The former Manchester City and Southampton striker netted a brace in Sunday’s 3-2 victory at Red Bull Arena to give him an MLS-leading 23 goals in 33 appearances this season.
Bradley Wright-Phillips took a step closer towards securing his second MLS Golden Boot award on Sunday, bagging a second-half brace to earn the New York Red Bulls a 3-2 home win over Columbus Crew SC.
After Mike Grella opened the scoring for the hosts in the 53rd minute, the 31-year-old English striker doubled their advantage shortly before the hour mark, collecting a pass from Alex Muyl on the left-hand side of the box before cutting past a defender and squeezing a shot into the far corner.
Of course HE did. @TheRealBWP doubles the lead for #RBNY. #NYvCLB https://t.co/DgHf3p8VKT
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 16, 2016
12 minutes later, he was on the scoresheet again when Red Bulls defender Aurelien Collin flicked a Sacha Kljestan corner into the six-yard box for the former Manchester City and Southampton forward to provide a simple finish.
Someone wants that golden boot. #NYvCLB pic.twitter.com/A4OduZ34Ed
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 16, 2016
Jesse March’s men were made to sweat until the final whistle after Columbus hit back with goals from Adam Jahn and Harrison Afful, but they ultimately held on to seal the win and all but clinch the Eastern Conference’s number one playoff seed with one regular season game remaining.
With 23 goals in 33 MLS appearances, Wright-Phillips has been a huge part of the club’s successful postseason push and now sits one goal ahead of New York City FC’s David Villa in the Golden Boot standings ahead of next Sunday’s trip to the Philadelphia Union.
The London native, who equalled the league’s single-season scoring record in 2014 with 27 regular season goals, endured a difficult start to the campaign after failing to score in his first seven games, but his exploits over recent months have seen him become the first player in MLS history to record two 20-plus goal seasons and surpass Juan Pablo Angel as the Red Bulls’ all-time leading scorer.
He now finds himself as one of the favourites for the MVP award along with Villa and Toronto FC forward Sebastian Giovinco, who took home the prize last term, and will become just the third player to win the Golden Boot twice if he goes on to add another trophy to the one he claimed back in 2014.
The Red Bulls, meanwhile, sit three points ahead of NYCFC at the top of the East after their crosstown rivals lost 3-1 at D.C. United and have a plus-13 edge on goal difference going into the final week of the regular season.
Their chance of winning a second straight Supporters’ Shield title were ultimately ended by FC Dallas’ 2-1 victory over the Seattle Sounders, but the win over Columbus saw them extend their unbeaten run in the league to a franchise-record 15 matches.
That streak has been marred somewhat by their tendency to blow leads late in games, but the fact they are set to go into the playoffs as the East’s No. 1 seed is fairly remarkable given they lost six of their opening seven fixtures.
“In some ways, I think that was the best thing that happened to us,” head coach Marsch said of his side’s slow start to the season when speaking to newyorkredbulls.com after Sunday’s match. “It knocked any complacency out. It put us on our toes. It made us look carefully at things. It made us push hard every day and I think that’s what’s gotten us here.
“So this group is on a remarkable run. I think that the confident within the group is big. Obviously it’s another one of these games where we’re up three and we let two back in, but you know, at 3-2, I was fairly confident that we had things under control and just trying to encourage the right kind of behaviour and play to make sure that we could see the game out, so that part was good.”
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