The defensive woes continued for the Red Bulls as they were victims of a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of defending champs Houston on Thursday night.

Joseph Ngwenya opened the scoring in the 28th minute off of a curling free kick from Stuart Holden. The former Crew striker's header bounced into the upper corner past a sluggish Ronald Waterreus.

Three minutes later, the Dynamo doubled its lead thanks to another Holden set piece. Initially, Brian Ching headed Holden's corner into the post, but the Red Bull defense was unable to clear and the ball fell to the feet of the US international, who one-timed it into the lower right corner.

In the 39th minute, New York appeared to have cut Houston's lead in half, but Kevin Goldthwaite was called for a foul after heading Dave van den Bergh's corner in at the near post.

In what was a continuous theme, Houston scored off of another Holden set piece in the 50th minute. Ngwenya added his second by heading in Holden's corner at the near post.

Fittingly, Stuart Holden capped the scoring in the 81st minute. After receiving a ball at the top of the box, Holden took a few touches to the right and then bent a powerful strike into the far right corner.

New York has now conceded 12 goals in four games. Adding in the fact that they had zero shots on goal against Houston, and things don't look too good for the Bulls.

Luckily for Bruce Arena, his team is at Colorado, who hasn't won in seven, on Saturday. Houston has a much tougher task ahead as they host the East leaders DC United, on Sunday night.

Scoring
HOU - Joseph Ngwenya 4 (Stuart Holden) 28'
HOU - Brian Ching 3 32'
HOU - Joseph Ngwenya 5 (Stuart Holden) 45+
HOU - Stuart Holden 2 81'

Line-ups
NYRB - Ronald Waterreus; Hunter Freeman, Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, Kevin Goldthwaite, Markus Schopp (Santino Quaranta 68'), Claudio Reyna, Seth Stammler, Dave van den Bergh, John Wolyniec, Juan Pablo Angel

HOU - Pat Onstad; Ryan Cochrane, Patrick Ianni, Craig Waibel, Wade Barrett, Stuart Holden (Corey Ashe 82'), Dwayne De Rosario, Richard Mulrooney, Brian Mullan, Joseph Ngwenya (Chris Wondolowski 46'), Brian Ching (Nate Jaqua 85')