HARRISON, N.J. – Sometimes, one is all you need.
Courtesy of yet another Bradley Wright-Phillips tally, the New York Red Bulls continued their scintillating home form as they dispatched the New England Revolution, 1-0.
With the win, the Red Bulls have pushed their league unbeaten streak to nine, its longest unbeaten run since 2000, and remain in contention for a top-two spot in the Eastern Conference.
BWP for MVP?
As the season enters the home stretch, end-of-season awards have crept into the minds of many.
Of course, the usual suspects have had their names mentioned in the MVP conversation like last year’s winner Sebastian Giovinco, David Villa, and even Sacha Kljestan. But after bagging his league-high 16th goal of the season, perhaps its time to throw BWP’s name into the mix.
“It's amazing to me that Brad doesn't get discussed more in the MVP race,” head coach Jesse Marsch said. “Obviously, there are some sexy names out there, in terms of great players in our league and guys that are having good years, but especially, again, if you look after the first seven games, if you look at the way Brad's played for the last 20 games, I don't think there's been anyone in the league that's been better.
“There's no forward in the league that I think puts together as many complete performances as Brad does.”
Wright-Phillips has certainly been a force of nature since overcoming a slow start to the season. Already the co-owner of the league record for most goals in a season with 27, the Englishman continues to add to his franchise-record goal-scoring tally, which now stands at 61 league goals.
“To be able to have the energy to score goals and be lethal around the goal and be dangerous in the way he moves, it's unique,” Marsch added. “He's a special player. I think that more and more people are going to start to be talking about him in the MVP race.”
The accolade would surely be a nice feather in his cap, but in typical BWP fashion, the star striker insisted and MVP award is the furthest thing from his mind.
“I’m not as exotic as the other guys, but it isn’t really important to me,” he said after the win. “I say these things a lot and I don’t care if people believe me, but if I get top goal scorer or not, or mentioned for MVP, it doesn’t matter. Forget all of that rubbish; it doesn’t matter at the end of the day. We haven’t won a championship yet; that’s what we want, that’s what the fans want. We want a ring and that’s it.”
Going Streaking
As August draws to a close, the Red Bulls find themselves in a rather enviable position in the Eastern Conference. While their road struggles have been well documented, New York continues to get the job done at home where three points have become an expectation.
Last suffering defeat on July 3, the Red Bulls are flying high at just the right time. And after securing another conference victory on Sunday afternoon, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic as autumn approaches.
“It was a big result, an important result, and it keeps us in good shape in the table and keeps our momentum moving forward,” Marsch said. “You look at result-wise where we're at after our 1-6 start, the team's been in a good way for a while and been pushing hard, been pretty clear. I think in many ways we're as good as we've been in my year-plus here.”
In truth, New York has desperately needed to go on a run like they are currently enjoying. With their nine-game unbeaten steak, the Red Bulls have managed to keep pace with the rest of the Eastern Conference teams who continued to apply pressure with some solid performances of late.
“There are about five teams that are separating themselves from the pack and very close at the top,” midfielder Sacha Kljestan told NewYorkRedBulls.com. “It’s going to be a battle in these last seven games for us. Some teams are peaking, maybe some will drop off with all the pressure, but we’ve been unbeaten now for quite a few games. We just have to keep that going until the end of the season.”
An uncharacteristically poor start to the season had the Red Bulls in a precarious position near the bottom of the table, but thanks to the parity in the East and consistent production in their lineup from top to bottom, New York has a fighting chance of earning a bye into the Conference semifinals come playoff time.
Added Marsch: “The ability for us to keep our foot on the pedal and look forward and know that we're a good team and now find ways to keep pushing to get results every day will determine our success at the end of the year.”
Held In Harrison
If the old adage that “Defense wins championships” is indeed to be believed, then the Red Bulls look to be in pretty good shape.
Recording yet another shutout, Luis Robles and company managed to keep notable considerable attacking talents like Lee Nguyen, Kei Kamara, and Diego Fagundez off the score sheet on Sunday afternoon.
Their defensive dominance has been quite staggering, as New York has conceded just two goals at home in their last nine games at Red Bull Arena.
“Today is not going to go in the books as the prettiest game of soccer, but nonetheless our task was to get three points and a shutout was the icing on the top,” Robles said. “You know, everyone else around us is winning so it was important to go up against a conference opponent who was down and not only to keep them down but to stay up with the other guys.”
Throughout 2016, the defense has resembled a carnival carousel at times, as a number of players have been shuffled in and out of the lineup due to injuries and international call-ups. With defenders Gideon Baah and Connor Lade lost for the year, those remaining have had to step up to shore up the defense, and have done so admirably.
“I think their clarity of how they want to play on their tactics, their movement on the back line,” Marsch said of his defensive core. “In this last stretch since the nine games and 11 games overall, the back line has been very organized. We've worked on it a lot. We've looked at video a lot. We've challenged them to be on the same page and communicate in the right ways and understand how to play with each other.”
The pairing of Aurelien Collin and Ronald Zubar has been called upon as the only two healthy centerbacks at the moment and have managed to limit some of the league’s most potent attacking threats. But there is help on the way as fellow French defender Damien Perrienelle is close to a return to first team action.
“I think those two have been a good pairing, and they enjoy playing with each other. It's fair enough to talk about those guys, but I think Damien is going to continue -- he should be back this week, and I think he is going to continue to help us.”
Since joining from Orlando City SC earlier this year, Collin has been a rock at the back and a virtual lock in the starting XI despite the numerous bumps and bruises he has picked up along the way.
“We’re playing in a way that we have to really be focused,” Collin said. “With our rest defense, we really have to be ready when we have the ball and make sure that the counter-attack is controlled. We have a goalkeeper that always makes very important saves and that makes us a very good team.”
As the playoffs approach, their stingy defensive performances will certainly need to continue. And after a ghastly start to the season that saw New York concede 17 goals in their first eight games, the ship has seemingly been righted.
“Now that we have Kemar [Lawrence] back, and even though we lost Connor, which is a big loss, Chris Duvall had his best performance of the year,” Marsch continued. “That's promising for him at right back for the future. So you start to feel that back line is coming together in the right way.”
