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Before the New York Red Bulls allowed their match against D.C. United to follow the same path to a frustrating draw that just about every road game they play follows these days, there were at least a couple of moments to celebrate.
Bradley Wright-Phillips scored his 66th goal in all competitions for RBNY (60th in MLS regular season games), to extend his all-time club scoring record:
BWP gives RBNY a 1-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/ftw1kuP6DQ
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 21, 2016
And Felipe scored his fifth of the season:
Goal! Felipe makes it 2-0 RBNY!!! pic.twitter.com/ZjRcZCXswh
— Total MLS (@TotalMLS) August 21, 2016
And that goal saw assists credited to BWP and Sacha Kljestan. In Kljestan's case, it was his 15th of the season: a new RBNY all-time, single-season record for assists in MLS regular season matches.
Congratulations to @SachaKljestan - the new single-season assists leader in franchise history. He has 15 on the season.#DCvNY
— Jason Baum (@JasonBaumPR) August 21, 2016
Congrats, Sacha!
And then the assists went away.
OPTA changed its scoring decision on the @FeliMartins8 goal and @SachaKljestan was not awarded an assist.#DCvNY
— Jason Baum (@JasonBaumPR) August 21, 2016
But they came back!
The assists for BWP and Kljestan on Felipe's goal have been reinstated. Kljestan with a club record 15 assists in a season.
— Ben Baer (@BenBaer89) August 22, 2016
So Sacha Kljestan is the new all-time, single-season league assists record-holder for RBNY. For now. Perhaps, forever.
He breaks one of the longer-standing records on RBNY's books. It was set in 1998 by Eduardo Hurtado. It has been matched three times in the last three seasons: by Thierry Henry in 2014; by Kljestan in 2015; and by Kljestan again this year, on his way to setting the new record.
The Red Bulls' playmaker now has decent shot at Henry's all-time, all-competitions, single-season assists record for the club. In 2014, Thierry Henry picked up 19 assists, comfortably breaking the previous club single-season record: 16, set by Clint Mathis in 2000 (and equaled by Kljestan in 2015).
Kljestan is now fourth on the club's career all-time, all-competition assists list. He is one of just five players to reach the 30-assists milestone for RBNY, per MetroFanatic's impeccable archive of club statistics.
Name | Games Played | Games Started | Minutes | Assists |
Thierry Henry | 135 | 130 | 11510 | 49 |
Amado Guevara | 117 | 114 | 10284 | 39 |
Tab Ramos | 131 | 122 | 10447 | 39 |
Sacha Kljestan | 69 | 65 | 5660 | 31 |
Dane Richards | 176 | 148 | 13413 | 30 |
Congrats, Sacha. See you at the next milestone.