Red Bulls stop the Quakes

The Red Bulls knew they were behind by four points as Atlanta United won earlier in the day against the New England Revolution, so being across the country to face their final western conference opponent in the San Jose Earthquakes. They took down the bay area club by a final of three goals to one.

Two goals scored within a four minute span as Alex Muyl converted the opening goal in the 29th minute as he swooped in to convert. Michael Murillo was just inside the top of the area when he bent a shot on frame. Quakes keeper James Marcinkowski pushed it away, but Muyl was able to slide into the ball and just swept it inside the far post.

“It feels good to score and for us to get a victory on the road. The league’s kind of up in the air for us right now, but to get three points here is big and we have to keep going the next two games.” said Alex Muyl

Then the second goal for the Red Bulls got their second and another new record was created by none other than Bradley Wright-Phillips. He converted his twentieth goal of the season which was his third twenty goal season being a part of MLS.

As Marc Rzatkowski delivered a great ball from a few yards away of the Earthquakes area, BWP got into position and with a slight deflection off his head, he directed the ball towards the goal, which went off the far post and out.

But Wright-Phillips quickly broke towards the ball for the rebound and when he got there, he smacked it back towards the far post and inside the net and gave the Red Bulls that two goal lead. It was a spectacular goal.

“It was? I wanted the header to go in. Does that count as my assist? I was just trying to get in a decent position in the box and get my head on something. It hit the post and came back to me. That’s not really normal. I just tried to get it on target really.” said Bradley Wright-Phillips

After halftime you would hope that the Red Bulls wouldn’t take their foot off the gas. Continue to play hard and continue to attack the Quakes and convert more chances. That opportunity came in the 50th minute.

Red Bulls earned a corner at the near side as Marc Rzatkowski delivered the ball towards the middle of the area. Tim Parker found a way to deflect the ball off his boot and off the ground, somehow got it to bounce towards Aaron Long who delivered a snap header that deflected off the bottom of the crossbar and into the back of the net, decided to do a little heal clicking of his own.

“It was great service. Tim [Parker] flicked it on, and I was lucky to get my head on it there. A little center-back connection, and I did the BWP celebration to honor him.” said Aaron Long

Even though Chris Wondolowski converted his goal to get closer to Landon Donovan’s record for most MLS goals in a career, all it really did was to rip up the clean sheet that Luis Robles was trying to keep.

What were the feelings of the head coach in Chris Armas who is probably very happy with two consecutive positive performances at home against Atlanta United and this match at the San Jose Earthquakes.

“It’s a great road win. Any win these days, this time of year is important and what we feel best about is that we came out and we pushed the game from the start and even the last few road games we let some points slip, maybe didn’t approach it with the right mentality so we feel good about the way we came out and took care of business in the first half.” said Armas.

The Red Bulls will now relax and take their international break as the majority of the squad will soon get ready for a big road match in Chester when they take on the Philadelphia Union when they return to league play.

But the hunt is still on for the New York Red Bulls to try and take out Atlanta United and reach for the top of the east as well as the supporters shield. The race is still going and we shall see if there will be a slip by the side that calls the peach state home.