to the Baseball, where we were last night, that crowd was around 44,000.

I remember watching soccer in the USA in it's early days when I was a student, staggering in around 3am in the morning, and used to find it funny at some of the names I was watching, such as Mo Johnston and Preki, both ex-Everton, both not the best players ever to pull on a blue shirt.

However things took a turn for the better with the arrival of David Beckham in 2007 and since then, coupled with the USA national teams having some great runs in the World Cup, the MLS is no longer the footballers graveyard it was once perceived as. Big names such as Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane and the aforementioned Cahill now ply their trade in the USA.

So it was Tim that effectively brought us to the purpose built Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey. It was a 20 minute or so train journey out of Manhattan to Newark, which was $5 each way, and a free bus was laid on to take you from Newark station to the ground.

The ground is a typical new build stadium, built in the middle of nowhere, and there is very little in the surrounding area. Our pre-match drinking took place in a bar on Newark station, where the barmaid was impressed by my selection of 80's indie music on the jukebox. She particularly enjoyed The Smiths, so there!!

Tim Cahill

It took just 11 minutes to see what we had seen him do on numerous occasions for Everton, when Tim Cahill ghosted in to score a trademark header, from a Thierry Henry cross.

Fabian Espindola scored a cheeky penalty when he chipped the ball over the diving 'keeper to give the Red Bulls a 2-0 lead.

The Red Bulls really should have extended their lead with a few other decent chances but on the stroke of half time they conceded a penalty, duly converted by Alvaro Saborio (right).

It was Saborio who then took the game by the scruff of it's neck by scoring two further goals in the second half to complete his hat-trick and give Salt Lake a 3-2 lead with just 8 minutes to go.

However the homesters were not to be denied and Espindola scored his second penalty in the 89th minute to level things up. A draw seemed a fair result but The Red Bulls were not finished and Dax McCarty scored a diving header in the fourth minute of stoppage time to take all three points in dramatic fashion.

Espindola scores with a
cheeky chip

My first (and probably last) taste of MLS 'soccer' was an enjoyable experience. Although the pace and intensity was not there, the standard of play was surprisingly good. It was great to see Tim Cahill play again and even better to see him bag a goal.

Cahill was always superb in a royal blue Everton shirt and gave nothing less than 100% every game. Time waits for no man, but It was a genuinely sad day when he left last summer. He will always be one of my all time favourite Everton players.

After a visit to Salzburg and now New York, I think the "Red Bull hat-trick" will be completed at Leipzig at some future point. I think their clubs in Ghana and Brazil may be somewhat out of the question for now!!!