Red Bulls are red faced

The above video is a clip from the celebrity soccer match for charity held in Chinatown in New York last Wednesday, hosted by NBA star (and want-to-be MLS franchise owner) Steve Nash and Red Bulls injured midfielder (and one-time Captain America) Claudio Reyna.

The event also featured English soccer players Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler, and NBA players Jason Kidd, Baron Davis, Raja Bell, Leandro Barbosa and David Lee.

Sounds fun, right? So, then why are Red Bulls fans so angry?

Well, because their American DP, the once-great Captain America, hasn't played for the club since May 25, yet he was able to participate in this charity match. And by all video accounts, he seemed able to move around fairly well. Meanwhile, the team that is paying him a guaranteed $1,265,000 in 2008 (despite the fact that he's only showed up to work six times) is struggling. He's played in less than half of New York's matches, and according to coach Juan Carlos Osorio, it is likely that Reyna's injury (herniated disc) will keep him sidelined even longer.

"To the best of my knowledge, Claudio's condition was discovered as a long-term injury," Osorio told MLSnet. "Given the nature of his injury, what we're trying to do is monitor day-by-day his fitness. He is doing his own rehab. Until the time the head physio tells me he is fully fit, I'm not considering to bring him back to the first team."

I call shenanigans! In a ESPN series on injuries featuring a Dr. Watkins, Watkins answered some questions about herniated disks. In it, he calls the rehabilitation process key for an athlete to return to action. I'm not sure a charity match with your celebrity friends counts as a "Level 5 exercise."

Don't get me wrong. I love Claudio. He is far-and-away the best midfielder the U.S. has ever produced (so far). But playing in a charity match with your buddies -- when your club (the one paying you) is struggling to generate offense (without Angel or Altidore) and has just six wins in 15 matches -- is bad form. Charity or not.

“They knew I was playing in this,” Reyna told Big Apple Soccer. “They knew I’ve been training this week, not ready to play 90 minutes or travel with the team, but I needed a week of fitness. This fit in perfectly. I talked to coach and they knew what I was doing so there was no problem.”

But he misses the point. Whether or not the coach and your teammates are away that you're playing in a charity match is inconsequential to whether or not you should be. What kind of message does it send to your team when they see one of the club's highest paid players goofing around with Thierry Henry back home when they have to travel across the country for a 1-1 draw with Chivas USA, a draw that was due in part to a disorganized midfield. Do they think, gee, I hope he had fun?

Now I'm not saying that he shouldn't have hosted the event, or that his injury is not as serious as he says it is, but leadership involves sacrifice and he should have sat this one out as a message to his teammates that says, I'm working hard to get back and help and I'm not going to risk getting re-injured just to play against a bunch of celebrities.

You may be regaining your fitness, Claudio, but on Wednesday you showed bad form.