The former Manchester City and Southampton forward scored twice in the Red Bulls’ 3-3 draw at Toronto FC on Sunday to become the first player in league history to record 20-plus goals in two regular season campaigns.
Bradley Wright-Phillips added another MLS record to his collection on Sunday night, netting a brace in the New York Red Bulls’ 3-3 draw at Toronto FC to become the first player in the league history to record two regular season campaigns with 20 or more goals.
The former Manchester City and Southampton striker, who joined the Red Bulls in the summer of 2013, previously scored 27 times in 2014 to equal the league’s single-season scoring record, while he also bagged 17 goals last term to help lead Jesse Marsch’s men to the Supporters’ Shield title.
He went into Sunday’s match already holding an MLS record for the most goals over a three-year span with 62, and it took him 31 minutes of the encounter at BMO Field to extend his one-goal lead over Chris Wondolowski.
After an early Steven Beitashour own goal had put the Red Bulls 1-0 up, the 31-year-old Englishman doubled their advantage shortly after the half-hour mark, chipping TFC goalkeeper Alex Bono from close range after taking advantage of a defensive mix-up.
Toronto skipper Michael Bradley subsequently reduced the deficit four minutes before the break following a well-worked team move, but Wright-Phillips restored the visitors’ two-goal lead three minutes after half-time when he finished off a Sacha Kljestan through ball for his landmark strike.
The veteran forward, who recently broke Juan Pablo Angel’s club record of 58 regular season goals, now has a three-goal lead over David Villa at the top of the league’s Golden Boot standings with 20 tallies in 30 appearances this season, and what makes his exploits all the more impressive is that none of those have been penalties.
With another 20-goal campaign under his belt, the London native has achieved something which not even MLS legends like Landon Donovan, Jeff Cunningham or Jaime Moreno managed, ensuring that he will go down as one of the league’s greatest ever finishers once his career comes to a close.
“Brad has been on fire, playing so well, doing so many little things. I feel like I sit here and gush about him every week,” head coach Marsch told the Red Bulls’ official website after the Toronto match. “He’s been really good, really sharp, really focused, really committed. And the relationship between him and Sasha is just fantastic.”
Goalkeeper Luis Robles added on Wright-Phillips: “He’s incredible, but he’s a team player. He won’t think about the goals scored, but the result. He doesn’t deserve these sorts of results. Congratulations to what he’s done, we couldn’t be half the team without the goals he puts in.
“I don’t think he gets the credit, if you look at anyone else, all the DPs, he means more to this team than anyone in this league.”
Unfortunately, Wright-Phillips’ brace on Sunday was not enough to secure the Red Bulls three points, as their tendency to concede late goals once again came back to bite them.
A sublime free-kick from Jozy Altidore brought Toronto back into the match midway through the second half, before the former Sunderland striker netted the equaliser four minutes before stoppage-time to send Marsch’s side back to New York with only a draw to show for their efforts.
The 2015 Supporters’ Shield winner still sit second in the Eastern Conference on 45 points – two behind Toronto with four regular season games left – but they have now dropped a league-worst 18 points from leading positions in 2016.
“We had some chances to make it four, but it’s just incredible because we shouldn’t have to make it four,” Marsch added to newyorkredbulls.com. “We should, at 3-1, been able to close the game out, in a smart, competitive, tactical way, come out on top. We’ve shown weakness in these moments, it’s hard because we did so much in that game well.”
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