On most nights, Bradley Wright-Phillip🥃s would have grabbed the headlines. His 19th career mul💯ti-goal game Saturday night pushed the Red Bulls easily past Minnesota United, 3-0, on at Red Bull Arena.
Instead🔜, it was Alex Mu✨yl, the 22-year-old midfielder who grabbed his first minutes of the season due in part to numerous starters missing.
He made the most of it, providing energy the entire game on the right wing while playing with a feisty bite like he had something to prove. It is just what the Red Bulls needed coming off an embarrassing 1-0 road loss to Real Salt Lake ✱last week.
Muyl showed the qu🐻ality that head coach Jesse Marsch thinks slips his mind sometimes. That was especially so in the 13th minute, when Muyl broke the scoreless deadlock by dribbling past numerous defenders before tucking a low shot inside the far post past goalkeeper Mattꦍ Lampson.
Muyl lifted his hands t𝔍o his ears duri🔴ng the celebration, likely a message to recent critical fans who have questioned his attacking abilities, even if he wouldn’t admit it after the game.
“The celebration was good,” Muyl said. “Theꦑ fans were all yelling and I’m happy to hear that and that was the celebration.”
Not only did he make a statement to the fans🌌, but he made ꧅one to Marsch, too.
“He doesn’t always get the headlines, accolades or goals, but for where we set the standard on how we want the game to be played tactica🦋lly and philosophical, he’s incredibly important,” Marsch said. “H𝐆e frees up space for our other, more talented scorers because he can harbor a lot of the workload.”
Like in the 72nd minute, when Muyl served Wright-Phillips a beautifully-curved pass from midfield. Wright-Phillips blasted i꧅t by Lampson to the far post to make it 3-0 Red Bulls.
“Alex played a perfect pass and I just wanted to find f💃ar corner,” Wright-Phillips said.
He scored earlier to make it 2-0 when he flicked in Tim Parker’s header over Lampson’s head𝔍 in the 42nd minute.
Marsch said Muy𒈔l’s quality has always been there, it’s just been a confidence issue.
“He’s hard on himself that he doesn’t put together enough final plays,” Marsch said. “I keep say💧ing to him, ‘Relax. That part comes.’ I’ve seen him enough 💫in training over the last few years to know he has quality.”
The dominating performance over Minnesota United, who had won two straight, came without numerous star𒅌s including Alejandro “Kaku” Romero Gamarra, ꦿwho was a late scratch for precautionary reasons.
Other star🐎ters like fullbacks Kemar Lawrence and Michael Murrilo and midfielder Tyler Adams missing because of international duty, which allowed depth options like Florian Valot and Kyle Duncan continue to get valuable minutes early on in the season.
“It’s reꦛally nice to see our team continue to really look like us,” Marsch said.