The goal that won New York Red Bulls’ match against Sporting Kansas City over the weekend was ruthlessly incisive and positively dripping with star quality. Rafael Marquez took a quick free kick in midfield, Thierry Henry turned it brilliantly around the corner for Dwayne DeRosario, and the Canadian’s inch-perfect pass across goal was tucked home confidently by a grateful striker. In a matter of seconds, experience and ability tore Sporting to shreds and the Red Bulls had their winner. The man who put the ball away was Luke Rodgers, who was managed by Red Bulls coach Hans Backe at Notts County, and he has been just as effective so far as the more high-profile players involved in his goal.

When Rodgers signed for New York, few in England will have expected big things from him. But the Birmingham-born forward has settled nicely into life in the Big Apple, carrying himself on the field with an assurance and a vitality that suggest he’s not only able to operate on the same level as the established stars in the side, he’s willing to upstage them.

Rodgers started his career at Shrewsbury Town and played in the fourth division and the Conference as he notched up almost 200 appearances for the Shrews. He spent a couple of years at Crewe Alexandra and then Port Vale, before making a loan move to Yeovil Town permanent in 2009 after his relationship with Vale boss Dean Glover went sour. Ian McParland signed him for Notts County, where for once Rodgers blended into the background while the storm went on around him. The row over the 2009 Munto Finance takeover and subsequent investigations rumbles on, but it did have one side-effect: Backe and Rodgers worked together at Meadow Lane.

His move over the Atlantic has been on the cards for a while, probably since the moment Backe took over at Red Bull Arena ahead of the 2010 MLS season. It’s been a long journey; he would have been in New York almost a year earlier had he not had a work permit application rejected in April 2010 as a result of an affray conviction that represents the centrepiece but certainly not the entirety of his somewhat dramatic history. He finally signed in January, and by mid-April he had put in a stunning performance to kick-start the Red Bulls’ season.

His contribution so far has been telling for New York, who won two, lost one and drew one of the first four games of the season. In game five, the Red Bulls pulled apart San Jose Earthquakes and Rodgers was the architect, putting himself about and emphatically achieving the results to show it. The stocky Brummie rattled in two early goals at Red Bull Arena, before the match became the Thierry Henry show. The Frenchman missed chance after chance, and it was beginning to look like one of those nights. That is, until Rodgers created Henry’s goal with a pinpoint, almost patronisingly superb cross that you or I would have headed home without too much trouble. New York were so comfortable by this point that Rodgers looked like the kid trying to help his goalless team-mate get off the mark.

That momentum took Henry into the following game, where he scored two first half goals as DC United were destroyed by Backe’s team in a more even I-95 derby than the 4-0 scoreline suggests, and Rodgers’ early winner against SKC made it nine points out of nine for New York in the last couple of weeks.

The trouble when average players from lower leagues around the world come into Major League Soccer and shine is that it inevitably reflects badly on the quality of the division as a whole. This is a discussion that Rodgers’ form has reignited and again focuses on the club he shares with John Rooney, who famously chose to head Stateside after being unable to find a move to his liking in England. It’s a valid point - Rodgers hardly pulled up any trees in the lower leagues and is said by many with clearer memories of his career there than myself to have been nothing more than an average League Two player.

However, I think Rodgers’ case is a little more complex. Taking his performances at face value, he looks every bit talented enough to play with an admittedly past-it Henry and the likes of Joel Lindpere and Dane Richards, fine MLS players who wouldn’t struggle in the Championship. Why that is, and how long he can keep it up, are the important questions now. Success for Rodgers does not equal a poor MLS.

Perhaps ironically, one young man who might benefit in the long-term from Rodgers’ form is the player that he’s keeping out of the team. 18-year-old Red Bulls striker and USA international Juan Agudelo has fired himself into the spotlight with a string of brilliant goals and it’s clear that he’s the real deal. However, it might do him good to enjoy a steadier rise than Championship Manager phenom Freddy Adu, who now exists solely as loan fodder for parent club Benfica, who lend him out all over Europe like Xavi with a football in the middle of the park (he’s currently at Rizespor in Turkey). With Henry, DeRosario and Rodgers forging an effective attacking triumvirate for the Red Bulls, the Colombian-born teenager can develop with less pressure out of the limelight, although one gets the impression he’s going to keep thrusting himself right back into it every time he plays.

However it affects Agudelo, or MLS more generally, we should probably just enjoy watching Rodgers while it lasts. Despite seemingly lacking slightly in terms of fitness, he’s getting about the final third with lots of energy, applying some quality touches and helping to liven up what should be Major League Soccer’s most exciting team. Who cares if he didn’t make it in England?