Don Garber, the commissioner of Major League Soccer, went out for a slice of pizza Thursday and walked by a pub in Midtown that had a blackboard outside. Earlier this summer, during the World Cup, the blackboard had tried to lure passers-by inside to watch the matches live. On Thursday, it once again advertised soccer: namely, the French striker Thierry Henry's first game for the Red Bulls. Garber was taken aback. 'That's the first time in my 10 years as commissioner that I've seen a soccer pub get excited about our local team,' he said. The pub was not the only place with excitement for Henry, the Red Bulls' newest player. The crowd at Red Bull Arena erupted when Henry scored in the 25th minute against Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League for his first MLS goal. The Red Bulls ultimately fell, 2-1, although the final score was merely the postscript to an evening that was all about Henry. Henry, who turns 33 next month, is the biggest star to come to MLS since the Los Angeles Galaxy acquired David Beckham in 2007. But Henry is a different kind of star, known for smooth play on the field, not glitz and glamour off it. The Red Bulls are hosting three European teams -- England's Tottenham and Manchester City, and Portugal's Sporting -- in a four-game tournament here that runs through Sunday. The team could not have scripted it any better, for Tottenham is the archrival of Arsenal, Henry's longtime Premier League club. Henry's No. 14 jerseys sold briskly around Red Bull Arena on Thursday. Brett Stein, a 33-year-old Arsenal fan from New Jersey, came to the stadium already wearing one, which he bought as soon as the Red Bulls announced Henry's acquisition July 15. 'It's great for American soccer,' he said. 'Hopefully, the sport takes off because of something like this.' Henry was the last member of the Red Bulls to be introduced before the game. He received sustained, thunderous cheers from the 20,312 in attendance. And he wasted no time getting into the action. Henry recorded the Red Bulls' first shot on goal, an open look in front of the net in the seventh minute, and he broke a scoreless tie in the 25th minute, sliding in front of the net to tap in a well-placed low cross from Joel Lindpere. With that goal, Henry sent a message to Red Bulls fans. 'I can say it again: I'm here,' he said after the game. Henry was removed at halftime, as expected. He acknowledged after the game that he was not yet in top shape; before Thursday, he had not played since France was eliminated from the World Cup a month ago. That was Henry's fourth World Cup. His soccer resume is as decorated as any: When he was 20, he was a member of the French squad that won the 1998 World Cup, and his 51 goals in international competition are more than anyone has ever scored for Les Bleus. In an eight-year career with Arsenal, he won two Premier League titles and was a goal-scoring machine. He led the Premier League in scoring four times and set a club record with 226 goals, in 370 games. But Henry has shown his age in recent years. He is coming off a lackluster season for Barcelona in which he struggled to crack the starting lineup and scored only four goals. At the World Cup, which ended in disaster for France, he was a little-used substitute, and he announced his retirement from international competition after France's elimination. That puts Henry in an unusual position: He has something to prove on the field, a task he commenced Thursday. 'I'm trying to work to be fit as soon as I can,' he said. The Red Bulls also have something to prove because the New York market has never been a bright spot for MLS. There is no shortage of soccer fans in the tri-state area; they just have not had much to get excited about in past years, Garber said. But the addition of Henry -- who joins the Red Bulls just four months after they opened a gleaming $200 million stadium -- could give fans something to cheer. 'When someone of that stature comes into a young league like ours, it's a moment that will go down in our history, without doubt,' Garber said. 