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Cooper lifts New York over 10-man Philadelphia

May 13, 2012 - 7:00 PM Chester, PA (Sports Network) - Red Bull New York is just fine without Thierry Henry.

Kenny Cooper scored his ninth goal of the season as New York rallied for a 3-2 win over the 10-man Philadelphia Union on Sunday in Major League Soccer at PPL Park.

Since losing Henry to injury in late April, New York has won three consecutive games to put together its first four-game win streak in nine years.

New York (7-3-1) climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Sporting Kansas City, which has lost three straight.

Philadelphia (2-6-1) lost its third straight and has more points than just one team this season, Toronto FC. TFC has lost all eight of its matches.

Henry scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over New England on April 28, but left that match with an injury. Two more 1-0 wins, over the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo, followed, and Freddy Adu's red card fueled another win.

Joel Lindpere gave New York the lead in the 17th minute, but Lionard Pajoy was on target just after the half-hour when he deposited a cross from Adu into the net off a header from six yards for the Union.

Pajoy's goal ended a record shutout streak for rookie New York goalkeeper Ryan Meara at 324 minutes, but the Union went down a man before halftime after Adu earned up a second yellow, this one for diving.

Philadelphia caught New York off the second-half restart, as Pajoy scored from just a few yards out 22 seconds after the break to give the Union two goals in a match for the first time this season and the lead.

But with just 10 players, the Union could not hold on as Markus Holgersson was able to head in the tying goal in the 68th for New York and Cooper notched the game-winner 12 minutes from time.

Rafael Marquez sent a long pass down the middle of the field that squirted out of the grasp of Union goalie Zac MacMath and right into space for Cooper, who just tucked the ball into an empty net from a tight angle on the right.

Philadelphia came very close to escaping with a point, as Carlos Valdes missed a tap-in on the line in the 87th and Pajoy was saved from point-blank range in stoppage time by Meara.

New York visits the expansion Montreal Impact for its next match on Saturday, when Philadelphia visits FC Dallas for its next match.