Muyl’s Brace powers RBNY’s 2nd half victory

After getting knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions League by Santos Laguna, the New York Red Bulls got back into league action, as they were taking on the San Jose Earthquakles with a familiar face running the technical area.

Former Guadalajara Chivas manager Mathias Almeyda made his return to Red Bull Arena in his first season as the manager of the Quakes and so far in the opening 45 minute he looked to be successful initiating his tactics, but at the same time the Red Bulls looked sluggish as well.

Cristian Espinoza converted on an early chance in the 5th minute as he sped past Kyle Duncan along the near side, as he went wide and cut into the middle he ripped a shot that got thru Luis Robles and the visitors were ahead.

But once the Red Bulls were able to get into their locker room at halftime, Chris Armas rallied the troops, and got them believing again, as they found a way to power four goals past Goalkeeper Daniel Vega.

Alex Muyl who subbed into the match for an injured Florian Valot in the 35th minute was able to convert twice, to level the score and then take a lead for the first time in the match. Bradley Wright-Phillips took a long distance rip towards goal, that forced Vega to make a save.

He pushed the rebound towards the far side, but Daniel Royer was coming over, when he got to the ball, Royer made a nice cross to Muyl who side footed it home to level the scoring.

Then in the 71st minute Muyl with a lucky deflection was able to side foot shot it past Vega for the lead. A trick free kick as Sean Davis laid it off towards Royer, who deadened the ball and tried to cross it into the middle.

As soon as the ball was touched and floated in the air, Muyl came out of nowhere and converted his brace. That woke up Red Bull Arena as life came back to the building, those goals by Muyl were desperately needed.

“As a sub it’s never easy to come into the game at that point. Your not warm, your not really prepared to play much.” said Muyl “Luckily I’ve had enough experience on this team to come in and be ready to go.

“It’s not easy but no one cares about that, it’s your job, but I was lucky to have a chance to make an impact. But the fact that it’s not easy is not what’s on your mind, you have to go out there and do your job.”

For BWP it’s been a struggle as he had a goal taken away down in the Dominican Republic as it was changed to an own goal by Pantoja in the Champions League, but he was able to convert his chance in the 85th minute to pour it on against the Quakes.

Vincent Bezecourt held the ball and then made a pass to Sean Davis who went down the flank on the left side, when he gets close to the area, Davis was able to cross it to the midle and Wright-Phillips finds a way to deflect it past Vega for his first of the season. It was also his 107th career MLS goal.

Then the final goal gets put in as Daniel Royer runs into perfect position to convert on a solid cross by Michael Murillo in the 89th minute on the comeback victory and they are undefeated in two matches with four points.

“When we lose our aggressiveness, we are a shell of ourselves. We let San Jose have the ball in many spots we talked about being aggressive, we had to adjust a little bit on how we press, we did it a little bit differently.” said Chris Armas “They were exposing us on the flanks and we flattened out a little with Alex and Danny so we kept our fullbacks at home.

“We thought that helped a little bit and the energy wasn’t working in the first half, but we were able to get it right for the second half, as we discussed it inside halftime, so as of right now we did better.”

Sadly the Red Bulls lost Florian Valot due to a tackle from behind in the first half as it looked on the replay that his right knee buckled under him. Even though he was able to walk off gingerly on his own power, you knew he was thinking about his ACL injury he suffered last season.

But now it’s time to get ready for the next match as the Red Bulls are going to prepare for Orlando City coming over next Saturday at Red Bull Arena, and that means Nani will be making his Red Bull Arena debut as a visitor.