The road to 100 MLS Goals for BWP

On the evening of Wednesday, July 25th at the brand new Audi Field in our nation’s capital against DC United, which was going thru a long rain delay as the weather was absolutely terrible. The man that wore #99 on the back of his red jersey waited for the down pour to finish so he could get to his business.

After a lengthy hour and a half delay the opening whistle finally blew and within a mere moment of two minutes, BWP converted his first chance of the match by getting a brilliant ball from Kaku.

When BWP got into position he nutmeg’s Frederic Brillant who shielded keeper David Ousted and just had the ball clear under his right arm for the historic 100th career MLS goal for the London, England native in Bradley Wright-Phillips.

Since he arrived in the middle of the 2013 MLS Season, many didn’t know what to make of this man coming over on a trial since we all knew about his famous father who is an Arsenal legend and his older brother Shaun Wright-Phillips who had a fantastic career in the Premier League playing for three clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea & Queens Park Rangers.

But the beginning of this goal fest was on a Sunday afternoon down in Houston, Texas at BBVA Compass Stadium as he converted goal number one on Sunday, October 20th of 2013

But since that opening career goal he went on a mad scoring spree for the next five years that has allowed him to earn the title of the fastest man in MLS history to reach 100 league goals. In the 2014 season BWP made a run to try and catch the record held by both Roy Lassiter and Chris Wondolowski scoring 27 goals within a season.

He converted three hat tricks and all of them were at Red Bull Arena as he took down the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday, April 23rd, A 5-4 loss against the Chicago Fire as he and Harry Shipp scored three goals on Saturday May 10th , then late in the season against the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, September 20th.

But the biggest moment in this 2014 season was something no Red Bulls or MetroStars striker has ever reached either by a lot or just one behind that magical number. On Saturday, August 23 BWP became the very first player in the clubs history to score twenty goals in a single season against the Montreal Impact.

Giovanni Savarese, Clint Mathis, Jozy Altidore, Juan Pablo Angel, Adolpho Valencia, Alex Comas, Thierry Henry never reached the 20 goals mark within a season, only Juan Pablo Angel in his first season with the club back in 2007 was close when he reached 19

After that 2014 season ended BWP has been able to convert eleven times against NYCFC, converted another twenty plus goal season in 2016, had a brilliant run in this past CONCACAF Champions League and in 2017 scored four goals to an amazing run in the US Open Cup and 18 goals combined in the other competitions that included the playoffs.

But when you see the list of the men that Bradley Wright-Phillips joins to reach the century mark, it will be the quickest to that mark and within a nine year span he has converted seventy-seven times with five clubs in England.

But with the New York Red Bulls, BWP has scored a hundred goals within the five years he has been States side. That is a miracle achievement as well. After the 2014 season many have said the reason for his success was playing with Thierry Henry up top.

Well since the end of that magnificent playing career of Thierry Henry, there has been Sacha Kljestan, Daniel Royer, Kaku, Florian Valot, Mike Grella and many others that have assisted BWP to get those 100 hundred goals as these men were the catalysts for setting him up and all he did was knock them down in quick succession.

That’s why the New York Red Bulls decided to have that ceremony after the end of the match as they defeated LAFC by a final of two goals to one. They wanted to give BWP that humbling moment of honoring their top goal scorer.

We really don’t know how much longer Bradley has left in Major League Soccer, but one thing is for sure, no one can ever doubt his goal scoring ability ever again. And if there are those that still do then they should look at this highlight reel of the one hundred goals in his MLS Career and see who fed him the ball and how he converted the chances.

Once again here is the entire highlight reel of Bradley Wright-Phillips a hundred goals as he takes down almost every single club including his favorites in the blue side of New York. This is why the #99 of the New York Red Bulls will never be worn again, because of the magical moments he has produced.