New York Red Bulls star striker Bradley Wright-Phillips scored a goal for each letter in his nickname this weekend.
BWP netted all three of the Red Bulls' goals in their 3-3 draw against D.C. United at Audi Field on Sunday and was named Alcatel MLS Player of the Week, as voted on by the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR), for Week 29.
Wright-Phillips must really enjoy D.C.'s new stadium. He scored his 100th MLS goal at Audi Field in July and encored that performance with a hat trick on Sunday. Each of Wright-Phillips' goals tied the game for the Red Bulls, who thrice trailed D.C.
All three goals were of different poaching varieties, too, a 90-minute microcosm of why Wright-Phillips is such a historic goalscorer in MLS. His first goal was an acrobatic overhead from six-yards out amid a scramble; his second was a clinical two-touch finish from the top of the 18-yard box, rolled into the bottom corner; his third, in the 90th minute, flashed his intelligent movement and a deft first-touch volley finish with his weak foot at the near post.
Insatiable, Wright-Phillips was unhappy that the Red Bulls left Audi Field with just a point.
“I feel a little disappointed,” Wright-Phillips said after the game. “I don’t feel like we really looked like ourselves defensively. It’s obviously always good to score, but we were always coming back, it was always a goal to come back into the game. We were fighting too hard to get these wins the last two games, and I don’t really like the feeling of that.”
The hat-trick brings BWP's goal tally to 19 this season, second in the league only to Josef Martinez. If he scores once more, he'll be the first player to score 20+ goals in three seasons in MLS history.
Wright-Phillips and the Red Bulls face Toronto FC on Saturday (5 pm ET | TSN — Full TV & streaming info) as they look to catch Atlanta in the Supporters' Shield race.
The Alcatel MLS Player of the Week is chosen each week of the regular season by members of the North American Soccer Reporters. The organization includes print, television, radio and online journalists who cover domestic men's soccer in the United States and Canada.
